The Brazilian Hangover Cure

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Imagine a 100% reliable hangover cure that was only available until 1pm (and you’d have to venture right out into the world to get it – it can’t be kept in your bedside drawer). That would lead to some tricky mental balancing acts on Sunday morning wouldn’t it? 


“My head is in a world of pain and I would love to fix it up, BUT that would require me to get out of bed, get dressed and make my way to the market…” – tricky right?


When I am up early enough to catch the Sunday market in Gloria (it starts closing down around midday), the busiest stall by far is the one that sells Pastel (a light, crispy deep-fried pastry filled with cheese, meat, or various other fillings) and Caldo de Cana (sugarcane juice). 

 

Those golden pastry pockets have various fillings. Most popular are cheese (pastel de queijo) and minced meat (pastel de carne). This is the first part of the cure.

Pasteis (the plural of Pastel) are one of the great Brazilian lanches (snacks), ranking up alongside Pão de queijo and Coxinha. You can buy the pastry ready-made and conveniently cut to shape in every supermarket here and I find that serving a few pasteis makes me very popular when we have guests. If you’re interested in making them for yourself and don’t live in Brazil then you should check out the excellent Flavors of Brazil blog which has a recipe for the pastry.


So, you’ve got your pastel – crispy, a little greasy with oozing melty cheese inside (the cheese ones are my favourite). This all sounds good for combating hangover symptoms. But on its own this will not be enough. You need a drink. A fresh, sweet drink. 

Step 1: Get a truck full of sugar cane
Step 2: Pass sugar cane through industrial sugarcane mangle machine. Catch juice in jug.
Step 3: Take mangled sugarcane stems, twist them together, then pass them through a second time.
Step 4: Discard sugarcane pulp

Follow these steps and you will get this, a golden-green cup of magic:

Golden-Green Elixir – this will fix you up
Ice cold cups of caldo de cana are pretty much mandatory alongside your pastel. A sip of this sweet juice, followed by a bite of cheesy pastry, followed by more juice and before long you’ll be making plans for a trip to the beach, perhaps a few beers and later on maybe a churrasco!

THAT is not lunch!

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I remember a guy from New Zealand once telling me about a rather disconcerting experience he had whilst living in Japan. He was walking down the street, munching on a sandwich, when he started to get an uncomfortable feeling, almost like he was being watched. Whenever he looked up at the people passing in the opposite direction, they would avert their eyes, but he continued to get an uneasy feeling that he was doing something wrong. Was that a hint of disgust he detected in their eyes? 


Turns out it was. I’ve never been to Japan (so correct me if this is way off), but the Kiwi in question told me that he later discovered that to the Japanese, the idea of someone eating as they walk down the street is really disgusting. 

Eating on public transport – surely a step too far for most people?

 

Well I have started to feel something not dissimilar here in Rio. I’m not talking so much about eating as you walk down the street, but my issue is still lunch related.

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How Brazilians Barbecue

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A few weeks ago I celebrated my second birthday in Brazil. If that grammatically lackadaisical statement leaves you in any doubt, I’m not 2 years old – I’ve had thirty-five birthdays in total, the last two of which were spent in Brazil. The first was spent drinking massively over-priced (but oooh so good) European beers in Ipanema; the second was spent having a churrasco [shu-HASH-co] (barbecue) with friends on what they refer to as our laje.

Churrasco na laje – precarious but fun! Note, this is someone else’s laje! Ours has a better health and safety rating… (Image: Edmir Silvestre)

 

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Anaesthetic Soup – Tacacá

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As part of a project to review the best restaurants in Rio, I have been eating a lot of food from the North of Brazil recently (when I say ‘the North’, I am essentially referring to the states of Amazonas and Pará).  

Amazonas and Pará are the two largest states in Brazil, covering 2.8 million square kilometres (if this area was a country it would be the 8th largest in the world).

 

Although these states comprise 32% of Brazil’s total area, they contain just 5.6% of the population, being largely covered by the Amazon rainforest. By virtue of it’s size and inaccessibility, this huge tract of rainforest still holds an air of mystery – it is home to 67 uncontacted tribes, as well as countless animal and plant species that have not yet been discovered/described by science.

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How to eat like a Brazilian

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When I arrived in Rio, the plan was to stay a couple of weeks with my girlfriend in her mother’s house, after which I would make alternative arrangements. I am a little ashamed to say that the ‘couple of weeks’ turned into 8 months – a testament to the generous, welcoming nature of the lady who became minha sogra (my mother-in-law).

Although I don’t remember exactly what we ate on that first evening, one memory from the meal does remain. As everyone else was milling around in the kitchen, I approached the table and happened to notice that someone had put the knives and forks round the wrong way – knife on the left, fork on the right!

Well, being a polite young (ahem) man, I didn’t want my hosts to feel embarrassed when they discovered this mistake, so I quickly switched the cutlery around to their proper positions and then popped into the kitchen to help bring the food to the table.

As we sat down to eat, I saw that my girlfriend, her brother and mother all switched their cutlery back to their original positions! Thus I discovered that most Brazilians eat with their fork in the right hand and the knife in the left. I say most because it isn’t all of them – a quick glance round at lunch today showed that 8 out of my 10 work mates eat this way.

Cutting it the Brazilian way.

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