A Misto Quente Moment
The longer I eke out a living on the fringes of the food world, the more I realise that I’m often most enchanted by the simple things. Sure, the idea of a 12 course tasting menu (with wine pairings – yay!) is really exciting, and the reality can be pretty fantastic, but I started to notice some time ago that I generally get more units of pleasure out of something uncomplicated, like bread, butter and cheese, or a perfectly ripe and juicy pear, or a gooey, chewy, crunchy-topped piece of pork belly. This morning I enjoyed a little nirvana moment with the help of a Misto Quente.
The misto quente – so bad it’s somehow good.
The anatomy of the misto quente is simple – cheap, crappy bread (toasted); cheap, crappy ham; cheap, crappy cheese (lots!). Assemble sandwich and grill until the cheese achieves oozy consistency and starts attempting to escape the sandwich. That’s it. You’ll find this minimalist snack in pretty much every bakery and juice bar in Rio and sometimes it’s just what you feel like for a quick breakfast or snack without a lot of fuss.
I had the sandwich you see in these photos this morning, sat at the counter of a simple juice bar as I killed time waiting for a beer supply store to open [more on this soon]. I’m not sure if it was the lovely sunshine, coupled with a perfect light breeze, or the fact that the woman who was sitting a few chairs up from me was clearly suffering from a horrible hangover which made my lack of hangover feel fantastic; perhaps it was the cheery smile from the waitress when I ordered a second misto quente (sue me!), or maybe I just had that Friday feeling… In any case, even the really terrible coffee tasted good today.
The beer store was supposed to open at 10am so, knowing how Carioca punctuality works, I waited until 10.30am before paying up at the juice bar and wandering over. Of course it was still profoundly closed – security grating locked in place and not a sign of life anywhere. But I was still glowing from my own little ‘nirvana’ moment and this minor inconvenience wasn’t going to bother me – I’ll visit the beer supply store another day. I took the bus home…
Yes toasted cheese is just one of the best things- can even manage without the ham!
So true – the melty cheese is the key element really isn’t it? Some people even do without the bread!
You could have chatted up hangover chick by asking her where to find an open beer supply store (that is what Bukowski would’ve done… after vomiting in the banheiro; his characters always seem to be puking).
Ha ha! Yes, Bukowski even gives advice on the best strategy for puking in this rather awesome interview: Bim bim bim!
I have never managed to replicate the perfection of these things, i think it is the way they melt the cheese on the griddle before putting it in the sandwich that gets me
Hey Richard! How’s life stateside? My mum always used to say that food tastes better when someone else makes it (I think she was trying to encourage me and my sister to cook for her more!) ;) But maybe that is part of the joy of misto quentes too?
On that same subject, I LOVE oysters and once bought a crate of 30 for a very reasonable price in the south of France. After the boring/time-consuming/tiring task of inexpertly shucking all 30 myself, I found the experience of eating them had been marred :-/ Turns out I love oysters only when someone else does all the hard work for me! :)