Taste of Portugal Festival

This weekend in Melbourne you would have been spoilt for food choices. On top of the usual selection of great places to eat, there was also the Good Food and Wine Show and the Taste of Portugal Festival. I decided to go to the latter which was at the Queen Victoria Market.

I really enjoy any type of festival, I love the atmosphere, the excitement, the entertainment and most of all the FOOD! Oh the food, all those glorious aromas filling the air, rendering punters confused and slightly lost. Frantic, as they try to keep their hunger at bay while wrestling with everyone else to find that dish that is making that sweet sweet smell. We decided to go a little early, just before lunch so hopefully the crowd wasn't too hungry. We quickly figured out that you needed to buy "tickets" in order to get your food.

So many choices, and if it were up to me, I would have purchased a ticket to try EVERYTHING! Thankfully my wallet came to the rescue, running out of money at just the right time.  

So we lined up in the food queue, once at the very front I handed my tickets over to a lovely bubbly lady. She kept saying something and then rushing off. I couldn't quite make out what she was saying since there was so much noise around. Just before she handed everything over she leaned forward and said something. I had no idea what she was saying, and I quickly realised that she was speaking Portuguese. I laughed a little and told her that I didn't speak Portuguese. She was so sweet and extremely friendly. She just looked at me and said "oh....I thought.....oh sorry". Surprisingly I get that all the time, people speak Spanish, Italian, Greek and now Portuguese at me and I have no clue what they are saying. I'm waiting for someone to start speaking Chinese at me! Well that happens already, but its usually my friends parents. 

So here's what we tried...

Rissois de Camarao (Prawn Rissols). I was a little disappointed with the prawn flavour, it didn't seem to exist. But it was lovely and crunchy with a smooth creamy filling. Yummy indeed.

Frango no churrasco (Charcoal Chicken). This was my favourite. I was a little worried, when thing are cooked on mass sometimes flavours can be lost. But this was spot on. The smoky flavour went right through the chicken. We broke the chicken up into little pieces and shoved it into the bread roll, then licked all the sweet sticky goodness off our fingers. I could have done that all day long. It was delicious!

Bifana no Pao (Pork Steak Sandwich). I thought I would laugh in the face of Swine flu and eat pork to my hearts content. Take that piggy sickness! The pork steak was tender and juicy. They had managed to scoop a fair bit of sauce into the roll and so it was almost gravy like. I would have loved some lettuce or veggie on it, but it was pretty darn good on its own.

After we had eaten we noticed that the entire thoroughfare was blanketed in a thick smoke. You could spot where it was coming from and the smell was intoxicating. I followed my nose and found the two guys responsible for the smoke onslaught. They were grilling some sardines over an open fire. 

I didn't feel like another round of body rubbing through the crowd, so I told my stomach to just chill and thought my brain would be happy enough with just a couple of photos. Now since I'm at home, I wish I had just gone in for another try. 

There were some beautiful Portuguese custard tarts calling my name. But I knew we were going to Crabapple Cupcakes, so I wanted to save my calories for cupcake heaven. We had a Raspberry and White Chocolate Mud cake cupcake. It was good.....real good. I would give it 9 out of 10....service on the other hand, I would give it 0 out of 10.