Owner: Algarve Buzz URL:http://www.algarvebuzz.com Join Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:54:24 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: a journal that shares the trove of treasures to be discovered in Algarve Portugal from beautiful places, culture and history to incredible food, wine, scores of festivals, nightlife and of course the “Calor” (heat) of the Portuguese Latinos. Site statistics:Click here
The future of our Roots 2007-09-07 15:59:11 Today is Faro commemoration day, the capital of the Algarve, where we now call home, so it seems like a fitting day to look at the roots of our culture, not metaphorically but literally.
One of the draws moving back to Portugal was definitely the food - its not fancy food, but its incredibly good quality food, with a dynamic selection year round. There’s great fish, seafood, poultry, spices, fruit, vegetables, wines, oils, cheeses, desserts… well lets just say you really need will power to live here. But if you love food there is no better place to be.
Although I love food, I had never paid much attention to the GMO controversy, I knew it was related to the chemical altering of food, but thought I was buying healthy options so this issue didn’t affect me. Earlier this year I learnt the Algarve was a (more…)
Portuguese Style Shrimp 2007-09-04 15:55:48 With all the festivals, exhibits and nights out in August, my time to cook has been hit hard. But summer is winding down; and I hope to write more regularly about my favorite subject. There are hundreds of traditional dishes in the Algarve and across the country, some have been served for centuries and entice palates, passions and even rivalry. With such a rich heritage in food and drink, I look forward to exploring and sharing the traditional and more modern aspects of our diverse cuisine.
“Camarão à Guillo” is a popular style of shrimp here in the south, it has different nuances and techniques depending on region and cook, but it’s a simple and very tasty dish, so I’m sharing mine.
(more…)
Read more:Portuguese
, Style
, Shrimp
Things to do in Algarve - September 2007-09-03 10:46:53 The summer days might be coming to an end, but the entertainment and festivities across the Algarve are well and alive. Below you’ll find a list of activities that are scheduled across the Algarve in September
.
Please note, by no means is this list complete … will be sure to update it throughout the month - enjoy.
Festival of São Vicente de Albufeira
Date: Monday, September 3rd, 2007
Time: Starting at 9pm
Location: Albufeira
Festivities: music, fireworks, art
——————————————–
Dinner & Show - Amour Latino
Location: Casino Vilamoura - Miralago Hall
Date: Sept 4th - 30th
——————————————-
FuturTech in Portimao
Date: Thursday, September 6th to Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Time: Thur. 6th & Friday 7th: 18:00-24:00 | Sat. 8th - 16:00-24:00 | Sun. 9th - 10:00-22:00
Location: Pavilhao Portimao Arena
Pri
Loulé Noite Branca 2007-09-03 03:46:49 Loulé was awash with a sea of white on its first Noite Branca (White Night) on Saturday Sept. 1. Main Street was closed to traffic and turned into a white playground for artists and guests.
Capoeira artists, pyrotechnics, piano & jazz musicians and many more were featured center city, to delight and entertain. Big comfy couches were also made available for those needing to take a load off and just enjoy the sites.
Graffiti artist came out (more…)
Noite Branca - Loulé 2007-09-01 06:11:53 This is a short post — Those looking for a fun night out on Saturday, September 1st, the city of Loulé is hosting “Noite Branca” (white night). The festivities kick off at 20:00 - 02:00. Shops will be open till Midnight - and for guests dressed in white, there will be discount provided by the participating shops.
Streets will have music, different types of local artists, musicians, fire show, etc.
Event: Noite Branca
Time: 20:00 - 02:00
Place: Loulé Centro (center of Loulé)
Quinta de Simaens – Award Winning Vinho Verde 2007-09-28 06:37:20 This week we tried another bottle of Vinho Verde … yes we know the summer has ended but we couldn’t resist this one - a 2007 Silver Medal Winner - “Concours Mondial” Brussels.
Quinta de Simaens
Type: Vinho Verde (green wine)
Cost: €5.50
Taste: an interesting and complex Vinho Verde, by Borges, not very bubbly but has a wonderful warm yellow color and soft citrus aroma. Its flavors hint of mellow lemon and ripe pineapple.
Great With: This is a more “mature” Vinho Verde flavor that will be wonderful with citrus inspired foods, and a nice pairing for Thai or Asian dishes. Serve well chilled.
