Eat Rio Blog - Page 23 of 106

Feira das Yabás

28/03/2014/4 Comments/in Food and drink, Things to do

The home of Portela samba school is here in Madureira, Zona Norte.

Carnival in Rio means different things to different people. Some look forward to the blocos which make up the Carnaval de Rua (street carnival), while others just want to get the hell out of town until it’s all over. Then there is another group for whom carnival is all about the Sambódromo and the competition between the samba schools. The people in this latter group often support a particular samba school in a way more commonly associated with football fans.

Personally I can’t pretend that it bothers me much who wins, but in the same way that I’ve picked a football team to nominally support (Botafogo), I’ve also picked a samba school – Portela. And the main reason I picked Portela was that it shares a home with Feira das Yabás.

A delicious drop…

27/03/2014/6 Comments/in Musings

This mysterious white object appeared in the sky last weekend.

How has the weather been for you over the last few months? It seems like I’ve been hearing stories of freak weather from all over the world – floods in Britain, snow in the US and ice storms in Canada. Here in Rio we had the hottest summer in 50 years. From the start of December 2013, right through to the end of February, we had temperatures that rarely seemed to dip below 35°C (95°F) and spent long periods well up above 40°C (104°F).

They say that the British are always talking about the weather, but I tell you what – when things get hot, the Brazilians talk about it a fair bit too! Day after day I would hear people complaining that the temperatures were insuportável (unbearable). I have to confess that I took a certain amount of pleasure in telling anyone who would listen that I positively loved the high temperatures. And after all, I spent the first 30 years of my life complaining about how cold it was, I wasn’t about to start moaning about the heat!

A Skype Ambassador with a ‘passion for food’!

25/03/2014/33 Comments/in Musings

Check it out – it’s me!

Hi everyone! I’ll warn you from the outset, today’s post is mostly about me – I don’t normally go in for the whole ‘Dear Diary’ posts, but some big changes are afoot and I thought I should give you guys a quick update.

News Item number one: yesterday morning the nice people at Skype announced that they have made me their newest Skype Ambassador – tweeting the news to over 3 million followers!

Give a Carnival-style welcome to Skype Food Brand Ambassador, @eatrio_net! http://t.co/D3zcKv073R
— Skype (@Skype) March 24, 2014

How cool is that? Currently there are 8 of us Ambassadors and each of us has a particular speciality. No prizes for guessing my specialisation – food! In fact the Skype Moment Makers page where they made the announcement describes me as having a ‘passion for food’ and while that is 100% true, I also rather like the way it sounds like a very diplomatic way of saying ‘greedy’!

Anyway, leaving my gluttony aside for a moment, what will my collaboration with everyone’s favourite on-line communication tool actually mean?

Curry Clube and Favela Brass

21/03/2014/16 Comments/in Art and culture, Food and drink

A couple of years ago I was introduced to a friend of a friend of a friend in a bar in Rio. When I told her I lived in Santa Teresa and had a food blog, her face changed and she went “Ah! You must be the guy that does the Curry Club thing, right?”. Well, that was confusing! After further chat we established that there was another English guy called Tom who lived in Santa Teresa and he ran something called Curry Clube, a regular get together that involved curry and music.

Well, after I’d got over the fact that I was not the only English bloke called Tom in Santa Teresa, my mind turned to food. In fact it turned to curry! I know many foreigners living in Rio who pine for a decent curry – it really is one of those dishes so packed with flavour that when you get a hankering, nothing else will do. I decided I would have to meet this Tom fellow and go along to his Curry Clube. And do you know what? Approximately 2 years later, I finally made it!

British Bangers in Rio

18/03/2014/11 Comments/in Food and drink

Over the last 6-12 months I’ve come across some individuals living in Rio whose culinary activities have made me feel joyous and inspired. Joyous because they’re bringing something new and delicious to the table in Rio. Inspired because they have confirmed my growing belief that people who make great food and possess an entrepreneurial spirit can be successful here in Rio, without needing to have thousands of dollars to invest.

First there was Sei who set up Ferro e Farinha to introduce Rio to two new concepts – great Neapolitan style pizza and the Food Truck model. F&F is now doing so well that the lines of hungry customers start forming before Sei and his team even arrive!

Then there was Daniel and Luis whose Mexican food project, Fiesta Mexicana Autêntica Comida Caseira, has been drawing people from as far away as Niterói and beyond!

Last weekend I met my newest Rio food hero – Jane: