Corny Stop Motion

/14 Comments/in

As I wandered home last night I passed a guy standing at a little metal cart selling sweetcorn (milho). This must be one of my favourite street foods – there’s just something pleasing about selling this as a quick snack. 

 

I know he doesn’t look it, but this guy was actually very friendly. It’s just when I took the photo (I did ask!) he put on his stern face.

Whereas most snacks are high in fat or sugar (or both!), here is a yummy snack that is relatively good for you. The sellers use the outer leaves of the corn as the wrapping, so there’s no need for plastic bags and all the usual packaging – once you’re finished you are only throwing away a biodegradable husk and some leaves! I wish it was more popular everywhere. 


However, last night I didn’t buy sweetcorn. I bought pamonha (sounds like pam-ON-ya). 

Read more

Essential for a Brazilian Christmas?

/7 Comments/in ,

A little while back I gave you my top Brazilian supermarket survival tips, born from many hours wandering around supermarkets here in Rio. I remember as a young kid, on some of my first trips abroad, being fascinated by the supermarkets of France (anyone remember Hollywood chewing gum?) and Germany (those yummy ginger cake/biscuits covered in chocolate – yum!). 


And I remember, aged 9, being awestruck the first time I saw Fluff: 

 

Are you a Fluffer-nutter? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6gljDcLrvQ)

Even today I enjoy checking out the weird and wonderful products when I visit a new country. I remember noticing last Easter that all the Rio supermarkets took the same approach to Easter-eggs. They built a kind of wooden framework (a bit like a Pergola) and then hung the eggs at about face-height, meaning you have to duck under the eggs if you want to get past!

Read more

Scissor-tailed Visitors

/8 Comments/in

Soon after we moved into our place in Glória/Santa Teresa, we took a trip to the nearest branch of Tok&Stok (a chain selling reasonably priced furniture and household goods, a little bit like Ikea but without the meatballs, herring and arguments). Our shopping list was not particularly exciting – a dish draining rack, cutlery tray, you get the picture. All in all it was a rather boring shopping trip. 


Until we got to the checkout! Because there, hanging on a hook, was a hummingbird feeder. Wow. I love hummingbirds. We don’t get them back in Europe and although I saw a few in Colombia, the novelty has definitely not worn off. The feeder went in the trolley and I went home with plans of attracting legions of hummingbirds. 


And guess what? It worked! 

 

In Portuguese, hummingbirds are called Beija-flor (flower kisser). This one is called Beija-flor Tesoura (Tesoura is Portuguese for scissors, a reference to its forked tail). In case anyone is interested, the Latin name is Eupetomena macroura.

 

 

Read more

There’s graffiti all over the school!

/4 Comments/in

I grew up in the city of Winchester on the south coast of England. It was a great place to be a kid/teenager – by no means a village, but small enough that if you didn’t know someone directly, you probably knew someone who knew them. It is just an hour from London on the train, yet it is situated in a particularly lovely part of Hampshire, characterised by gorgeous, gentle countryside (a million miles from the dramatic mountains, forests and beaches of Rio).

Thatched cottages in Wherwell, Hampshire. Putting the Shire into Hampshire.

Winchester is a fairly wealthy city with a population of just 40,000 – when I was growing up crime levels were very low. So you can imagine my shock when I arrived at school aged 11 to hear there had been an attack.

Read more

A handful of magic beans

/0 Comments/in

Ah! We had gorgeous weather today – finally some weekend sunshine. I got up early and decided today I would do things. A half-built trellis has been taunting me for weeks and so today I thought I would finally put it in its place (up on a wall). I set to work and everything was going fine until I realised that I needed a thicker drill bit. This trellis has been an ongoing saga for so long now that it seemed only natural that there would be another hurdle. I wandered off into Catete (an nearby neighbourhood) on a long-shot mission to find a shop selling drill bits open on a Sunday.


I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to hear that after an hour and a half of wandering I found my drill bit in one of those shops that sells a bit of everything. I was delighted and probably overreacted a little – no one should be that excited about finding an 8mm masonry drill bit…


On my triumphant way home I stopped in on the Glória street market and picked up a few things. One item I really didn’t need but couldn’t resist was this:

 

Cacau – where chocolate comes from.


Read more