Festival de Chocolate - Chocolate Adventures Update

Exciting and full of adventure but not quite in the way we thought : (

First, I had been hoping my nose would have lead me straight to chocolate nirvana as soon as we arrived. Yet, there was no smell of chocolate….hummmm? The weather wasn’t really on side but we planned to arrive in early in Obidos and miss the insanity we heard so much about, and although we arrived early there were already people bustling to get in.

As we walked into the old city through the castle walls (one of my favorite parts of the city) we were greeted with a chocolate carpet decorated with chubby pink hearts that lead us through the main city street, and to what we hoped would be miles of flowing chocolate.

Obidos Chocolate Festival

Along the way we found a few spotted shops selling chocolate, there was of course chocolate cups with “Ginga/Cherry” (an Obidos tradition) and the odd chocolate stand along the way. We also came across the “Melhor Bolo de Chocolate do Mundo/World’s best chocolate cake” - it was nice but don’t know if I’d call it the world’s best. We then found one shop further up - they had really done it up for the event, decorating both the in an outside of their window with chocolate hearts. The pastries inside the window were all we needed to be seduced us inside - chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate hearts, lava chocolate pastries and others, made us decide this was the place to return to on our way out of the city.

Festival de Chocolate Obidos

Mouth watering, and anxious for more… off we went to see what awaited us. There were lots of small shops with chocolate truffles, bonbons and other treats we couldn’t help but sample. We also found a shop selling chocolate soap, bubble bath and even towels, now that would really be something to “soaking in chocolate”, have to remember that for next Valentines day. But we still hadn’t made it to the festival, realizing we were missing our tickets to chocolate heaven, we found the ticket area and its long snaking line…gulp, this could mean a long wait, and it looked longer than my patience to taste more chocolate….grrr. It was a good thing we had a quick fix on our way in, with the “Worlds Best Chocolate Cake”, so we took our place. Fortunately, the line moved quickly and before we knew it we had our tickets/wristbands in hand an a complementary Areo bar each. The organizers clearly saw that coming - waiting too long to satisfy a chocolate craving could cause serious chaos, so a chocolate fix at the end of the line was very good planning! Even though I’m not a milk chocolate fan, the mini fix was a welcome surprise. With our 5euros paid, chocolate in hand and wrist bracelet on….we were armed and dangerous with a passport to chocolate.

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Lenços de Namorados - Lover’s Squares

Many moons ago, my mom told me a romantic story about the “Lenços dos Namorados” the Lover’s handkerchiefs. I had completely forgotten about the story, until I recently walked into a Lisbon shop “A Vida Portuguesa” and found a book on this very subject, Lenços de Namorados, escritas de AMOR - Lover’s Squares, Words of Love. This wonderful little book not only shows colourful photos of embroidered squares; it also gives the name of the embroiderer and history behind each square (if known).

Escritas De Amor

Lover’s Squares originated in the north of Portugal, in the Minho region, and by the early 1900’s had spread throughout the country. These very special squares started from crisp white linen or cotton, then were hand embroidered in various colours by young girls of marrying age (or sometimes commissioned by boys) as a declaration of their love for the object of their affection. How romantic is that?!

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Chocolate Festival - Obidos

Any guesses on the worlds #1, most popular flavour? Well its dark, sweet, rich and delicious…surpasses age; gender, culture, creed and people have even been known to lie about it… any clue? Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate…if you haven’t guessed.

And in just a few days there’s going to be an entire 2-week Chocolate Festival here in Portugal, in the tiny village of Obidos, just north of Lisbon. From what we hear, there will be chocolate sculptures, fashions, recipe contest and lots of chocolate eating. So, whether you like Dark, Milk, Semi Sweet, Bitter, White…you can fill that gap of indulgence and then some with chocolate treats from all over the country.

Obidos Chocolate Festival

We simply can’t miss this - Obidos is a magical little place embraced by huge stone walls protecting a medieval castle inside, and feels a lot like a mini medieval wonderland year round. So I can only imagine what it will look like swathed in people and chocolate for two entire weeks. So we’ll be making the trip from the Algarve up to Obidos to check it out for ourselves and we’ll update this post with pictures from our trip. For now here are some pictures from previous years.

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Sao Martinho & Chestnut Festival

Today’s a special day, especially if you like chestnuts, wine and good deeds. This is the day from top to bottom of Portugal, we celebrate Sao Martinho (Saint Martin’s Day), and we do it with Chestnuts and Aqua Pe.

First you may be asking who is Sao Martinho and what is Aqua Pe? Well the story of Sao Martin goes something like this;

Sao Martinho (St. Martin), born around 317 AD, he was a Roman solider who belonged to the Roman Empire and held the spiritual beliefs of Roman mythology. At the time, Roman Mythology was very inward looking towards the Empire and had little consideration for others. On a particularly dreadful winter day, Martin was caught in a downpour of rain with only his cape to protect him. While riding to get out of the horrible weather he was approached by a beggar, half naked with hardly a thread to cover him from the cold weather.

Martin didn’t have any change to help the man but was moved by the man’s misery - he grabbed his sword - reached back for his wool cape, cut it in half and covered the beggar. The other soldiers riding with Martin laughed that he was giving way his protection. But legend has it when Martin covered the beggar the clouds drifted and beams of sun lit up the sky.

The following day, Martin heard a voice through a dream, “Every time you do a good deed for your less fortunate and unprotected bothers, you are doing onto me”. From this day on, he began looking at and treating people differently. Martin died on November 8th, 397 AD and was laid to rest in the city of Tours, France on November 11th. He was later canonized as a saint. Sao Martinho is celebrated throughout Europe on this day, with many agriculture fairs, feasts, festivals and especially by wine makers.