(photograph © Kiwidutch)
I’m on a happier topic today after yesterday’ s post… and whilst snow falls steadily outside my bedroom window, I can return you to our Portuguese holiday, where early September of this year found us visiting Our Lady of the Snows in the Peneda-Gerés National Park, Northern Portugal.
The Market did not have a massive variety of goods, since clearly one specialist item was the main attraction: a very distinctive, mostly red, earthenware.
I have a small collection of Portuguese tiles, pots and dishes, and find that the various regions of Portugal feature very different styles indeed. These dishes, pots and trays are unlike any others I have seen so far in Portugal.
The base colour of most of them is a rust red, and the decoration is composed primarily of white dots that form reoccurring patterns, swirls, flowers, waves and so forth.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
One item in particular caught my eye, it’s a very large round oven dish, with a lid.
It must easily measure 50 cm (about 20 inches) across and is roughly 10cm (4 inches tall).
Wow, my eyes lit up with this one, Darnation that we were flying home, had we been making the trip back to the Netherlands by car, I think that I would have squeezed one of these into the boot.
Think of the slow cooking stews, casseroles and birds that you could bake in one of these… drool, honestly I almost was, literally.
I left this beautiful casserole dish behind with great reluctance and enjoyed window shopping for the rest…
Note to self: need to ask Himself about translations of the Portuguese texts on some of these plates.
The dishes with the raised “T” “rib-like” central bars… maybe used for roasting? …. or ?… hmm still wondering… any clues?
We’ve already decided that a trip back here would be excellent next time we are in Northern Portugal, next time we have to come via a road trip or I need to pack an extra suitcase.
We linger in the shady coolness of the shops, enjoying the respite from the heat outside and enjoying looking at all the different shapes of pots.
I’m intrigued by one shape the looks an upside down floppy hat, (centre bottom of fourth photo) we saw this shape a several stalls so it must be used for something specifically, but didn’t strike me as a particularly stable kind of bowl for everyday use.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
