Portuguese Festival in Woburn, MA

Last Saturday, Carlos and I headed over to the Portuguese-American Recreation Club in Woburn. They were hosting their annual Festa de Nossa Senora do Monte (translated it reads Festival of Our Lady of the Mount). The festival had a shrine, raffles, food and beverages, dancing, music and even a clown. I'm half Portuguese and my father is from the area of Aveiro, Portugal. I've been to Portugal numerous times and I've even attended local Portuguese festivals. So I kind of knew what vibe to expect. But each festival is different and I was really curious about the food. So Carlos and I went to the festival with dinner in mind not knowing what Portuguese delights would be available.

 

We got their two sandwich offerings. A Bifana sandwich (left) which was a spicy pork patty topped with cooked onions and mixed bell peppers. This was so delicious we ended up ordering another one. The other sandwich on the right is just Linguica. Linguica is fine and all but I much prefer a Chorizo sandwich because that's what I grew up with.

We ordered a bowl of Favas. It was served in a tomato & wine sauce with chunks of linguica mixed in. I don't ever remember having Portuguese Favas so this was fairly new to me. The sauce was delicious but the Favas seemed undercooked. I really wanted to try the tripe but because Carlos was sharing everything with me (he won't try tripe) and it was cash-only and we had limited money I decided to skip it.

 

I'm not exaggerating when I say that Portuguese are potato connoisseurs. They can make a potato taste like the best potato you've ever had and I have fond memories of eating very delicious fries in Portugal. These were no exception. A side only cost a dollar and boy were they tasty.

 

Sumol! My all-time favorite soda. This is a classic Portuguese juice soda that is very popular in Portugal. Specialty Portuguese stores will sell it here and I sometimes like to indulge in a L'aranga (Orange) one. They didn't have that flavor so I got an Ananas (Pineapple) one instead. Still very good!

When sharing with Carlos, I need to fight to get my food otherwise he'll devour it all. Here he is about to devour a Malassade.

We got one Malassade which is a Portuguese fried dough dusted in sugar. The difference between this fried dough and other fried dough is that this one is eggy which makes the dough rich and moist. Delicious!

We had a wonderful time attending the festival and dining on some delicious Portuguese fare! We'll be back next year for sure.