“I’m considered [part] Kuchar. It is her mother’s responsibility to pass on the traditions. She began doing this as soon as they settled in America. “My mother would always be in the kitchen, frying the meat that was to become bifanas. Then, when she couldn’t do it anymore I stepped up. She always said, ‘Aprende porque eu não viverei para sempre.’ Which is, ‘You have to learn because I’m not going to live forever.'” She displays the traditions that her mother preserved at every meal.
St. Michael’s Festival, however big and crowded, is not the only Portuguese Diaspora gathering in the area. Every June. ProvincetownThe annual celebration of the Portuguese heritage of the town, located on Cape Cod’s tip, is called the Blessing of the Fleet. It began as a small event in 1947, and today welcomes several thousand visitors each year. These two festivals are not the largest: Around 200,000 people visit New Bedford every year in July for the Feast of the Blessed SacramentThe festival is a celebration the culture of Madeira – another Portuguese archipelago to the west. Africa. This event, like the parish feast of St. Michael’s has been going on for more than a century. Then in late August the Great Feast of the Holy Ghost The event, which began in 1986 in Fall River Kennedy Park, has drawn more than 100,000 visitors from all over the United States as well as Canada.
Portuguese culture is alive and well in Massachusetts all year round. This calendar reflects the religious festivals of the motherland. Fall River City Gates Plaza has a monument that resembles the medieval triple gate in the capital of Azores. There are also places to sample this heritage cuisine, whether you are home sick or not.
It can be difficult for the uninitiated to summarize a food that includes regions as diverse and as varied as volcanic coasts and lush landlocked valleys. But children from the diaspora do try. For chef George Mendes—who snagged a Michelin star for his now closed modern Portuguese restaurant in New York City, Aldea, and later helmed Amar in Boston—the cuisine is synonymous with comfort. “What comes to mind about Portuguese cuisine is the simplicity, the grandmother’s approach to it all,” says Mendes, who was raised by immigrants from the central Dão region of continental Portugal, in Danbury, Connecticut. It’s very simple. The Portuguese pantry includes onions, bay leafs, smoked paprika, olive oils, sea salt and good quality olive oil. “Then, a great deal of Portuguese cuisine is based on refogado – that simmering or bubbling of onions, garlic and bay leaves in olive oil.”
Bacalhau (salt cod) is another staple ingredient. It’s a dried cod preserved in salt from the North Atlantic. Bacalhau was a reliable source of fish in the centuries before refrigeration. It even provided access to those living in Portugal’s interior. A historic affection for the ingredient led to the nickname of o fiel amigo, or the faithful friend—and today customers of Portugalia Marketplace on Bedford Street in Fall River will spot the moniker on a glass wall that separates a white-tiled, gleaming temperature-controlled room brimming with salt cod.
Michael Benevides, Portugalia’s vice president, hopes this market can serve as one means of bridging the gap between Fall River’s Portuguese past and present—and open the door to those outside the community who hope to step in and explore. Portugalia has a bit of everything, including artisanal olive oils, cheeses and homewares. The hot bar also offers dishes like codfish, chicken and rice, and fresh cheeses. He emigrated with his family from Candelária, on the western side of São Miguel, when he was two. Fernando, his father, started Portugalia back in 1988 when they lived in Fall River, in their three-car family garage. Fernando sold wholesale Portuguese bacalhau and coffee while he worked nights at a fabric factory. Michael, 11, worked for the family business during summers when other kids of his age were having fun. The business boomed through word-of mouth. He first opened a store of 4,000 square feet, then expanded to a similar Eataly in an old textile mill.
