for "Maria's Portuguese Table," season two, has been provided by Rhode Island PBS Foundation.

Rhode Island PBS, engaging viewers of all ages since 1967.

(bright music) - [Announcer] "Maria's Portuguese Table" is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Bay Coast Bank, providing services and financial solutions for the people and businesses of Southern New England since 1851.

(lively music) - [Announcer] Underwriting for "Maria's Portuguese Table," season two, has been provided by... (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (bright music) - [Maria Voice-Over] The Boston Harbor has seen countless ships come and go since before the time of the American Revolution, bringing both people and goods to the city where the ideals that founded this country were born.

From the beginning, immigrants from all over Europe, including mainland Portugal and the Azorian Islands were part of that migration, looking for a better way of life.

This migration continued well into the 20th century, and the mark those immigrants left on the city can be felt and seen today.

One great example comes from the brothers, Tony and Joseph Frias, who were born on the island of Santa Maria and immigrated to America in 1955.

(cheerful music) For the last 50 years, the Frias family has played a major part in altering the very skyline of this wonderful American city by building skyscrapers.

Today, I get to visit one of their tallest construction sites as it's being built, and I get a tour from their grandson, Tony Frias III.

- [Maria] Tony?

- Maria.

- [Maria] Hey, how are you?

- Hi, it's nice to meet you.

- [Maria] Nice to meet you.

(bright music) This is incredible!

- I have something for you.

- Oh, oh, (laughs) and it has my name on it.

- Yes it does.

- So, you were ready for me.

- Yes, we were prepared.

- Oh my goodness, oh, oh.

Oh, and you're a gentleman too, all right.

- [Tony] And safety glasses.

- Oh, and safety glasses, okay.

All right, safety first, folks, safety first.

- [Tony] So, Maria?

- Yes, hon, yes?

- [Tony] I have a small task for you today.

- I'm not doing- - I want you to chip that concrete out, please.

- (laughing) I am not going to do that.

How the heck am I gonna do that?

Oh my goodness, you know, this is- - Come on, Maria, give a shot.

- All right, okay.

- You ready?

- All right.

- Squeeze.

- Squeeze here?

Okay.

- Yeah, go ahead, push.

- All right.

- Squeeze.

(drill whirring) Now look at that, that's nothing.

- I can do it, I really can.

(drill whirring) - Great stuff.

- Well, not really that great.

(laughing) This is all I could do!

(bright music) - [Maria Voice-Over] As Tony takes me around, I quickly realize how massive this construction project is.

- This is called the Winthrop Tower.

It's a 53-story high-rise, cast-in-place, concrete building, which means it is completely done outta concrete and steel.

- Wow, so you built all this?

- I didn't build it, but the crew did.

- (laughs) Yeah, well, you had some part in it.

- Yes, it takes a big team.

- And this is your grandfather's company.

- Yes, my grandfather and my Uncle Joe's company.

- Wow, how wonderful is that?

(bright traditional music) - They have no education.

They came from Santa Maria with four grades of school, came here, I think they had $2,000, a couple wheelbarrows and shovels.

- I love it, I love it.

- [Maria Voice-Over] What I did not love is what Tony proposed for the next part of the tour.

- [Maria] Wow, okay.

- I'd look up now.

- Oh my goodness.

(dramatic music) Is that... (dramatic music continues) No, no, I think I might scream.

I might scream the whole time.

(playful music) Okay, we're going in.

- Going in.

- We're going in, oh boy.

- [Lift Operator] How you doing?

- [Maria] All right.

(laughing) Oh my God, all right.

(lift rumbling) (Maria laughing) - [Maria Voice-Over] Thankfully, I found a way to talk about food to distract me from going up 700 feet in the air.

- [Worker] He's an excellent cook.

- [Maria] He is?

- [Worker] Yeah.

- [Maria] You're a good cook?

- My mother, may she rest in peace, we're Italian, she taught us very well.

- [Maria] Oh, beautiful.

- Oh yeah.

We still grow our own tomatoes.

We make our own tomato sauce.

Where we come from, we're famous for the olive oil and the mozzarellas, like buffalo mozzarellas.

- I make my cheese, I do.

I make my fresh cheese, I do that every week.

I have to have that.

- Portuguese, Italian, we're all the same.

- [Maria] We're the same.

- Praise God.

- [Maria] I swear to God, we are.

(playful music continues) - [Maria Voice-Over] And just like that, I made it to the 52nd floor.

