text: In the Azores, a Michelin-inspired feast – The Denver Post
  In the Azores, a Michelin-inspired feast
  The town of Furnas on São Miguel is well known for its thermal waters.
  By Julie Hatfield and Special to The Denver Post | Special to The Denver Post
  PUBLISHED: April 30, 2015 at 11:28 am | UPDATED: April 25, 2016 at 6:19 am
  PONTA DELGADA, Azores, Portugal — Even in the simplest home kitchens in the Azores, food is a celebration of the sea.
  Fish broth rich in tomato and red pepper sauces heat on the stove just about all the time. Limpets broiled in butter and garlic, and barnacles scraped from the rocks and eaten right from the shell with tiny spoons are everyday fare on these volcanic islands thousands of miles off the coast of mainland Portugal.
  So when Azorean food is taken up a notch by Michelin-starred chefs from around the world, coupled with an ambitious award-winning culinary school working to put this archipelago on the international gastronomic map, the 10 Fest Azores deserves a serious look for gourmets.
  Last June, I traveled to Ponta Delgada, capital city of the Azores, to take in the fourth annual International Food Festival. This year, the 10 Fest Azores will celebrate 10 days of incredible dinners prepared by 10 chefs from different countries. It is presented by the School of Tourism and Hospitality Training here, in its contemporary light-filled, glass-and-wood restaurant that sits overlooking the Ponta Delgado harbor in the Anfiteatro, a large public structure gracing the downtown waterfront. Students from the school are assigned to assist a visiting chef during the festival, and the chefs show off their talents by creating seven-course dinners using Azorean ingredients.
  Festival dinners draw locals and tourists alike — about 75 each night, paying $70 per person. Every course, except for the postprandial cigars and brandies, is accompanied by local white wines.
  This year's festival runs June 18-27.
  When you're not indulging in the festival, take a city walking tour. Around the oldest streets in town you'll see the results of the graffiti artists who come at the invitation of the city to paint their art on the walls. The street art in the Azores is not only welcome but part of the lure for tourists, and it's paid for by the town. On a regular basis, the graffiti makers are even asked to "walk and talk" about their paintings here.
  Or take the gastronomical adventure on the road: Rent a car and drive along the coast toward Furnas, a town with an active volcano that the locals use to prepare a traditional dish called "cozido": a pot of meat and vegetables buried in a hole near the volcano's steam, where it's cooked for five hours so that the juices all blend together into a stew unique to the Azores.
  The island of São Miguel has 230,000 extinct volcanoes and a few live ones, plus natural hot and cold springs. One of their natural cold springs produces a constant stream of chilled sparkling Perrier-like water, which locals collect into bottles they've carried from home.
  While in Furnas, stop at the restored Terra Nostra Garden Hotel, which sits beside an enormous 18th century botanical garden containing more than 600 specimens of camellias, and trees from North America, Australia, New Zealand, China and South Africa. The grounds also have grottos, canals and lakes, plus a strange looking swimming pool that's an unwelcoming shade brown, due to the iron content; people swim here for its soothing benefits on joints and muscles. The pool house is the former mansion of Thomas Hickling, U.S. Consul to São Miguel, who in 1775 called this his summer home.
  It's also worthwhile to stop at a tea plantation. When all of the orange trees in São Miguel were destroyed by disease, the Azoreans bought tea plants from Brazil, and they thrived — Azoreans are the only tea producers in all of Europe, and they use it to make pudding, ice cream, cookies and liqueur, in addition to the standard hot and cold drinking brew.
  10 Fest Azores 2015
  This year's food festival takes place in San Miguel from June 18-27. efth.com.pt or taste.visitazores.com/en/ten-fest/2015