Photo Post: Altinho na Praia
We did a day trip to Mercado São Pedro in Niterói this weekend. It’s a fish market that I had heard about and I have to say I was pretty excited about going. I heard that you can buy your seafood on the ground floor, then take it upstairs to the restaurants where they’ll cook it.
Well I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t that impressed with the market – the prices were high and the produce was pretty standard. As for the restaurants upstairs, they seemed to have one basic treatment for all seafood – dust in flour and then deep-fry until dry and crispy.
Although the food was disappointing, we did discover a memorable cocktail of cachaça, honey and several sticks of cinnamon (not for the faint of heart!). Once we got back to Rio (still a bit wobbly from those cocktails!) we had a nice walk along Ipanema beach as the sun sank below the waves. Here are my top 2 snaps of the day.
Guanabara Bay is a very busy waterway and has good views of the bridge.
Back in Ipanema, a nice game of Altinho as the sun sinks…
Am I being unfair on the fish market? I’d love to hear if your experience differed from mine. Maybe we chose the wrong restaurant.
Wow – that cachaça mix sounds both delicious, rather bracing and the perfect remedy for those awful flu-like symptoms generally accompanying a hangover. Good find, Tom. I could be tempted to mix it with some of those home-made gingery concoctions found behind the bar..
Thanks Jonathan – it’s a feisty drink all right and certainly put a spring in everyone’s step as we made our way back to Rio :) But adding in some extra gingery concoction? That sounds pretty hardcore! :D
“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.”
Henry David Thoreau
Cachaça being quiet so to find honey and cinnamon to be ready :-)
First ever Cocktail Quote on the blog Gritty – ground-breaking! :p
Only now did I follow the Altinho caption link referring to the game of futvolei and Altinha and subsequently noticed your attempt at top punning.
Y-Orchid-ding-me!
Wait wait – I would dearly love to take credit for a pun (whether it’s good or great!), but I’m not sure I actually attempted one…
So what you are saying is that Altinho/Altinha conjugating being tipsy due to the cinammon cachaça with witnessing the game being played at the beach was not a premeditated pun on your part. Humm, a marmitementira if I´ve ever heard one :-)
That second picture is amazing! You have a great eye for photography.
Thanks Andrew! You might not agree if you saw all the rejects though ;)
Wow, Tom. Sorry to hear you had a disappointing experience at the fish market. Perhaps there are just a bunch of good places to buy great seafood in Rio so the market does not shine in comparison. For us Niteroienses there is no better location for quality and variety. Sure I can buy a few fish or an octopus straight from the sea while at Itaipú or Piratininga beaches, but no other storefront comes close.
I know what you mean about the deep frying thing. That’s what drives me crazy about food in general in the Rio area. But trust me, look over the menu upstairs and you will find fish stews cooked in clear or coconut milk sauces served in huge clay pots with pirão, rice and salad. Very nice. And reasonably priced.
As for getting your fresh choice purchased downstairs cooked to order upstairs – this happens, for sure. When I enjoyed this treat I was a relative newcomer to Niterói and did not speak enough Portuguese to participate in the ordering. It seemed to me that you simply need to engage a jovial waitress or chef in a conversation about what you want and see if they can do it for you. As you know, bursting through the sometimes gruff or inattentive table service membrane with a smile to open up a new friendship with the wait staff and kitchen goes a long way.
I guess as a resident of Rio you have to manage your expectations when “crossing the bridge.” It reminds me of my many years in San Francisco and being coaxed into Oakland for a night out. It was always fun… just not SF.
Aw, sorry Jim! Look at me coming over and dissing Niterói! I guess I was a bit harsh on the market and that was a mix of very high expectations (because I had been looking forward to going for months and months) and also frustration with the “fry it til it’s crispy” technique so popular in the places upstairs (at least the ones that I saw). But in fairness, I’m not aware of a better fish market in Rio.
And to give it its fair due, all the fish I saw looked really fresh and we had some excellent (fresh!) oysters. Sometimes I just want a place that will cook a nice piece of fish gently, with a little garlic, some herbs and a dash of white wine, finished off with squeeze of lime. I love moqueca and the other fish stews, but sometimes I long for a more subtle treatment that allows the flavour of the fish to shine through.
My next stop in Niterói will be Itacoatiara – I hear very good things! :)
You can have all the expectations you want for Itacuatiara beach and you will STILL be impressed. It is beautiful. But it is a no-services kind of place. Just a few kiosks back off the beach on the frontage road. That’s part of what keeps it nice, however. It is the “see and be seen” beach for the young cute surfer crowd. Not much of a foodie destination, however. But you could check out the new Brew Pub in Itaipú that you will pass on your way to Itacuatiara. Check it out here. http://www.cervejarianoi.com.br/
This sounds great Jim! I also heard about the Noi brewery which I think does tours and tastings – might be nice :)
I think you are right because the market used to be way better than it is now, but is still nice. Two tips are: get there early in the morning so you can find better fishes and lower prices; do what Jim said and try to talk to the waiters, they often prepare what you ask.
I was born, raised and still live there in Niterói. It is an amazing city. You should give another chance to it and go not just to Itacoatiara, but to Parque da Cidade (wonderful view of all the Bay), Fortaleza de Santa Cruz, the restaurants in São Francisco in the sunset and, of course, the museum of contemporary art (looks like an UFO).
Hope u enjoy!
Thanks Luana – these are exactly the kind of tips I need! :) I have only visited Niterói a handful of times but would love to get to know it better and I certainly haven’t decided it’s a ‘bad place’. I look forward to making new discoveries soon!