(bright music) - [Tony] We're on the 52nd floor here.

This is the last floor of the residential.

This will be all penthouses.

- [Maria] Oh, so people will be living- - People will be living, this is the last floor they live on.

- [Maria] Wow.

- [Tony] Yep.

- [Maria] Penthouses... - [Tony] This is the big money shots.

- [Maria] It really is breathtaking.

- And over here you have the Childs River.

- And to think that someone will be lucky enough to live here and to have these views every day.

- [Tony] Yep.

- This is incredible.

- [Maria Voice-Over] All right, so enough of these million-dollar views.

It was time to meet the men who created the company from the beginning.

- There's a pool in there.

- There's a pool!

There's a pool in one of the floors.

(bright guitar music) - [Maria Voice-Over] To do that, I head over to Hudson Mass, one of the quaintest cities in all of New England with a vibrant Portuguese community and home to S & F Concrete and the Frias family.

We would lunch at the Riverview Portuguese Club.

- [Maria] Hello.

- Maria.

- [Maria] Tony!

- Welcome!

- Thank you.

- [Tony] Wonderful.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- This is wonderful, I'm so glad to meet you.

I finally meet you, and this is all your family?

- Family, family, family, family, family, family, family and family, distant but family.

(upbeat traditional music) - [Maria Voice-Over] On the menu were some of Tony's favorite dishes, and they just kept coming and coming and coming.

- I feel like I'm back in time, Sundays at my mom's table, and it was never ending, and it was food after food after food.

- That's how it was always going to our grandparents'.

- Really?

Now, I wanna know your story.

For you, how many brothers and sisters?

- 17, and I'm the oldest of 17.

Are you sitting now?

(laughing) - No, there was 17 children, honest to goodness?

From one woman?

- One woman and one man.

- Oh my God, oh my God!

- [Maria Voice-Over] Over the meal with Tony and his family, I finally get a sense of who he is and just how he was able to come from Santa Maria Island to become the man he is today.

- We came to this country.

I get to America at 7:00, 7:30 I was in a factory making shoes.

- Ooh... - Then later on, I work in a bakery, 16-years-old.

- [Maria] Incredible, wow.

- Worked night and day.

(bright music) - [Maria Voice-Over] In the 1960s, both brothers found work in construction and eventually started their own company.

- Those days, there was very little construction work available at all, and we went one time, 15 weeks of him and I, without taking a single dollar, we couldn't afford to take pay.

But I never gave up and he never gave up.

- [Maria] And that's the key.

- Never give up.

- Never, (indistinct).

- Positive attitude.

- Yes, yep.

- Spirit of sacrifice, - Yep.

- Make a good team around you and take good care of 'em, 'cause one person cannot do it alone.

And the harder you work, the luckier you get.

- Isn't that the truth.

- [Maria Voice-Over] The endless list of buildings they've helped bring to life includes a host of buildings found on college campuses across the region.

- I went to more universities than anybody else.

(Maria laughs) - [Maria] Isn't that the truth.

- MIT, Harvard, Northeast, and Brown, Yale.

- [Maria] You had part of that too.

- But the thing was, we're doing work.

- Yes, I was telling your grandson, I said, "I love the idea of all of these buildings "that are in Boston, "the majority of what you see, the foundation and more "is built by people of Portuguese descent."

- The most important things in the building you don't see.

- That's right.

- But that's what holds that building.

- That's right, that's right.

- The rest is just fake.

- And it's you.

- That's the bone of the- - And that's you, and that's you, and that's it.

(gentle guitar music) - [Maria Voice-Over] What we have here is the American dream manifested.

- Oh, and then these are all pictures of works that you've done.

- [Tony] Oh yeah, oh yeah.

- So all of that.

- [Maria Voice-Over] The passion and hard work of Portuguese immigrants without the benefits of higher education, but with hard work, dedication, and a little luck carved a place for themselves and their family.

- This is just an incredible history right here.

- Marriage.

- Oh my goodness, you look so cute and young, look at that.

- [Tony] Oh yeah, age don't forgive.

- And then this was your... - [Tony] Commander's Award.

- So should I have been calling you commander the whole day.

- No, call me Tony.

- (laughing) I know.

Not everybody has this award, you know.

This is like being knighted by the Portuguese government here.

(bright music) - [Maria Voice-Over] He received the Commander Award for his contributions over the years to communities in need in Portugal.