Read more:Award
, Winning
Lemon Chicken – Frango com Limão 2007-09-27 13:30:11 Growing up, I was fortunate to have a mom who loved trying different dishes; my father would often look at his plate in amazement and ask, “O…que é isto?” (Um…what is this?). But being a good sport and a closet foodaholic he devoured everything…Italian, Mexican, Asian, French…mom crossed the globe a few times over in her kitchen. Then there were the “favorites” - like “Frango com Limão”, an old Portuguese recipe that filled the house with a wonderful smell and never disappointed.
I had forgotten about Frango com Limão until, I recently (more…)
Read more:Lemon
, Chicken
7th Annual Mama Marathon 2007-09-26 08:34:19 An annual marathon organized to bring awareness to all forms of cancer, through film, education, information and fun. This marathon is also strongly focused on raising funds to fight and treat cancer.
The first Mama Marathon
took place in 2000, with the objective of raising awareness for breast cancer. Since the initial race, Mama Marathon has kept (more…)
Read more:Annual
Caramelized Rocha Pears 2007-10-03 14:20:59 Fall in the Algarve is a medley of sunny days, cool evenings and chestnut roasting vendors with billowing clouds of smoke that tempt from afar. Fortunately the chestnut roasters haven’t come out yet, and my compulsion to hunt them down is still a few weeks away.
Although I really really like summer, fall is one of my favorite times of year: roasted chestnuts awaiting me at every corner and all the comfort foods ahead makes saying goodbye to summer a bit more bearable. Roasts, lots of baked everything, fire in your chest drinks like Aguardente, Muscatel and Setubles, and let’s not forget the Ports! Ahhh fall here I come…
I don’t think there’s a better way to usher in fall than with our spiced up Rocha Pears, now in season. I’ve always been challenged by pears mostly because I haven’t’ come across a lot of great pear recipes. So this year I decided to take these sexy shaped vixens and have my way with them. The result: caramelized, drunken and sided up with some Dulce de
Algarve - Things to See and Do - October 2007-10-01 13:58:52 The Algarve never rests. Thanks to the efforts of our tourism sector, October
looks to be another eventful month across the region from theater to food and everything between.
To ensure we bring our readers the most concise list of things to do and events for October, we will concentrate on providing recommendations and updates, but also provide a link to included a PDF of the Algarve Guide — courtesy of Algarve Tourism. Click here for the download. (it’s a large PDF file, you may want to download the file to your computer first: right click / save link as )
This week’s highlight: calling All Foodies – Almancil Gastronomic Fortnight.
The city of Almancil, which boasts the most restaurants per capita in all of Algarve, will be hosting their 7th Annul Gastronomic event. The event runs from October 1st to the 15th of October, where participating restaurants host different themed dishes each night.
Date: Monday, October 1st to Monday, October 15th
City: Almancil
Restauara
Blog Action Day – Algarve’s Water 2007-10-15 07:33:12 Today (October 15th) is the first annual “Blog Action
Day”- where 15,000 bloggers from around the world will post on an important topic - “The Environment”.
For my part, I’m going to focus on a key issue of “water” here in Algarve.
How many times have we prepared to travel by going to the doctor for shots, and the pharmacy for pills to ward off all sorts of traveling ills - lots of precautions just in case. Even seasoned travelers sometimes worry about that one thing they can’t control, Water. It’s in ice cubes, on lettuce, in our cooking – it’s everywhere and impossible to control every point.
Well now there’s one less thing to worry about when traveling or living in the Algarve. The water across the region was recently ISO certified for quality, making the Algarve one of the first regions across the globe to certify its tap water.
But there’s more to Algarve’s (more…)
Mama Maratona - Portimao 2007-10-14 16:34:04 Phew – what a day. This morning, we took part in our first ever Marathon for the “Mama Maratona 7” in Portimao — a great event, to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer, as well as research and treatment for all types of cancer.
The turnout was fantastic – with numbers exceeding 2000 registered runners, and included a good mix from national athletes to mothers, daughters, grandparents, fathers, sons and friends. Everyone joined together to collectively bring attention to this important cause.
The race was scheduled for 5km, but the more advanced runners had the choice of doing an 8km run. If you’re wondering, Moses and I accidentally volunteered for the 8km, but glad we did. It turned out to be a good personal challenge. During our run, we managed to squeeze in some photos – although the pictures didn’t come out as great as we hoped, they did capture some of the highlights of the day. To see some of the photos, click on the image below.
We would like to tha
Better Living in Portugal Exhibition 2007-10-13 16:33:18 Earlier today we drove over to Portimao all ready for a marathon Mama Marathona, but to our surprise, probably due to the lack of sleep from this past week, we were a day early for the race! The Mama Marathona is scheduled for October 14th : ) … so with no marathon to run, we put a plan B into action – fortunately we didn’t have to look far, because right behind us was the “Better Living
in Portugal
” (BLIP) exhibition. We had heard so much about it, we decided to take a peek for ourselves and glad we did. We found tons of varied exhibitors from private banking to an organic online grocery service – the BLIP is well organized and features a wide breadth of services available in the region for those already living or interested in moving to Algarve, Portugal.
