Lunch in Bristol (Almoço em Bristol)

Further Info

This story was made on a four and a half day training workshop for people intending to work on storytelling projects with young people.

The workshop was led by Liz Milner and Ruth Jacobs and was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

What do you do for lunch in Bristol?

Or you could go to Portugal

I was first drawn to this Portuguese stall in St Nicholas Market by the sights and smells of these pastries, which I had always loved as a child on holiday in Portugal.

You go right into the stall, tiny but cosy and it feels like being in someone’s kitchen.

Paolo helps out and Neil comes here to eat every lunchtime when he can. He reckons some British people are funny about food. They don’t like it when there are real bones in the chicken or if they don’t recognise the fish, so they go away.

But not him. He tucks into the bacalao and potatoes, his favourite, and tells me about Natalia.

Natalia was born in Africa, and settled with her family in Lisbon. She came to Bristol four years ago and set up her market stall.

She opens up at 7 am, cooks, serves, packs up, and then goes home to bake 700 pastries every week.

Of course Natalia is making a living like everyone, but somehow there is more to this than just producing food. This is the best example of ‘home’ food – produced slowly and creatively to be eaten at a table. A normal thing to do when in Portugal, you think, but not so common in Bristol.

Natalia is doing us a public service.

So, did she give me the recipe for the pastries?

I’m working on it.

Credits

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 licence.