Historical Doings in New England

Today (Sat, Sep 28th) we headed South, first down the Massachusetts Coast, passing right through Boston, an adrenaline spike all of it's own, even on a weekend.  We roared down the freeway at maybe 10-15 mph over the posted speed limit... just to keep up with local traffic... spied the Boston skyline just long enough to concentrate on the upcoming tunnel, which basically dropped us under downtown for 2-3 miles.  We ultimately emerged on the other (south) side, and proceeded on toward Plymouth, the original landing point of the Pilgrims in 1620.  Finally we had a chance to catch our breath, and to park and explore this ancient town. The Plymouth "Rock" itself was hardly worth pausing for, a big boulder sitting inside a roofed enclosure.  Other parts of the town were more noteworthy, the old town square where the pilgrims lived on their arrival in the New World, the ancient burying ground where they went after they died, etc.
 
From Plymouth we drove to Fall River, which was a step back in time to my Portuguese ancestry on my father's side of the family tree. Not to bore you with too many details, BUT, in the late 1800's a bunch of folks from the Azores Island, off of mainland Portugal, where my ancestors came from, left those islands.  Many headed to Hawaii, where my ancestors landed; others went to the Eastern USA Coast. And while Portuguese communities grew up in Hawaii in the late 1800's, similar communities grew up on the Eastern Seaboard, particularly Fall River and nearby locales.

When we visited Fall River today, it was like turning back the clock and re-visiting European Portugal/Azores.  We walked into a neighborhood food market named "Chaves", and the language of choice there was decidedly Portuguese. And the people.. yes.. 90% Portuguese in appearance.  One shopper, looking at a pastry display, turned and jabbered at me in (I think) Portuguese. I merely shrugged; I mean I have some rudimentary knowledge of basic Portuguese phrases; but nothing like understanding what probably was something like, "where the h___ are the malasadas?"  We bought some stuff, namely a red pepper paste called Massa de Pimento that we'd enjoyed in the Azores during our 2008 visit there, but hadn't been able to locate anywhere else in the states, until now; and some malasadas and sweet bread, and a couple links of Chourico from the meat deli dept.

Then we  headed up the hill toward an Azorean restaurant called Maresqueiros.  This was another special treat, a cheerful waitress who switched seamlessly between Portuguese and English (the latter in our case) and many wonderful dishes to consider.  We ordered up dinner-sized servings; mine was an appetizer (shared with Elaine)  of Queijo Fresco (White cheese) with the aforementioned Massa de Pimento (red pepper sauce) and bread, plus Chorico Flambe (flaming sausage served to the table), followed by Mariscada, a shellfish stew served with rice.

Muito Bem! (very good)

 All were, indeed,  delicious and much more than one person could handle at one sitting; thus leftover lunch and/or dinner for the next day was created.



.   Queijo Fresco with Massa de Pimento

 Chorico flambe'

Mariscada (shellfish stew with rice)