- You and your brother did a lot.

Like you said, it's not bad for someone with fourth grade education.

- Number one teacher.

She told me that I was the best student that she had on... what do you call, arithmetic.

- Interesting, isn't it- - The best of the best.

- You know, you've gotta make those numbers work.

That's important, isn't it, yeah.

- [Maria Voice-Over] Tony certainly has made it work, and it was such a pleasure to spend the day with him and his family.

(upbeat music) Boston is a world class city in many categories, in food, sports, universities, and the arts.

And nothing says world-class Boston like the Boston Pops.

(joyful orchestral music) Once I found out that one of the key members of its staff was Portuguese, I knew I had to learn more about him and his world-famous orchestra.

- Are you Maria Lawton?

- Well, I am, hi, hon.

(Dennis and Maria kiss) What a beautiful building.

- This is Symphony Hall.

This is one of the three greatest temples of music in the world.

- Wow.

- And we have it here in Boston.

This place was built in 1900, and there was a man called Henry Lee Higginson who is right here, we can look- - Oh, this is the man.

- This is the man.

He was the founder of the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops.

The Boston Symphony was founded in 1881.

And then in 1885, he founded the Pops, and I'll tell you why he did.

The musicians who played in the symphony at the very beginning, they would come over from Europe, but he was having a problem in that they would go back to Europe after the season ended, and it was hard to get them to come back for the next season.

So he said, "We'll form another orchestra "that will play in the summertime "that'll play lighter music.

"We'll sit at tables and eat and drink during the concerts."

- [Maria] Isn't that something, and a way to keep 'em here.

- Yep, and I wanna show you the inside of the hall.

- Yes, yes, please.

(bright orchestral music) Right here?

- No, over here, over here, right in the center.

(dramatic orchestral music) - [Maria] Wow!

(laughing) - [Dennis] One of the three great halls in the world.

- [Maria] That is beautiful.

- Now, right now it's set up for the Pops.

We have a kitchen over there, and they bring the food in.

We have people who wait the tables.

- [Maria] I never knew that.

- There's an elevator in the floor, right there.

That opens up, and we take all the chairs, all the tables, and they put 'em on the elevator, and they bring them down in the basement.

And all this stuff is 122 years old.

- [Maria Voice-Over] It was immediately apparent how amazing and innovative this place was.

And also amazing was the musical mind Dennis has had from the moment we met him.

- [Maria] And you've always had music in your life?

- Always, always, always.

Growing up, my mother played the piano.

(cheery piano music) My father was a wonderful, amateur singer.

We all, four kids, we would stand around the piano, and my mother would play, and we would sing along.

- For me growing up, it was John Phillip Sousa, 'cause he was Portuguese.

("El Capitan March" plays) So my dad, that was a favorite of his.

And Saturday mornings I wanted to sleep in, everybody wanted to sleep in, but my dad had another idea.

So he would get the John Phillips Sousa album, put it on the record player, blast it, on like 10 or whatever it was- - Did you wake up?

- For us to wake up.

So to this day, I have a hard time listening to John Phillips Sousa.

It's like, I- - I love that story.

That's fantastic, you know what I would love to do?

I think I have a little surprise for you.

- You do, okay.

(light string music) (stammering) Oh, we're handling this like we're promenading.

- [Dennis] Oh yes.

- Whenever I'm in Portugal, my husband and I always walk like this, always!

I think it's the proper way.

It's a very refined way of walking.

- [Maria Voice-Over] I have no idea where Dennis is taking me next.

But then I start to hear the sounds of instruments behind closed doors... (violins playing) and I start to get super excited.

(bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music continues) (bright orchestral music continues) - [Dennis] It sounds Portuguese.

- [Maria Voice-Over] After getting a top-secret peak at the rehearsal, the surprises kept on coming.

(soft playful orchestral music) - Okay, here we go.

This is the stage of Symphony Hall, can you believe it?

- [Maria] Wow.

- [Dennis] Look at that.

- Wow, I'm actually getting goosebumps (laughs) right now.

- It's just absolutely amazing.

And the hall helps you when you play your instrument, you don't have to over blow or over do.

It's just- - [Maria] The sound.

- The sound is like nowhere else.

- [Maria] I can hear our voices carrying.

- And you know what?

If there was someone standing in the second balcony way out there, they'd be able to hear us right now, because the acoustics are so amazing.

