Faro’s annual seafood festival - Festa da Ria Formosa – will begin next week on the 25th of July and carry through to the 4th of August. The venue is a park in the old town overlooking the Ria Formosa: the very source of the seafood on offer. I’m not here to bore you with what goes on there. That has already been well covered. Instead I’m going to tell you about my first visit to the festival last year and all the problems I had there.
The biggest problem is the enormous amount of unique dishes. As a gourmet I am obligated to try all of them: cataplanas, paellas, stews, grilled skewers of shrimp and fish, the famous Camarão frito com Alho (fried shrimp and garlic), cold octopus salads etc. I’m panicking already because as soon as I order that stew, I know the lady is going to ladle a huge Portuguese-sized portion onto my plate and I will be full before I even begin.
Sure, I could be a jerk and accept all the free tastings being offered to me. By the fortieth booth I would have won (eating at buffet-like situations is a competitive sport: you vs. the house). The Portuguese are so hospitable that they wouldn’t begrudge me if I did that. In fact, in the year that I have been living here, not one Portuguese person has done a wrong to me except, as it so happens, three weeks ago when my favourite butcher sold me two filet steaks that turned out to be some other cut. I’m tempted to call him on it, but I think he would end up giving me half a pig as an act of contrition.
So I had to start off light before getting to the stews. I go for two of the cold salads: octopus with fine herbs and ceviche. Both delicious. I’m counting on my companions ordering some of the other interesting items so I could scrounge off their plates, but these ladies I’m with are so stuck in their mindless routines that they just order what they always do in the restaurants which is shrimp with garlic, and I’m getting damn tired of shrimp with garlic.
In retrospect I should have had the lulas (baby squids) as well. However, the Portuguese have this habit of leaving the guts in their cooked squids and I was not prepared at the time to ‘go there’. It was months later during a lunch with a colleague that these squids reemerged. They were cooked in a confit sort of way and I was going to lose face if I didn’t eat them. It turns out that squid guts are delicious.
There’s no other option at this point except for me to commit seafood festival suicide and order my stews. They are called Caldeirada de Peixe and they are a mixture of mystery fish in a tomato and coriander broth. At the fish markets most stalls have an area where they throw all the tails, chunks, skate wings and a lot of other unsellable things and then sell them as caldeirada.
Now, finally, the problem of picking the stew from stall-after-stall of big steaming cauldrons. All these Portuguese cooks are looking at me expectantly and the weight of meeting both their expectations and that of my stomach is a terrible burden (Thanks a lot Portugal for putting me in this situation!). The stew gets ordered as does a dish of Arroz de Lingueirão (razor clams in rice). I’m instantly full and head off to the portable air conditioned water closets. I’m not making that up. The house won this time.
The 2013 Festa da Ria Formosa takes place at Largo de São Francisco in Faro old town, from 25th July to 4h August, from 6pm until 2am every evening. There is no entry fee and prices for dishes and drinks at the stalls are very reasonable. You can bring your own drinks, and some people bring their own cutlery and extra paper towel or napkins. There is also a small selection of sweets and handicraft stalls while live entertainment each evening keeps the party atmosphere going. Check out this video and get an idea of what it’s all about!
Scenes from the Festa da Ria Formosa
Have you been to the FaroSeafood Festival before, or are you planning to go this year? We’d love to hear from you!
Faro Seafood Festival - Festa da Ria Formosa
by Database Guy
Faro’s annual seafood festival - Festa da Ria Formosa – will begin next week on the 25th of July and carry through to the 4th of August. The venue is a park in the old town overlooking the Ria Formosa: the very source of the seafood on offer. I’m not here to bore you with what goes on there. That has already been well covered. Instead I’m going to tell you about my first visit to the festival last year and all the problems I had there.
The biggest problem is the enormous amount of unique dishes. As a gourmet I am obligated to try all of them: cataplanas, paellas, stews, grilled skewers of shrimp and fish, the famous Camarão frito com Alho (fried shrimp and garlic), cold octopus salads etc. I’m panicking already because as soon as I order that stew, I know the lady is going to ladle a huge Portuguese-sized portion onto my plate and I will be full before I even begin.
Sure, I could be a jerk and accept all the free tastings being offered to me. By the fortieth booth I would have won (eating at buffet-like situations is a competitive sport: you vs. the house). The Portuguese are so hospitable that they wouldn’t begrudge me if I did that. In fact, in the year that I have been living here, not one Portuguese person has done a wrong to me except, as it so happens, three weeks ago when my favourite butcher sold me two filet steaks that turned out to be some other cut. I’m tempted to call him on it, but I think he would end up giving me half a pig as an act of contrition.
So I had to start off light before getting to the stews. I go for two of the cold salads: octopus with fine herbs and ceviche. Both delicious. I’m counting on my companions ordering some of the other interesting items so I could scrounge off their plates, but these ladies I’m with are so stuck in their mindless routines that they just order what they always do in the restaurants which is shrimp with garlic, and I’m getting damn tired of shrimp with garlic.
In retrospect I should have had the lulas (baby squids) as well. However, the Portuguese have this habit of leaving the guts in their cooked squids and I was not prepared at the time to ‘go there’. It was months later during a lunch with a colleague that these squids reemerged. They were cooked in a confit sort of way and I was going to lose face if I didn’t eat them. It turns out that squid guts are delicious.
There’s no other option at this point except for me to commit seafood festival suicide and order my stews. They are called Caldeirada de Peixe and they are a mixture of mystery fish in a tomato and coriander broth. At the fish markets most stalls have an area where they throw all the tails, chunks, skate wings and a lot of other unsellable things and then sell them as caldeirada.
Now, finally, the problem of picking the stew from stall-after-stall of big steaming cauldrons. All these Portuguese cooks are looking at me expectantly and the weight of meeting both their expectations and that of my stomach is a terrible burden (Thanks a lot Portugal for putting me in this situation!). The stew gets ordered as does a dish of Arroz de Lingueirão (razor clams in rice). I’m instantly full and head off to the portable air conditioned water closets. I’m not making that up. The house won this time.
The 2013 Festa da Ria Formosa takes place at Largo de São Francisco in Faro old town, from 25th July to 4h August, from 6pm until 2am every evening. There is no entry fee and prices for dishes and drinks at the stalls are very reasonable. You can bring your own drinks, and some people bring their own cutlery and extra paper towel or napkins. There is also a small selection of sweets and handicraft stalls while live entertainment each evening keeps the party atmosphere going. Check out this video and get an idea of what it’s all about!
Scenes from the Festa da Ria Formosa
Have you been to the FaroSeafood Festival before, or are you planning to go this year? We’d love to hear from you!
Previous blog by Database Guy: Free food (foraging) in the Algarve
You can also read more about traditional Algarvean cuisine.
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