Sunday, December 8, 2019

Purchasing from Portugal Close to Home

Bem-Vindo on the door means Welcome
Fall River, Massachusetts claims the highest concentration of people with Portuguese ancestry in the United States. Almost 50 percent of Fall River's population have Portuguese heritage.

I had heard about the new Portugalia Marketplace, a supermarket of sorts, specializing in products imported from Portugal. I went to see for myself what the buzz was about. Was it worth a detour from Providence or Newport, Rhode Island?

Sem Duvida! (that means without a doubt in Portuguese). It's set up like a market, sort of like Eataly, with separate counters for bread, meat, cheeses, olives, etc. Vats of grains and nuts line the entrance. 

There are isles and aisles of wines, oils and other Portuguese products. I love it that the aisle end caps are decorated with azulejos (tiles). 


There's a separate section for the business of drying and exporting the salt cod fished off the shores of Fall River and New Bedford. The cartons marked "Bacalhau" are shipped all over the world.