Tasty Little Thighs

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Title got your attention didn’t it? Well sorry to disappoint, but the thighs I’m referring to belong to chickens. The word Coxinha [co-SHEEN-ya] means little thigh and this is the name of one of Brazil’s tastiest and most popular snacks.

The Portuguese word for snack, lanche [lansh], originated from the English ‘lunch’ but at some point lost the original meaning and came to mean any quick bite.  Dotted all over the city are lanchonetes [lan-shon-ETCHES] or snack bars and these are great places to grab something quick, tasty and satisfying.

The much-loved coxinha, found in almost every lanchonete in Rio.

 

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Farofa – Tasty Sawdust

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When I was young I used to look at the map of the world and want to grab South America in my left hand, Africa in my right,  and push them back together. It would be satisfying wouldn’t it? One of the legacies of the slave trade is that the people who now live so far apart – in the hollow of West Africa and the pointy nose of Brazil – have many cultural similarities: religion, music and, you guessed it, food.

 

Pangea – continental snuggling

 

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Pão de Queijo – cheesy goodness

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When I visit a new country, one of the first things I do is get involved with the local foods. Regretfully not in a particularly methodical or scientific way, but by taking a more haphazard approach. I go to the places that look ‘local’, ask the taxi drivers about their favourite food, look for anything that looks interesting on street stalls and markets and generally just eat!
Some of my favourite Latin American foods: Arepas from Colombia…

…Tacos from Mexico…

Coming up next on Dog TV – Chicken!

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About three months ago my wife and I moved into the top floor of a lovely house near the top of a steep hill in Santa Teresa, an artsy neighbourhood near downtown Rio. To be honest, it’s a little more than we can afford and walking up the hill is exhausting, but the beautiful view makes up for cutting back on a few luxuries and the achy legs.

A sight for sore legs – the view from our new house, situated where the neighbourhoods of Santa Teresa and Glória meet. You can see Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain) and Guanabara Bay in the background.

 

Santa Teresa (or simply Santa as the locals say) is quite unlike most other Rio neighbourhoods, being a hilltop district with steep, windy roads lined with beautiful old buildings. In English we would describe the streets of Santa as “cobbled”, but here in Brazil they have a far more interesting word for the rough, rectangular stones: paralelepípedos. Try saying those seven syllables after a caipirinha or two!

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Pé Sujo – Dirty Foot

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-Vamos aos bares não só para buscar alegria, mas também para destilar as emoções.

We go to bars not only in search of happiness, but also to distill our emotions. (Meu Pé Sujo blog)

Literally translated, Pé Sujo means “Dirty foot”. This is the term used to describe the many low-end bars that pepper the city. You will find a Pé Sujo on almost every street in Rio. As the name suggests, these bars are not known for their standards of hygiene – if your feet weren’t dirty when you went in, they most likely will be by the time you leave. They say that when the waiter wipes your table with a cloth, it actually makes the table more dirty! But these grubby drinking dens are loved as a quintessentially Brazilian place to drink beer and share gossip. 

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