Portugalia Marketplace in Fall River, MA

[LindaK]

Last weekend I finally had the chance to visit Portugalia Marketplace in Fall River, MA.  It’s a market that specializes in food, wine, and kitchenware from Portugal. It’s been on my radar screen since I read about it in the Boston Globe last year: Portuguese specialties fill a former mill in Fall River

 

It’s definitely worth the visit if you’re in that part of the world.  I went especially for the bacalao (salt cod), but there are lots of other tempting and unusual things here. You won’t leave empty handed.

 

The store itself is bigger than it looks from the outside. It’s located in an unassuming strip mall amidst the many old mill buildings in Fall River.  Once inside, though, it’s bright and spacious, with a little café, bakery, and prepared foods in addition to the aisles and freezers full of good things.

 

With apologies for the lousy photography, here are some highlights:

 

A huge variety of sardines, lots of olive oils and vinegars

 

Lots of baked goods from the many excellent Portuguese bakeries in Fall River.

 

 

Portugalia’s own bakery focuses primarily on breads. It was hard to get a picture because there were constant lines of customers waiting for the fresh bread, and much of it got snapped up very quickly. This is only a small example of their selection:

 

[LindaK]

More from Portugalia:

 

A wall of cheese

 

 

Lots of olives and pickled vegetables

 

A huge selection of locally made chorizos, including morcela and mouro (blood sausage) and linguica

 

 

A selection of prepared foods, many Portuguese, others not

 

 

[LindaK]

And still more...

 

A huge selection of Portuguese wines, including  wall dedicated to port. A good number of white ports, which I like but are hard to find. Not here.

 

 

There were some wine tastings in progress. I walked away with a few of these

 

Among the kitchenwares for sale were lots of decorative pottery and black clay pots

   

 

 

[LindaK]

I saved the best for last:

 

A huge selection of frozen fish, including octopus of various sizes and crustaceans of all sorts

 

 

And finally, the bacalau.

 

In a room all to itself, controlled for temperature and humidity. And probably to prevent the entire store from smelling like salt cod.

 

 

Most are whole fish with the skin still on, but there are also large skinless fillets, also of different quality grades. I watched an elderly lady expertly flip though bins and walk away with three enormous fillets.  How many people was she cooking for??

 

 

There are boxes of gloves everywhere so that you can sort through the fish and pick your own.  The staff were friendly and happy to offer advice, suggestions, and explain the differences between different grades.  They’ll also cut the fish up for you, which is good because that skin is really tough.

 

One nice find: salt cod “bits” for sale, skinless trimmings from cutting fillets and the salt cod they use for their prepared dishes Good quality, some thick pieces, some less desirable thin tail pieces that yield less fish. I bought a pound and was pleased with what I got for $3.99 lb. A good deal for things like codfish cakes or fritters.

 

There’s a lot more that I didn’t capture in photos that’s worth a visit, especially frozen meats, poultry such as rabbit and quail, and bins of beans and nuts.  There’s a decent selection of produce in case you want to pick up some fresh vegetables too.

 

Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.

 

 

[Smithy]

Wow, that looks like a lot of fun! I'd go staggering out of there with impulse buys and crockery and dishes, and then when I got home I'd be saying, "now, what do I do with all this?" Thanks for the tour.

[rotuts]

nice

 

guess i have to figure out a plan to get to Fall River

 

nice