Food and drink Archives - Page 18 of 39

A day at the beach, farofeiro style!

10/07/2013/4 Comments/in Food and drink

For me, spending a sunny day on the beach is one of the great pleasures of life in Rio. I’m not one of those people who wants to spend their holidays slavishly tanning from 10 in the morning until the sun goes down, but a day at the beach in Rio can be whatever you want it to be. Some people go to exercise (jogging, volleyball, futevôlei, etc), others go to socialise, relax and watch the world go by (I fall into this second category).

The end of a long, relaxing day on Ipanema beach.

I’ve always thought that a day out at the beach is pretty good value for money. If you want to hire a chair and/or umbrella for the day it will cost you just R$5 ($2.50) per item. Snacks, beers and other cold drinks will also cost around the R$5 mark, meaning that two people can enjoy a full day on the beach for R$50 ($25). Not a bad when you compare it to the cost of restaurants, taxis and the like.

But what if you earn minimum wage (R$678/month) or you’re trying to save money?

Cuia de Pajé – Brazilian Viagra

03/07/2013/9 Comments/in Food and drink

If I were to say that today’s post is about a Brazilian cocktail, I imagine that the first drink on most people’s minds would be the caipirinha. But having just looked back through the Eat Rio archives, I realise I’ve already said rather a lot about Brazil’s most famous cocktail, with posts ranging from how to make one and 5 things you should know about them, to what I consider to be The Ultimate Caipirinha.

So today I’m going to tell you about a very different cocktail that may give you a little more than you bargained for! I first discovered this drink at a nice restaurant in Santa Teresa called Espírito Santa [no longer with us]. The cocktail is called Cuia de Pajé (sounds like “KWEE-ya de paz-EH”) and it’s pretty spectacular!

Order this drink and then watch the jealous glances from the other tables!

OK, first things first – that’s a pretty unusual drinking vessel isn’t it? The drink is served in a Cuia, a traditional indigenous drinking gourd which is decorated with a rather fetching pattern. OK, the next question has to be about that golden powder floating on the surface – what’s that all about?

Brazilian Bolinhos

28/06/2013/22 Comments/in Food and drink

It would be unfair to say that Brazilian food is unsophisticated – if you live in one of Brazil’s larger cities, you can certainly find food sophisticated enough to stand toe-to-toe with any European or North American über-restaurant (by the way if you happen to be a sugardaddy/sugarmummy and feel like treating me, my wish list starts with ORO in Rio and D.O.M. in São Paulo – arrival by helicopter is preferred but not a deal-breaker).

So yes, fancy Brazilian food does exist, but typical Brazilian food tends to be relatively simple (though no less delicious for its simplicity). Many of my favourite Brazilian dishes are sold in bars as petiscos and this group can be further subdivided into categories, one if which I will look at today: Bolinhos.

Let’s start off with one of the all time classics:

Bolinhos de Bacalhau

A classic bolinho which originated back in Portugal. When bolinhos de bacalhau are good, they are sublime. Soft, fluffy potato mixed with rich, salty cod, deep fried to produce a crisp, golden shell. Enjoy with some hot chilli sauce and an ice cold beer. My two favourite bars for bolinhos de bacalhau are Nova Capela (Lapa) and Pavão Azul (Copacabana).

The bolinhos de bacalhau of Nova Capela are the best I’ve had.

Something truly terrifying!

26/06/2013/4 Comments/in Food and drink

Let me set the scene. It had been a long day. I started at 7.30am with a conference call from home and after getting to the office in Barra, I worked through until around 9pm at which point I was spared the bus ride home by a colleague who gave me a lift to Botafogo in Zona Sul. From there I took the Metro to Glória and then walked up a very steep hill to arrive home at around 10:15pm.

The twin forces of fatigue and hunger were fighting it out inside me, so I opted for a quick bite to eat and then collapsed on the sofa with a glass of wine and made myself comfortable next to Mrs Eat Rio who was watching something on TV. The first glass of wine went down very nicely, so I helped myself to another. Having finished the second glass, I found myself getting drowsy…

I woke up to find that Mrs Eat Rio had also dozed off. Then I looked up and saw this playing on the TV:

Truly terrifying isn’t it? Just to be clear, I only saw that first advert in the compilation (and without the comments that have been added between clips). I was still quite drowsy and wondered if Mrs Eat Rio had slipped something hallucinogenic into my wine. Read more

Ovos de Codorna (Quails’ Eggs)

07/06/2013/4 Comments/in Food and drink

Before I get going I just want to acknowledge an uncertainty that I’m sure you English teachers out there can help me with. I feel instinctively that it’s OK to write “quails eggs”, but part me feels that it should have an apostrophe, like this: quails’ eggs. You know, eggs belonging to multiple quails. But then I’m not really talking about possession here, it’s more like “eggs of quails” than “I took the quails’ eggs”. Help me out here people! Anyway, until I hear differently I’m going to go sans apostrophe – let’s move on!

In Portuguese, the word for quail (the bird, not the verb) is Codorna. As I’m sure you all know, these tiny little birds lay tiny little eggs.

Pretty aren’t they?

Archive for category: Food and drink

Bolinhos de Bacalhau