The “Better Living in Portugal” (BLIP) exhibition will be open tomorrow as well (Sunday, October 14th), so if you’re in the area of Portimao, we recommend you stop by.
For more information, you can visit their w Read more:Exhibition
World Travel Awards - Portugal Wins Best Boutique Hotel 2007-10-11 17:44:14 The votes are in and Portugal
is now well listed amongst the prestigious “Travel
Oscars”, taking top honours for Best European BoutiqueHotel
, and top nominations in other categories such as golf and diving. With new projects breaking ground for a number of 5 star hotels & golf resorts in the Algarve and across the country, looks like this award could be just the beginning!
*Best European Boutique Hotel - Hotel Quinta da Bela Vista
Conference Hotel - Pestana Palace
Golf Resort - Sheraton Algarve Hotel Pine Cliffs Resort
Leading Hotel - Pestana Palace
Leading Resort - Praia D’El Rey Marriotte Golf & Beach Resort
Leading Spa Resort- Convento do Espinheiro
Leading Suite - Royal Suite 1001 & 2001, Vila Joya
Read more:World
, Awards
Now Drinking - Outono de Santar & Pasmados 2007-10-09 18:28:44 I’ve had my first sighting of chestnuts, guess this means fall has officially arrived and it’s time to stock up on something appropriate. I’m talking wine of course, and like a kid at Christmas my “short list” is already 40 bottles long - I can hardly wait to try them all. My wine-sniffing nose smells trouble, already.
Not to get too overwhelmed, we’re starting with whites as an easy transition from all the Vinho Verde we drank over the summer. In my first outing in pursuit of new and different for fall, I immediately stumbled on “Outono de Santar” - bingo! Had never seen this beauty before. Its leafy amber color and description gave me a sense that it’s a perfect fall wine with cheeses, dates, raisins, sweet meats, pâté, but a little suspicious it might be a tad sweet. Regardless, it sounded too good to leave behind, and my search continued for something a little sharper. With a new dish already in mind, the second bottle couldn’t be far away, then I found Read more:Drinking
Sailors Bacalhau Gratin - Bacalhau a Marinheiro 2007-10-08 15:34:40 There are likely countless recipes of salted cod in Portugal’s history. Long before anyone thought of the modern invention we now know as the refrigerator, discoverers dried and salted cod as a way to preserve it for long voyages. Portugal being heavily Roman Catholic also meant there were many religious holidays where only fish could be eaten, so the use of bacalhau became a staple in Portuguese cuisine and remains so to this day.
I have forgotten how many cod recipes I’ve tried over the years, what I remember of course are my favorites. The one that topped my list (more…)
Read more:Sailors
White Port Wine - Lágrima 2007-10-19 09:29:49 When most people think of Port wine they have a romantic vision of sweet wines with deep red or golden tawny colours. The reality is Port wine is quite complex and comes in a variety colours and types - ruby, tawny, white, Lágrima, vintage, LBV, and the list goes on. Port is a fascinating subject with a deep history that not only involves wonderful food, but politics as well. I’ll save that for a later post. White
Ports however is an interesting option that doesn’t always get a lot of attention but is quite divers in itself and comes in a number of options from dry to very sweet, and a great accompaniment for all sorts of dried fruits, nuts and desserts.
(more…)
Portugal Masters Swings into the Algarve 2007-10-18 15:14:10 What do you get when you have a world class golf course designed by Arnold Palmer, a purse of over 3 million Euros, great weather and some of the best names in Golf? PortugalMasters
of course!
Today – October 18th - is the kick off to the PGA Portugal Masters being held at Victoria Clube de Golf in Vilamoura and will run until October 21st. If you missed this years Masters, plan to be here for the next, Portugal Masters has an initial 3 straight year run … so start working on that golf swing if you want to play with the best of them.
For ticket info, visit here
Chocolate Salami - Salame de Chocolate 2007-10-17 13:29:46 Say, “Salami” here in Portugal and the first thing that comes to mind is chocolate - “Chocolate
Salami”. In most cultures, salami is something salty and smoked, but here we love our sweets so much we’ve even made one out of chocolate, what else?! If you’ve visited Portugal before, you may have seen these delicious treats in bakeries.
