Chowzter Awards – the Rio result!

Anyone who has been anywhere near Eat Rio or the Eat Rio Facebook page recently will potentially be getting a little tired of hearing about Peru. For those of you who haven’t been following proceedings, I flew to Lima just over a week ago to take part in the Chowzter Latin American Fast Feast Awards.

I have to say that I had a seriously good time: hanging out with fellow food-obsessed people, drinking the occasional pisco sour, eating delicious ceviche – it’s a great way to spend a weekend. But it wasn’t all fun – there were some nervous moments. Yes we were there to have a good time, but we were also there to represent our cities (and countries) of Latin America.

As the ceremony got under way, our compère for the evening took us through a countdown of what had been judged to be the 50 most tasty ‘fast feasts’ in Latin America. As I heard dish after delicious dish described, I started to wonder if my photos and descriptions of Rio’s nominations had been enough. We were up against mouth-watering tacos from Mexico City, empanadas from Buenos Aires, ceviche from Lima and arepas from Caracas. Against such stiff competition, would the judges really be impressed with any of Rio’s offerings?

Of course they would! Tacacá from Tacacá do Norte placed in the Top 30 and although I would have liked it to place higher, I was mostly relieved that Rio had at least made its mark.

Tacacá from Tacacá do Norte – a worthy winner on the night.

The countdown continued and my hopes for more Rio glory started to fade. I sat back to enjoy the final countdown of what were admittedly delicious looking dishes from across the continent. Then, at number 3, I got a shock – they were showing a video of the bolinhos de feijoada from Aconchego Carioca! I had to go up and accept an award on behalf of Aconchego and even give a little speech!

It’s a fine looking award don’t you think? It will be my pleasure to present this to the good people at Achochego Carioca (hopefully I will get to meet Kátia Barbosa herself). Representing Rio!

So there you have it – Rio can hold its head high among its Latin American neighbours! Next year I hope to see more successes for the Cidade Maravilhosa and wouldn’t be surprised if Botero or Da Gema were involved.

If you’d like to see the other dishes that placed in the Top 7 you can see them here – they each have their own explanatory video (just use the little red arrows to scroll between them).