mistura-meat

Representing Rio!

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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!

Chowzter-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!). Read more

farofa

The Joy of Farofa

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One of the nicest things about cross-cultural relationships is that your partner can introduce you to all kinds of interesting new things. Since meeting Mrs Eat Rio I have expanded my knowledge and taste in music, films, books and, of course, food (to name a few). And it has been a two way exchange. Expanding your own horizons is great of course, but isn’t it also kind of thrilling to introduce someone to classics like Withnail and I or Rhubarb crumble and custard?

rhubarb-crumble

Rhubarb crumble with custard.

 

If we’re talking food introductions, custard has probably been the item that Mrs Eat Rio liked best. For my part I would be hard pressed to pick something to beat the everyday joys of farofa.

farofa

A crunchy, fluffy mound of goodness, just waiting to be sprinkled over something saucy.

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jiewa-at-bandung

Your City, Your Passion!

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A couple of weeks ago I made a rather cryptic comment about a secret mission involving Eat Rio, communication and Indonesia. Well today I can finally reveal all!

Some months back, I was approached by someone from the Skype company who asked if I’d be interested in getting involved in a project they were working on. The title of the project was “Your City, Your Passion” and you might not be surprised to hear that I was a little cynical at first. There is a lot of talk about ‘passion’ nowadays: just skim through Twitter and you will find countless people who are “passionate about getting you the best deal on home insurance” or they’ll shout joyfully that “Shower curtain rings are our passion!”.

However, Skype’s proposal was irresistible: spend a day wandering around Rio, showcasing the best and most interesting food the city has to offer. Hmmm, ‘Rio’ and ‘food’ – I am (reluctantly) forced to admit that I am passionate about both of these subjects.

jiewa-at-bandung

This is Jie! As I showed him Rio, he showed me Surabaya.

 

My partner for the day was Jie, a food blogger from the city of Surabaya on the Indonesian island of East Java. Here’s where Skype came in – they arranged for Jie and me to ‘meet up’ for the day over Skype on our mobile phones. Using the wonders of modern mobile technology we chatted, swapped photos and videos and compared the culinary highlights of our cities.

So, how did it go?

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Cheese board

Queijo Minas

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I love cheese. I suppose it’s a weakness of mine (if it weren’t for cheese I’d probably have the body of an Olympic swimmer), but when something tastes so creamy, delicious and interesting, how can it be a bad?

Growing up in England, I was rather spoiled when it came to cheese. Not only were there all those excellent British cheeses (Cheddar, Stilton, Blue Wensleydale, etc), but the great cheeses of France were easily available too.

cheese-board

One of my happiest cheese-memories! This is what happened when I was let loose in a cheese shop in the south of France.

 

What I found during my travels around this continent is that although people ate a lot of queso / queijo (Spanish / Portuguese) in empanadas, sandwiches, joelhos, arepas, etc, the type of cheese was rarely highlighted. It was just generic ‘cheese’. I’m sure more knowledgeable readers can tell me about all the fantastic South American cheeses that I’ve missed out on, but in my experience, cheese was mostly used as a tasty though unsophisticated filling alongside jamon / presunto (ham), rather than eaten for its own sake.

That being said, I’m happy to be able to report that Brazil has several excellent cheeses. My two favourites are both from the state of Minas Gerais.

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sonho-de-valsa

Brazilian Brands: Sonho de Valsa

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Brazilian Brands is back! Today’s item in the spotlight has a somewhat romantic association which reminds me of a British confectionery favourite. Rolos were (and possibly still are) milk chocolate covered caramels that came in a tube-shaped wrapper. The tag line was “Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo?”. I suppose this led romantic 9 year olds to handing over a half melted choccy to the object of their desire (not that I ever gave or received one).

Anyway, on to the Brazilian chocolate for the romantically minded.

 

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Sonho-de-valsa

Sonho de Valsa

Name: Sonho de Valsa

Product: Chocolate bonbon

Description: Sonho de Valsa was released by Lacta in 1938 and they say that the packaging hasn’t changed much in all those years.

As you can see, the chocolate comes in a very distinctive pink wrapper and sports a fairytale couple having a little dance. The dance in question is a valsa (waltz) and apparently the musical notes that you can just make out between the images of the couple are from an actual waltz by Johann Strauss!

Break open the wrapper and you will discover a milk chocolate covered ball. The chocolate is covering a crispy sphere, not unlike a Ferrero Rocher. Bite through the shell and you find a crunchy, buttery cashew nut filling.

 

sonho-de-valsa

Creamy cashew filling surrounded by a crunchy wafter shell and a layer of milk chocolate. Very sweet, very tasty, hits the spot.

 

Verdict: Am I actually turning into a Brazilian? Sonho de valsas are seriously sweet but I like them! I like the crunch from the crispy wafer shell and I like the creamy, crunchy cashew filling.

Apparently these sweets were originally designed to appeal to women (hence the mushy name) and they are now a classic gift “for your loved one”. It seems like it must have worked because Lacta’s rivals, Garoto, brought out the virtually indistinguishable Seranata de Amor (Seranade of love) in 1949.

As romantic gestures go it’s not quite up there with a dozen roses, but hey, it tastes good so stop complaining! I’ll leave you with more sappy mush highlighting Sonho de Valsa’s marketing ploy.

 

Awww, it’s enough to bring a tear to your eye isn’t it? It isn’t?! Oh you heartless people!