Commercial versions, are usually wrapped in foil, quite thick and large, more like a slice of cake than anything resembling an actual salami. And in some places you’ll find them coated with sugar — what can we say, other than, Portuguese like their sweets, really sweet.
(more…)
Happy Birthday! 2007-10-16 10:52:41 It’s not Algarve Buzz’s birthday, but rather Eddie, who is celebrating a birthday today – so she’s taking the day off from blogging … by force of course.
HappyBirthday
Eddie.
Read more:Happy Birthday
Blog Action Day – Algarve’s Water 2007-10-15 07:33:12 Today (October 15th) is the first annual “Blog Action
Day”- where 15,000 bloggers from around the world will post on an important topic - “The Environment”.
For my part, I’m going to focus on a key issue of “water” here in Algarve.
How many times have we prepared to travel by going to the doctor for shots, and the pharmacy for pills to ward off all sorts of traveling ills - lots of precautions just in case. Even seasoned travelers sometimes worry about that one thing they can’t control, Water. It’s in ice cubes, on lettuce, in our cooking – it’s everywhere and impossible to control every point.
Well now there’s one less thing to worry about when traveling or living in the Algarve. The water across the region was recently ISO certified for quality, making the Algarve one of the first regions across the globe to certify its tap water.
But there’s more to Algarve’s (more…)
Portimão Hosts Opera Nights 2007-10-15 03:28:10 The city of Portimão is hosting a fantastic event for Opera fans from October 16th to October 27th. This will be the first Opera Festival to be held outside Teatro Nacional e Carlos in Lisbon, which is Portugal’s top opera house.
The concerts will be held on the main stage of Auitorio Municipal in Portimao, Algarve.
concert line-up:
- Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata
October 19th & 20th
- Beethoven
October 23rd
- Puccini
October 26th & 27th
Additional info:
Tickets: will range from 15 to 50 Euros.
Time: 9:30pm
Tel: 282 418 547 or 967 716 023
Location: Main stage of Auitorio Municipal
For more info, visit Resident Newspaper and Orquestra do Norte
Read more:Hosts
Mama Maratona - Portimao 2007-10-14 16:34:04 Phew – what a day. This morning, we took part in our first ever Marathon for the “Mama Maratona 7” in Portimao — a great event, to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer, as well as research and treatment for all types of cancer.
The turnout was fantastic – with numbers exceeding 2000 registered runners, and included a good mix from national athletes to mothers, daughters, grandparents, fathers, sons and friends. Everyone joined together to collectively bring attention to this important cause.
The race was scheduled for 5km, but the more advanced runners had the choice of doing an 8km run. If you’re wondering, Moses and I accidentally volunteered for the 8km, but glad we did. It turned out to be a good personal challenge. During our run, we managed to squeeze in some photos – although the pictures didn’t come out as great as we hoped, they did capture some of the highlights of the day. To see some of the photos, click on the image below.
We would like to tha
Better Living in Portugal Exhibition 2007-10-13 16:33:18 Earlier today we drove over to Portimao all ready for a marathon Mama Marathona, but to our surprise, probably due to the lack of sleep from this past week, we were a day early for the race! The Mama Marathona is scheduled for October 14th : ) … so with no marathon to run, we put a plan B into action – fortunately we didn’t have to look far, because right behind us was the “Better Living
in Portugal
” (BLIP) exhibition. We had heard so much about it, we decided to take a peek for ourselves and glad we did. We found tons of varied exhibitors from private banking to an organic online grocery service – the BLIP is well organized and features a wide breadth of services available in the region for those already living or interested in moving to Algarve, Portugal.
The “Better Living in Portugal” (BLIP) exhibition will be open tomorrow as well (Sunday, October 14th), so if you’re in the area of Portimao, we recommend you stop by.
For more information, you can visit their w Read more:Exhibition
World Travel Awards - Portugal Wins Best Boutique Hotel 2007-10-11 17:44:14 The votes are in and Portugal
is now well listed amongst the prestigious “Travel
Oscars”, taking top honours for Best European BoutiqueHotel
, and top nominations in other categories such as golf and diving. With new projects breaking ground for a number of 5 star hotels & golf resorts in the Algarve and across the country, looks like this award could be just the beginning!
