For weeks my parents told me about this Portuguese bakery that’s near their house. Next time I come down we’ll stop in, they say. Wanted to stop in for a while now, they say. I drove down from Orlando this morning, and, as promised, we dropped in for a look-see. It’s a real find! The store is small, but it’s stocked with all the right stuff. We were hoping to find some of our treasured Italian specialty items such as salted cod fish and dried fava beans. We found these and then some. I was surprised to find dried lupini beans so I bought a few bags (and at a great price) along with a few Portuguese rolls that were cooling in the back of the bakery (our car smelled so good on the ride home). The store has been open at the corner of Malabar Road and Babcock Street for nearly seven years, so I guess my parents have truly been thinking about going for some time. It’s certainly worth the trip.
Specialties
Portuguese rolls, sweet bread, pastries, and meat pies are made on the premises daily. Rolls are baked twice a day and sweet bread is baked in the morning. I was so tempted to try one of the fig squares, but I couldn’t get over the giant éclairs. I was told that they are now taking orders for Easter bread. Get there early or you will miss out on the fresh baked bread.
Products
In addition to the fresh bakery goods, you will also find home-made chourico and linguica smoked sausage; a variety of frozen and canned seafood to include smelts, salt cod, and octopus; a large selection of dried beans (lupini and favas for sure); imported ethnic canned foods and spices; fruity beverages; flours, and much more.
Prices
Prices are reasonable. Two pounds of dried lupini beans run about $4.95 a bag; a few cents less a pound than what you’ll find at nuts.com and a few of the other online gourmet shops. The 32-ounce jar of lupini beans is $3.95, which is considerably cheaper than some of the local grocery stores. The fig squares are $1.25 each, and the other pastries and rolls were less or comparable to what you can expect to pay at local bakeries. The smoked linguica at $6.99 a pound is more than reasonable.
Hours
The store is closed on Monday. It’s open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Tuesday through Friday; 8:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday; and, 8:00 am to 1:00 pm on Sunday.
Location
You can find the Portuguese Corner Store & Bakery in south Brevard County at the following location (the intersection of Malabar Road and Babcock Street:
Portuguese Corner Store and Bakery 1304 Malabar Road SE Palm Bay, FL 32907 Tel: 321-728-0201 You can also find them on Facebook.
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef says
April 17, 2014 at 9:10 AMWhat a find! It’s so much fun to investigate a new place like this only to find out that it’s better than what you anticipated.