Wild boar stewed in red wine and honey, chicken and herb broth, rye porridge, roasted pears with species. These are just some of the delicacies that can be tasted at the Medieval Supper scheduled for tomorrow night, at Igreja das Freiras, in Lagos.
The Medieval Supper is one of the highlights of the first day of the Festival dos Descobrimentos, which starts tomorrow, at 15 pm, with the Historical Court, whose motto is “D. João I's journey to Ceuta, with the city of Lagos as the starting point”.
Augusto Lima, the chef who will coordinate the preparation of the meal for 80 people, with the help of apprentices from the Professional Courses in Restaurants and Bars and Cooking and Pastry from the Júlio Dantas School Group, explained to Sul Informação that the menu is based "on what was eaten at the time of King João I, at the end of the Middle Ages and even before the Discoveries brought us a whole series of new foods, condiments and ingredients".
«The experience I already have of these recreations and the research I have done, tells me that in those medieval times, foods were very bittersweet, to mask the taste, as meat, for example, sometimes already smelled bad. Hence the use, for example, of honey, which I will put in the stewed wild boar», he also said.
600 years later, honey and all the other ingredients only serve to recreate the meals of the times of D. João I, as the products used are of great quality and freshness. Thus, among appetizers and main dishes, the menu includes river fish pataniscas, garlic and fried bacon tiborna, beans with sausage and herbs, sausages and kingdom cheeses, chicken and herb broth, wild boar stewed in wine red, paps rye, roasted pears with cabbage species and shreds.
In the desserts chapter, Santiago pies will be served (with almond and cinnamon, which is already beginning to be available), fresh fruit (apples, grapes, watermelon and melon), dried fruit (almond and walnut), and fartéis, a biscuit made in oven, with almond, apple and species.
To drink, there will be mead, black beer, red wine and water. All this will be served on two long banquet tables, covered with linen tablecloths, with chestnut stoves and cracklings on the table. «I asked them to only put spoons on the table, because in those times they didn't use a fork and knife. What was solid was eaten with the handyman».
The Supper will be complemented with musical entertainment with the Grupo Coral de Lagos and the Academy of Music of Lagos.
The site will be the nave of the old Church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo, better known as Igreja das Freiras, and the meeting point is scheduled for 19:45 in Praça do Infante (next to the Regimental Warehouse).
Tickets for this Supper cost 20 euros and will be on sale at the Centro Cultural de Lagos.
Chef Augusto Lima, who has been teaching professional courses at the Lagos School Groups for four years, points out that “students' participation in these events makes them grow professionally. For them, all of this, the making of all these different dishes, is something new and, above all, something they wouldn't do in a normal classroom. For them, it is always a learning experience».
After two days' work making everything, tomorrow afternoon the master and students will settle in the makeshift kitchen in the old sacristy. «Here we're just going to heat up and plate up», explains chef Augusto Lima.
The service will be provided by the students, duly dressed at the time, as well as the guests. For the Medieval Supper, it is mandatory to wear costumes from the period (the XNUMXth century), but the Municipality will make available tunics to participants who do not have their own costume, at the Regimental Warehouse.
But the Festival of Discoveries starts a few hours before, at 15 pm, with the Historical Court that will parade along the main Avenida de Lagos, with close to 00 extras, of which 1500 are students from the municipality's public (1387) and private (1131) schools. , accompanied by teachers, non-teaching staff, and other volunteers, namely those linked to associations and communities.
Among all these people dressed up to represent, once again, the society of the XNUMXth century, at the dawn of the Discoveries, will be Maria Joaquina Matos, mayor, and at least the councilor for Culture, Maria Fernanda Afonso.
The Historical Parade will be headed by El-Rei D. João I and his sons. Then come the social classes of the time (Clergy, Nobility, Bourgeoisie and People). At the end of the parade, lepers and beggars will follow, people without rights and marginalized, played by students from the Júlio Dantas School Group. The Cortejo will depart from the Levante Market, heading to Praça do Infante, the privileged stage of the Discoveries Fair.
At this Fair, in addition to local exhibitors, including schools, parents' associations, IPPS and associations in the municipality, selling their products to raise funds, there will also be the usual marketers, who come from abroad.
Ana Grade, from the Communication department of the Câmara de Lagos, added that “animation will be a constant at the Discoveries Fair, in part carried out by local schools and associations, which will present music, dance and performances”. There will also be shows with outside groups, puppet theater, recreations of historical moments.
But entertainment will not only be at Praça do Infante and Jardim da Constitution, since, this year for the first time, “it extends to the entire area of the historic centre. Through ACRAL, an invitation was made to all merchants and restaurant owners in that area to join the Festival and also for them to have a party atmosphere in their establishment. There were in fact some adhesions and the municipality even lent them the necessary clothes».
On the 1st of May, at night, there will be a show of African music and dance, by a group that, beforehand, will give an African dance workshop, for those who want to learn a little more and have fun. «No registration required. Anyone who wants to, just join them!” said Ana Grade.
On Saturday 2, at 18 pm, there will be another historical procession, but shorter, organized by the Teatro Experimental de Lagos, called «Corte Real Infantil», as it mainly involves children. This procession, said Ana Grade, has the support «of a seamstress from Lagos, Corine, who has specialized in theater clothing and for these historical recreations».
The Fair is open from 15:00 pm to 23:00 pm, except on the last day, Sunday, when it closes at 22:00 pm.
The four days of this Festival of Discoveries plunge the city of Lagos into the 22th century, to recall the stage that national historiography inscribed as the beginning of Portuguese expansion – the capture of Ceuta, on August 1415, XNUMX. A page from the History of Portugal in which Lagos played an important role.
Discover the entire Festival schedule at www.cm-lagos.pt
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