- [Maria] Yeah, isn't that something?

- Have you ever played a snare drum before?

- I've never played any instrument.

I always wanted to play the violin.

My mother would not let me play the violin, 'cause it was a sad instrument.

That is literally what she told me.

I could only play the accordion, and I refused to play the accordion.

So, Maria did not learn how to play any instruments.

- Well, the violin is beautiful, and actually, the accordion is beautiful.

- (laughs) If it's done right.

- But so is the snare drum, and I thought, gosh, why don't we get you a lesson.

I want you to meet a very, very good friend of mine.

He plays with the Boston Symphony and with the Boston Pops.

And hey, Richard, come on in.

- [Richard] Maria, hi Maria!

- Hi, Richard.

- How are you?

- Oh my goodness, what are we doing here?

- I heard you were gonna show me how to play the snare drum.

- [Maria] (laughing) I don't think so.

- [Maria Voice-Over] I was suddenly even more nervous than when I was running that concrete drill back at the construction site.

(drill whirring) - I wanna see your idea of how it is to work.

- All right, so...

Okay, now I don't know how to play, you know that.

- I understand.

Hey, by the way, I don't know how to cook.

- Oh, (laughs) I could teach you that too.

- Okay, thank you.

- I could teach you that too.

- That's a deal.

- All right.

- Okay.

(Maria drums) - Okay, not bad.

All right, so let me play it for you, and you tell me what I'm doing different.

(Richard drums) - It's much better.

(laughs) It's in tune.

There's rhythm to it.

All of the above, which mine did not have.

- All right, now let's do this.

Turn your thumbs on the side.

Do nothing more than that.

- All right.

- Try and make the sticks bounce now.

(Maria drums) Ah, there you go.

- Oh my God.

- [Richard] There you go.

Perfect.

- Oh, I had one, I saw one.

- Do that again, yeah.

- Woohoohoo.

- Perfect, better.

And if you just pick up the tempo, it'll start to roll.

Roll past each one.

(Maria drums) Left and right.

(Maria drums) There you go.

- Okay!

(gentle music) - [Maria Voice-Over] And it turns out my lesson wasn't over yet.

As Richard dipped into his bag of small percussion instruments he always carries with him.

- There's another thing that normally you see hanging on an animal that gives us milk.

And we call that a... - Do we need more cowbell?

- Well, do you think we need more cowbell?

- [Dennis] Well, we always need more cowbell.

- Do you think we need more cowbell?

- I think we need, oh my God, I have a cowbell.

(laughs) - And you need a stick, you need a stick.

Excellent, so you think about it, so if you had your hand farther back on it, it's gonna ring more.

Hit it, you can hit.

(bell rings) - It's louder, yeah.

- And if you put your hand here, it's gonna dry it up, which sometimes you need.

(bell rings) - Flatter.

- More rhythmic, less ring, and depends on the application.

Like sometimes you'll have to play, you know, orchestra's playing something that's very delicate, but there's a cowbell.

(bell rings) And then there's those moments, like on "Saturday Night Live," where you want as much as you can, (bell rings) which is what I would like you to do.

- Oh, you want me to play cowbell?

- Yeah, as loud as you can.

- Okay.

- [Richard] Let it go.

- I'm giving fair warning to everybody.

- [Richard] All right, I'm backing off here.

(Maria laughing) I don't know how loud she's gonna get.

Go for it!

- All right, go for it.

(bell ringing) - Yay!

Keep going, keep going.

- Oh!

(bell ringing) (Richard drums) Perfect, perfect.

- Woo!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

(laughs) - We're gonna take this on the road, and we'll see you next week.

- Richard, thank you so much.

Thank you for giving us your time, and I'm gonna cook you a nice Portuguese meal.

And I know you like chouriço, so we'll make sure we have some chouriço.

- Make sure you get a little in there.

- Make with a nice little Portuguese sausage in there.

- Very nice, thank you.

(bright music) - [Maria Voice-Over] Speaking of Portuguese food, it was about time I got back to what I know best, and that's cooking.

My one-of-a-kind experience at the Boston Pops inspired me to make a very special dish back at Dennis' home.

Well, I'm really excited to be here today.

I really am, being here in your kitchen.

And I love that we're gonna make a dish that I grew up with, and I know you haven't had it in a while.

- Not in a long time.

- I know.

And it's called canja, not to be confused with congee, because congee is a rice porridge, but canja was something that I grew up with that my mom would make for only very special occasions.

