A São Martinho get together

Last Friday we celebrated São Martinho at work. In general, the Portuguese are very settle celebrators. At least in Lisbon. I have heard that in other parts of Portugal, especially the North, the people go all festive on certain days. But Lisbon, tsirp tsirp (it's a cricket).

When I lived in Spain some years ago, I could not wrap my mind around how many church parties there could be. Honestly, every week there was a parade in some part of the city where people were dressed as in the 1800th Century dragging a huge cross around. And then eventually becoming completely and utterly wasted. First church, then drink.

The Lisbon experience has been different. On Halloween (Dia das Bruxas) people were dragged into the party. The festivity was showed into their partyless lives. But São Martinho is another story.

São Martinho is celebrated 11.11. There is a legend to tell the story, involving a beggar a cloak and good weather. The rest I already forgot... and to be honest, when I asked around nobody knew. People are just interested in castanhas, Jeropiga e Agua-pé. That is; chestnut, alcoholic beverage and other alcoholic beverage. Its the theme of the day. Eat roasted chestnuts and alcohol for the mix of flavors.
To be honest it has got something to do with trying out 'new wine' and summer of São Martinho, which means a come back summer for a couple of days. Which is true, the sun is shining from a clear blue sky currently.

Back to the Friday party. We organized a chestnut-man to come roast chestnuts outside of the office building. The chestnuts were wrapped in company branded paper and the service was paid by the company. It was a nice event. Anybody wanting to have roasted chestnuts could come get some. Nice marketing initiative, I must say...

If you come to Lisbon, there's roasted chestnuts in every corner of the city until March when the strawberry season starts. (Roughly estimated.) Try them, so goooood and full of nutrients.

Have a lovely Sunday ya'll.

Kaalilaatikko and other Finnish food

I have been so lucky, lucky,lucky, lucky.. ok this is not a song. I have syrup. From Finland!
That can only mean one thing. Kaalilaatikkooooooooo!!

Ok, so I might be a little over excited. But I have been planning for this moment a week. The moment I am making one of my favorite dishes of all time. Btw, its cabbage casserole.. now that you know what this Finn is babbling about, you really think this girl is out of her frickin' mind.
A. Because its Saturday night and I am not getting my groove on anywhere.
B. Because nobody on planet earth can get too damn excited about cabbage casserole.
C. This girl shot a dramatic picture with the view of Martim Moniz behind the syrup bottle.

Although my IBS stomach (darn you) is always in war against the food I want to eat, I had rye bread this week. It was two slices, one on Wednesday and the other one on Thursday. One cannot get too excited you know. I topped the bread with cream cheese (another frenemy) and salmon. I also made good pancakes with berries. Delicious.

Sometimes my cravings just win the pain I suffer afterwards. So today I had remix candy. Next week I am living like I would be preparing for the Lucia contest. I think pure thoughts and eat nothing more than what my stomach can approve and might on top of this try to make a contribution to the society by leaving clothes at the homeless shelter. I could apply and be the only Lucia in Lisbon this December. I mean, I might be the youngest girl living full time here and we are only twenty anyways..

Talking about Lucia and December, I declared myself a day off for Independence day. I also might have done some video clipping.. I might (I will) publish a Tuntematon Sotilas clip or the National Anthem on our intra at work. Ha-ha, nobody has access to take it down. Its time for the Portuguese to learn about Finnish history. (Or not, but I don't care.)

Soooo, there is one note to make about Portuguese food tradition compared to the Finnish. They have so much of the same at the same time as they are so distinct.
First, the food culture is nothing too fancy, in Finland (imagine kalakukko, yäk) or in Portugal ..bifana.. dry bread and pork beef?.
Secondly, we have a dish in common. It is karjalanpaisti aka. jardineira. In Finland its known from the former Finnish territory, in Portugal its the gardeners food. And it is the same!
Thirdly, both food cultures are created by poor people. In Portugal a plate consists of rice, fries and meat. In Finland potato and meat.
Fourth, we both eat fish. Loads of it. With the slight bacalao difference and fish species.
Fifth, surprisingly we also eat berliininmunkki, here it is bolina de berlim, without the pink topping. Also our cakes are very similar. There are so many more similarities. Gosh. Only funny and surprising thing is that the Portuguese are extremely proud of their traditional foods, which are really no big culinary experience. On the bright side, Portuguese wine is an other story ;)

Im going to roll out now. Since I ate too much. To get my groove on.

Bjs,
Heidi


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