For the Portuguese Community, Southern Massachusetts Is a Hub of Festas, Food, and Family

Condé Nast Traveler

5 days ago

In a new series, Place at the Table, we look at diasporic enclaves around the world through their cuisines—and the people who, in trying to re-create a taste of home, have forged exciting food scenes that invite others in.
It's early Sunday morning on the last day of St. Michael's Parish's three-day festa (feast), in Fall River, Massachusetts. In this small city of about 94,000 people, an hour south of Boston on the coast of Mount Hope Bay, volunteers from the historically Portuguese community are decorating the streets.
Filomena Kuchar, 53, who came to southeastern Massachusetts as a child from the Portuguese island town of Capelas, leads her crew of 14 parishioners as they place wooden stencils on the ground and fill the geometric shapes with wood shavings dyed indigo, marigold, and magenta. Over five hours they add to the tapete (carpet), tile by tile, positioning greenery and hydrangeas on the border until a striking floral runway trails from the church and through seven blocks of the city. Parishioners in shimmering vestments will carry flower-bedecked platforms with statues of St. Michael the Archangel—the patron saint of the island of São Miguel in the Azores, the mid-Atlantic Portuguese archipelago from where many of the parishioners hail—across the floral carpet. Kids dressed as saints will trample the dyed sawdust in sandals, while the Banda Senhora Conceição Mosteirense marching band keeps their tune.
Throughout it all, the air is scented with burning wood from open-fire grills, where marinated meat sizzles on skewers. The 'feast' in festa is literal: After the procession Kuchar and her crew of volunteers, who have spent days marinating hundreds of pounds of meat to feed the roughly 3,000 festivalgoers here, will dish out Portuguese delights in the parking lot of the church grounds that have been transformed into a pop-up fair with booths, raffles, and live music.
Beverage director John Benevides, left, and executive chef Andrew Hebert in the kitchen at Baleia in Boston's South End
Michael Piazza Photography
The seafood rice, or arroz de marisco, at Sagres, a long-standing Portuguese restaurant in Fall River
Michael Piazza Photography
There are also bifanas (sandwiches of thin marinated pork cutlets), grilled chouriço (a garlic-and-paprika-heavy pork sausage), and stewed fava beans. Attendees can thank longtime resident Duarte Camara, who came to Fall River in 1980 from Capelas, for his caçoila: The Azorean dish showcases slow-stewed pork that's marinated in wine, hot sauce, garlic, and a ton of spices before it is cooked then shredded and served in a roll to soak up the juices. The recipe for the sweet malassada, or fried dough, whose sugary scent fragrances the air, is his too, with a little bit of fresh orange juice and zest added to the yeasted dough as his special touch.