So I think this is a special occasion, what do you think?

- Oh, absolutely.

(Maria laughs) (upbeat traditional music) - It's a very easy soup.

So for those that have heard that canja is really hard, now we're gonna show them just how easy it is.

We've already boiled a chicken, a whole chicken.

It was about four pounds?

- [Dennis] Yes, four pounds.

- Yeah, four pounds.

You're gonna put that chicken in the pot, and you're gonna put in one whole onion and a couple of whole garlic cloves.

And you're going to put enough water to cover everything.

I did put a bullion cube in it to help with the flavor.

So now, we're going to take the chicken out of the pot, and we also have to make sure we remove the onion as well as the garlic.

And now we're gonna cook the rice in this.

- [Dennis] Here we go.

- So, we both bring it at the same time.

- Let's do it.

- All right.

So let's bring it on here.

(bright music) And this is two cups of rice.

Now, we are going to cover this up, and every once in a while we're gonna stir it around a little bit.

So now for me, my mom would always use just the chicken breasts on the soup, and she would leave the rest of the chicken for chicken salad, for whatever she had in mind.

So basically, the best of the meat would go into the soup.

(cheerful music) - Ah, looks beautiful.

- It does, it looks wonderful.

- [Maria Voice-Over] The next few steps in making canja are the ones that will sometimes scare people away from trying to make it, but you'll be okay, I promise.

It's not that hard.

- We have juice of one lemon, and we are going to add it to three egg yolks here.

So, perfect.

- Now, do we have to worry about the eggs cooking as they go into the hot water?

Do you have to- - Yes, we're gonna temper.

So we're gonna take some of this and put it into the egg.

- Got it, right.

- Because if you don't do that, and you automatically just put all of this in there, it's gonna cook, you're gonna have scrambled eggs.

- Scrambled eggs, right.

(bright music) - We're gonna go in and just take some of the liquid, and we're gonna do it a couple of times.

- [Dennis] Do you want me to do this?

- Yeah, and you wanna whisk while you're pouring this in.

So what happens, keep going, we'll do it again.

- I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry.

- (laughing) It does, it smells wonderful.

And what we've done right now is we've pretty much tempered the egg by doing this.

And so now, we are going to change the soup now.

And so where the soup now is, you can see the broth, look at how beautiful that is, and we're going to add right in and move that in right around, look at that.

And now it's become creamy, look at that.

We're just going to add the cooked chicken in there.

And now, we have soup, we have canja, we have canja.

- We have canja.

- We have canja.

Canja has arrived!

- We have a new pope.

(Maria laughing) We have canja.

- We have canja.

So let's get this served and let's enjoy this.

- [Maria Voice-Over] As you can see, canja is a very simple but delicious meal to make.

And cooking it with Dennis was so much fun.

I could not wait to taste it.

- All right, let's see, go ahead.

- Here we go.

- Let's try.

(gentle guitar music) See if you like it.

(Dennis gasping) - (laughing) Isn't it?

- Ah, that's so good.

- And it's so creamy.

So now you know how to make it.

- [Dennis] I know.

- Now, you can't walk away from saying- - I have no excuse.

- "Oh, I don't know how to make canja."

- And this is the perfect one-bowl meal.

- Meal, yes, absolutely, absolutely.

- [Maria Voice-Over] This is the reason I do this show, to have experiences like I did today and connect with people through their interests and through food.

I am fortunate to be able to do this, and with special people like Dennis no less.

- I am truly blessed for being here in your home and sharing this dish with you and having this.

- I am blessed.

- Yeah.

Thank you again, Dennis.

- Thank you.

- Thank you so much, hon.

(glasses clank) - [Maria Voice-Over] My time in Boston was simply amazing.

Standing on the top of a Boston skyline, breaking bread with wonderful people like the Frias family, learning how to play an instrument with the Boston Pops, I have to say, it was a wonderful experience.

(bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music continues) (bright orchestral music continues) (gentle music) - [Announcer] Underwriting for "Maria's Portuguese Table," season two, has been provided by Rhode Island PBS Foundation.

Rhode Island PBS, engaging viewers of all ages since 1967.

- [Announcer] "Maria's Portuguese Table" is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Bay Coast Bank, providing services and financial solutions for the people and businesses of Southern New England since 1851.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Underwriting for "Maria's Portuguese Table," season two, has been provided by... (bright guitar music)