Friday, June 23, 2017

Festa de São João


Sardines are key to celebrating the Festa de São João

As luck would have it, Festa de São João is celebrated on June 23... the day we arrived in Lisboa. This festival, mainly celebrated in the north of Portugal (São João is the patron Saint of Porto), is a six hundred year tradition. Our host friends, José and Ana were invited by Ana's colleague, Giacomo, from Porto (but now living in Lisboa), for their festa. And as guests of guests, we were included to the most tasty grilled sardines on this side of the Atlantic. Sardines in Portugal are what hamburgers are to Americans...grilled in the summer when the sardines are fresh, plump and succulent, from the end of May through October.

Lightly salted and grilled for just a few minutes on each side, our master griller, David, barbecued about 100 grilled, silvery gems tonight. I don't think John the Baptist had it so good!
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

That sound you hear is...cow bells in the valley...not the Tour de France

That's right. The settlement of La Balma mainly consists of a B&B and a dairy farmer's house and barn. The main sounds you hear ...

  • History Matters
    Oops...I forgot to mention that on Friday night, we attended a concert at the Piazetta Palazzo Reale, next to the larger Palazzo Castello, p...
  • Style and elegance in Torino
    We've moved into our apartment on the Piazza Vittorio Veneto (known as Piazza Vittorio) a large Piazza about 110 yards wide by 350 yards...
  • Thumbnail of travels to Portugal and Italy, Summer 2017
    We haven't been to Portugal since 1999 when we attended José and Ana's wedding in Pedras Salgadas in northern Portugal. So it's ...