Representing Rio!
Hi everyone! I have to be quick today as I’m very short of time and have a hundred things to do. Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, I’m flying to Lima! I’ll be in Peru’s capital for 2 reasons – an awards ceremony and a food festival!
Chowzter Latin American Awards
Chowzter is a website that makes recommendations for what it calls ‘Fast Feasts’ in more than 100 cities around the world. You can read more about them on their website, but basically they champion local, independent food purveyors with an emphasis on traditional dishes rather than ultra-modern gastronomy – you won’t find too many ‘foams’ or liquid nitrogen on their pages! I got involved with Chowzter earlier this year and have put together my own set of recommendations for Rio.
Tomorrow night I’ll meet up with the other Chowzter people in Lima for the Latin American Food Awards!
The 2013 Chowzter Latin American Awards. Go Rio!
Mostly this will be a great opportunity to meet fellow gluttons and discuss the relative merits of farofa, arepas and tacos (or later in the evening, perhaps we’ll put forward our arguments for the supremacy of cachaça, pisco and tequila!).
But as well as it being a social occasion, there will also be awards for various food categories such as casseroles, seafood, bollos/bolinhos, empanadas – I’ve made some nominations for Rio and we’ll find out tomorrow night how they fare.
Mistura 2013
As luck would have it, Lima is also hosting another event this weekend – Mistura 2013. Mistura is Latin America’s foremost gastronomic festival with many of the world’s most famous chefs, food producers and journalists meeting for a huge culinary extravaganza. There should be all kinds of awesome demonstrations and events as well as a lot of tasting sessions!
How can I put my excitement into words? This is going to be great!
I’m really sorry you can’t all come with me, but rest assured, this experience won’t be wasted – I am going to enjoy this enough for all of us! As well as making some new friends and eating a lot of food, I’ll also be singing the praises of Brazilian food (and taking lots of photos of course).
This looks rather like a Pirarucu – an enormous fish found only in the Amazon that can reach weights of up to 200kg (440lb)!
I will arrive back in Rio on Monday, so expect to hear all about it next week. Have a great weekend!
Congrats on the invite and consequent trip and event (interesting what a blog can do to one’s life isn’t it?).
Btw should we start calling you Chief Chowzer now? :-)
Thanks Gritty – onwards and upwards hopefully! And I’ll try not to forget the ‘little people’ who helped me get to the top… ;) And after the weekend that the Chowzter people just put on, I’d be honoured to be addressed as Chief Chowzter – Eles são sangue bom!