St John's Festa-Portuguese Sopes

Being from San Diego, I thought myself to be pretty well exposed when it came to foreign gastronomy, but I experienced one of the most delicious meals I've had that I didn't prepare myself.  With my past Portuguese cuisine limited to linguiça and eggs (fake I know), I had no idea what to expect.  I was told that it would be a day of eating slow cooked meat and day-drinking.
Day-drinking has been a past time of mine pretty much since I relocated from San Diego to Merced.  Remembering back to my college days of good-beer-Sundays, spending Sunday at a festa sounded like a good idea.
Upon arrival at the church, we parked our booties in a picnic bench and proceeded to open up a few silver bullets.  Werewolves be ware.  

Aside from the shady picnic area surrounded by the kitchens the next sense that was awakened was my olfaction.  The air was filled with the scent of cloves, cumin, and bay but more importantly, cinnamon.  My stomach immediately started to growl.  I was hungry.  I was curious.  I asked a friend who is a veteran festa-er to take me into the back.  It was quite the spectacle.  I've worked in a production kitchen before, and this is nothing like I've ever seen before.  There were at least three generations of men working the kitchen.  I was amazed at how efficiently the machine was working.  (For perspective purposes the dude with the shovel-tool was like 6'1")

So after about an hour of good company and good conversation, a pair of sixty-something Portuguese men start at the end and unroll butcher paper the length of the table.  They're followed by another two who bring out two huge metal bowls.  In the bowls contain the Sopas.  Sopas in Portuguese is different than Soaps in Mexican.  Instead of a soup, its more like a stew, which is even a stretch, Id say most like a pot-roast.  
So back to the food.  One pan had cabbage blanched to perfection in the spice-meat juices, as well as what I presume is a french bread sliced and also in the bowl.  They called it "soggy bread" the bread like the cabbage is soaked in these tasty juices.  Accompanying the cabbage and bread is another bowl filled with the meat.  From the size and color it is very obviously beef but I imagine chevon or mutton could be easily substituted.

The food was amazing!!  Best part about this meal: it's served family style.  The one drawback about the family style was the jackass sitting across from me, who insisted on using a clean utensil to grab.  Note to the jackass: family style means you grab what you eat from the common plate; don't be a doucher about germs, its 2011 there's no such thing as microbes!  

For each bite I took a little beef and cabbage and a morsel of soggy bread, and my whole mouth was engaged.  The acidity in the broth started to breakdown the bread so it was sweet and sugary, the cabbage provided just the right amount of sour and bitter and the meat balanced it out with the salt and umami.  
Following the meal, the bowls are pulled, and the same old men that laid the paper, come by and fold up the edges and roll it back up and away.  In a matter of seconds the table is cleaned and bused.  Right after the paper is lifted away, in the background a band can be seen unpacking.  The band set up and started playing covers of popular country songs.  This country boy transplant was happier than a pig in shit!  If given the opportunity to attend another festa, I would do it in a heartbeat.  This is one cultural event that you cannot take a pass on!