Local Clams for Lunch

You might be wondering if lemons in Portugal are gigantic.   Or if the clams are really small.  And if you picked "small clams," you'd be right about the clams I had at lunch today.  I had tried to buy clams at the market in Fuseta this morning, but they told me to come back tomorrow.  I just couldn't imagine -- every day I watched the clam diggers head into the mudflats right in front of my balcony at low tide with rakes and buckets, but no clams were for sale at the market.

At lunchtime, I went over to the marina area, where grills are set up on the sidewalks to cook the fish caught that day.  Today, though, it was raining lightly, so the outdoor grills weren't fired up.  I went into the little restaurant across from the marina, which had maybe 6 tables and a kitchen right in the dining room.  After conferring about the various fish they had, I decided to get cod (this is Portugal, after all, and I hadn't had cod yet), and the chef set to work in the little kitchen.  And then these guys walked in, with buckets.  One handed a bucket to the chef, who immediately started rinsing whatever was in that bucket in the sink, and then cooking it.

Yes, they were clam diggers.  And the chef was cooking their clams.  Soon there was a steaming skillet filled with clams and he scooped some into a bowl for that table of guys.  Fortunately for me, the chef spoke English, and when he told me it would be a few more minutes for my cod, I told him I wondered if I could get some of those clams.  He said they belonged to the clam diggers, whom he asked and who generously told him they'd share with me.

The clam shells were the size of a fingernail and they were cooked in olive oil and seawater with garlic.   The guys squeezed lemon on theirs so I did too.  And they were the tiniest and best clams I have ever tasted.  While I savored the clams, the restaurant tables all were filled with clam diggers ... and me.  The cod was fine, it's a bony fish and I think I like other fish better, but I was so happy from my unexpected appetizer, that was just fine.

I had taken a walk along the marina in the morning and took some photos of the boats that I may paint either out there on a not-rainy morning or, when I'm back in the studio, from these photos.