*Best European Boutique Hotel - Hotel Quinta da Bela Vista
Conference Hotel - Pestana Palace
Golf Resort - Sheraton Algarve Hotel Pine Cliffs Resort
Leading Hotel - Pestana Palace
Leading Resort - Praia D’El Rey Marriotte Golf & Beach Resort
Leading Spa Resort- Convento do Espinheiro
Leading Suite - Royal Suite 1001 & 2001, Vila Joya
Read more:World
, Awards
Now Drinking - Outono de Santar & Pasmados 2007-10-09 18:28:44 I’ve had my first sighting of chestnuts, guess this means fall has officially arrived and it’s time to stock up on something appropriate. I’m talking wine of course, and like a kid at Christmas my “short list” is already 40 bottles long - I can hardly wait to try them all. My wine-sniffing nose smells trouble, already.
Not to get too overwhelmed, we’re starting with whites as an easy transition from all the Vinho Verde we drank over the summer. In my first outing in pursuit of new and different for fall, I immediately stumbled on “Outono de Santar” - bingo! Had never seen this beauty before. Its leafy amber color and description gave me a sense that it’s a perfect fall wine with cheeses, dates, raisins, sweet meats, pâté, but a little suspicious it might be a tad sweet. Regardless, it sounded too good to leave behind, and my search continued for something a little sharper. With a new dish already in mind, the second bottle couldn’t be far away, then I found Read more:Drinking
Marquês de Borba 2006 - Alentejo 2007-10-24 13:55:04 For this week’s “Now Drinking”, we got a fantastic surprise, thanks to our new favourite wine site, Adegga.com. To help pick our wine, we visited Adegga who recommended the popular Portuguese wine “Marquês de Borba“.
So we put our faith and taste buds in the hands of the good folks at Adegga and chose a couple of bottles, from the results of the first one…we’ll be checking back with them again and again.
A commanding rich wine, full of crushed dark berry flavours with a long smooth and creamy finish. We liked this wine so much there isn’t any left in the bottle to show you the depth of its colour. Guess we’ll just have to get another bottle : )
We enjoyed this bottle with a 3-cheese pasta and tomato sauce, and savory oven baked roast…the Marquês de Borba was perfect. Would highly recommend it with roasts, game, grilled meats and pasta/tomatoes dishes, a really great red that’s warm and powerful. This wine can often be spotted at
Vila Joya Restaurant in Algarve 2007-10-22 13:44:23 A number of years ago, some friends and I decided, celebrating birthday “week” had so many more advantages then just birthday day, so I’ve kept on the tradition. And why not, you only live once! With that objective in mind, we squeezed as much out of the week as possible and made this year all about Algarve food and wine.
Having recently seen Vila Joya’s nomination for the World Travel awards and their 2 Michelin stars, we were curious as to what all the fuss was about and if in fact they deserved these coveted stars. Loving food as much as we do, and having been to a good number of great restaurants over the years, we thought we were well equipped to put Vila Joya Restaurant to the test.
Vila Joya is in a quiet area of Albufeira, so discrete in fact we had a hard time finding the entrance. But their gracious host and maître d’, was wonderful in directing us to the gate.
(more…)
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Cody’s Fight for Cancer - A Son’s Love 2007-10-27 09:24:46 At any age the idea of loosing a parent is a freighting and emotionally wrenching thought. At the tender age of 9, it must be daunting - yet this is what Cody Lee Smart was faced with.
In 2006, Cody’s mother Yvonne, was diagnosed with breast cancer and although she was successfully treated at home in the UK, Cody was profoundly marked; not only by the possibly of loosing his mother, but by the treatment that saved her. This has driven him to take an unexpected path for a 9 year old - rather than be paralyzed by life’s cruel turn Cody chose to join the fight for cancer research in his own way.
Last year while on holiday in the Algarve, Cody stumbled into the Atlantic Piano Bar in Vilamoura Marina, and asked if he could play. When he explained, he wanted to play the piano to raise funds for cancer so no other child would have to walk his same course, patrons were touched and helped Cody with the first donations.
This past Friday we had the pleasure of not only meeting Cody and his Read more:Cancer
Visit Algarve - More Ways to Get Here 2007-10-26 08:15:35 Want more ways to visit Algarve? Well looks like this is about to happen. Yesterday there was a big announcement that EasyJet bought out British Airways [update] GB Airways.
How does this deal benefit traveling to the Algarve you may be asking? Well, news is that, flights will soon be available from both Gatwick and Heathrow direct to Faro Airport. I’ve also recently read talks are ongoing to bring 10+ low cost airlines directly into Faro airport for next year. The deals haven’t closed yet but there is definitely an initiate to open up more routes from across Europe directly into Faro, Algarve. EasyJet hasn’t provided exact details on dates and fares yet, but they look to be aiming at the first quarter of 2008.
We’d love to have more guests visiting Algarve, but hope the influx of more tourists, doesn’t mean less chestnuts to go around : )
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