Traditional Azorean Meal

Quinta Do Martelo is a traditional Azorean experience available to tourists and locals at this working farm that showcases the history of traditional life on the island.  I had visited once in the past, and Rachel and Chris remembered that and asked if we could go there.  Ryan was excited too because the last time I went, he had to be at work.

 

First, we were served a very large, traditional meal, and then we were able to walk around the grounds.

For starters we were brought:

Cheese

Broad Beans with peppers and other ingredients

Seaweed and boiled (?) corn.

Beans and olives.  Here these yellow beans are called tremoco (the c is the c with the little squiggle line, so pronounced like a z).

Regular bread and corn bread

After munching on all of these goodies, we were brought the main course.  We actually all ordered the same thing.  This is the boca negra fish.  I know that this fish always comes served whole.  I remembered to ask about the head, so they did serve it without the head, although the scales and bones remained.  After a few bottles of wine, it is a lot easier to deal with being served a whole fish on your plate!

See, bones and all in the inside.

For desert we had traditional rice pudding.

Followed of course with some espressos.

After the meal we spent some time walking around the property.  Since I had been here before and took tons of pictures then, I didn’t take pictures this time around of all the places on the farm.  The place is huge and we only walked around part of this.  If you are interested in pictures of the rest of the facility, click here.

Later in the day we headed to Angra.  On the way, we spotted this yellow flower, which Ryan and I see everywhere.  While in Pico, the cab driver mentioned this was ginger.

 

Sure enough, it is really ginger.

 

So we picked some to take home.

I also took some pictures of the view from the hill where we were picking ginger root.  It might be hard to see because of the clouds, but that is the ocean out there.  It does blend with the skyline.

 

Once in Angra, we proceeded to eat dessert before dinner.  It was because my sister had been dying to try a Dona Amelia, which is the traditional cake of the island.

Here is a Dona Amelia.  They are always covered in powdered sugar.  It is like a spice cake.

 

Then we made our way to dinner.  There was a fancy, schmancy bartender doing his thing out front, which tempted us to buy some drinks.

Ryan had a margarita.

 

I am not sure exactly what this was called, but this was Chris’s drink.

 

I had the sangria, and shared some with my sister.

 

We wanted a lighter dinner because of the huge meal we ate for lunch.

Rachel had a tuna baguette.

 

Chris had a BLT baguette.

 

We had some fried sardines.

 

I had a tuna and olive sandwich.  Rachel, correct me if I am wrong and I really had the tuna baguette and you ate this sandwich.  I am starting to think that we actually split these.

 

I think Ryan may have had a tuna baguette too, and then we split the fried cheese.

 

Here we are enjoying our meal and winding down after a long and exciting day.

 

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever visited a place that specialized in serving a traditional meal or providing a traditional experience?  Have you ever found ginger growing wild?