'World Cup Fans' is a special SBS News series running in the lead up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It looks at the 32 qualifying countries through the eyes of their fans in Australia.
As a band plays at an event thrown by the Sydney Portugal Community Club in the city's inner-west, a team of chefs presides over a large barbecue on which some 500 sardines are being grilled.
One of the chefs, Normena, explains the traditional method: "These sardines must have a lot of salt on them first, so they get a bit hard and then a lot of flame," she tells SBS News. "You put them on, one minute, two minute, and they're off. Then they become nice and juicy."
It's an ancient recipe easy enough for a new generation to follow, as old and young queue up for the dish.
Traditional Portuguese sardines from the open grill Source: AAP
The festival is being held on land owned by the community club and the affiliated football club, Fraser Park FC - long known as Sydney's Portuguese team.
As the sardines sizzle, a junior Fraser Park side plays on an adjacent field, some 200 locals in the crowd cheering them on. The junior side is clad in red, green and white - the same colours as the Portuguese national team.
"It's the only sport we've got at the club level. We're very proud of that," explains Luis Pereira, who is vice president of the social club and president of the football club. "That's how the club started 60 years ago. It was a group of members that got together and started with a football team and this developed from there."
Members of Sydney's Portuguese community. Source: SBS News
Portuguese migrants first came to Australia in significant waves in the 1960s and 1970s after the country's colonial wars in Angola and Mozambique and the arrival of Indonesian troops in East Timor. As with many migrant communities, each generation has progressively integrated into mainstream Australian society.
Mr Pereira says while that's a positive, it also means cultural links to ancestral homelands are at risk - when children feel more Australian then Portuguese. That's why, Mr Pereira says, the Portuguese community and local football clubs want the next generation to rediscover the ways of their parents and grandparents - through food and football.
"We're very proud of our culture. Unfortunately our kids - the young generation - hasn't been as engaged as much and that's what we're trying to change," Mr Pereira says.
"We're trying to engage as much as we can the parents to come into the social club. Now we're trying to encourage parents not just to become social members but also to come and attend our functions."
And festival-goers are on board.
"I don't think many other three-year-olds are eating grilled sardines with their grandparents growing up," says one woman. "Having events like this where everyone comes together; the food, the drinks, these are memories that you hold forever," says another.
Also bringing the community together is the Portuguese national football team, who are reigning European champions.
Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal lifts the trophy after the 2016 UEFA European Championship Source: AAP
Under coach Fernando Santos and grouped with Spain, Morocco and Iran at the World Cup in June, Portugal must be viewed as a genuine threat to win the tournament.
As usual, talisman Cristiano Ronaldo - the boy from Madeira who almost migrated to Australia as a child - will be crucial to their hopes, not that anyone at the Sydney sardine festival has any doubts.
"We're going to win it," says one man. "We've got to think positive, you can't think negative."
Another says: "Considering we won the Euro, I think we'll go alright. Semis, maybe, maybe finals."
Portugal's World Cup campaign kicks off with a blockbuster against Spain in Sochi on June 15.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup begins 15 June. SBS will broadcast the biggest games, including the opening match, semi-finals and final, live, free and in HD.
