Eat Rio Blog - Page 26 of 106

Carnival Songs: Mulata iê iê iê

14/02/2014/2 Comments/in Art and culture

It feels like the perfect storm: carnival is nearly upon us, my best friend from England arrives in Rio tonight and to top things off, it’s Friday! It’s enough to make you want sing isn’t it? Well don’t hold back – today I’m adding another classic marchinha to my list of favourite carnival tunes (see under the “Carnival” menu item above).

Being the ignorant gringo that I am, I had some trouble finding this song because I knew it only as ‘that passarela song’. It is often listed as “Mulata Bossa Nova”, but officially it is called Mulata iê iê iê (‘iê’ sounds like ‘yeah’).

The song was written by our old friend João Roberto Kelly (remember Cabaleira do Zezé?) and made famous in 1965 by Emilinha Borba (pictured above). Emilinha sounds like she must have been quite a character, having well publicised feuds with rival divas of the time, including an actual physical fight with Linda Batista over the affections of a visiting Orson Welles! Anyway, let’s hear her sing the song shall we?

To fly a pipa…

13/02/2014/0 Comments/in Musings

…takes concentration and practice!

I saw these kids from next door learning to fly their pipa on Sunday. Their grandfather was vaguely supervising but was mostly happy to let them get on with it. I loved the looks of deep concentration on their faces!

[hover over the images to see them in colour]

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Sadly, when you’re just starting out, accidents can happen…

Brazilian Peppers: Biquinho and Ubatuba Cambuci

11/02/2014/14 Comments/in Food and drink

People just love to take things to extremes don’t they? Whether it’s buildings, cars or paella dishes, it seems like there’s always someone who feels the need to make them taller, faster or wider. So when it comes to chilli peppers, I suppose it’s hardly surprising that there is a constant drive to come up with the new ‘Hottest Chilli in the World’ (in case you’re interested, the ‘Trinidad Moruga Scorpion’ was recently beaten into second place by the ‘Carolina Reaper‘).

Now don’t get me wrong, in the right context I’m all in favour of the spicy hit of a good hot habanero, but I certainly don’t sign up to this ‘hotter is better’ attitude which seems to be far more about macho posturing than anything culinary. Instead I’m going to tell you about two of my favourite Brazilian pepper discoveries, both of which sit way down the other end of the Scoville Scale.

Gringo Funk

07/02/2014/7 Comments/in Art and culture

If you spend any amount of time in Rio, you’ll find Baile Funk (AKA Funk Carioca) hard to avoid – you might hear it being played at the beach, on the bus or pumping out of clubs and favelas on the weekends.

I’ve spent a fair amount of listening-time trying to get into this style of music but with a few exceptions I’ve found most of it sits somewhere between ‘underwhelming’ and ‘downright annoying‘. To me, Baile Funk sounds about as unfunky as you can get.

I’ve watched a couple of documentaries about DJs coming over from Europe and the US and championing Baile Funk (Favela On Blast) and I always wonder if the estrangeiros really understand what the lyrics are all about (common criticisms levelled at funk music is that the lyrics are misogynistic and encourage the sexualisation of young girls).

Well, help is at hand for the confused gringo wannabe funkeiro. A group calling themselves “Medley In Brazil” have been performing translated versions of popular Funk tracks and the results are pretty hilarious. First have a listen to the original as Avassaladores (Overwhelmers?) sing this self-effacing song of modesty and meekness, Sou Foda:

São Paulo – it grows on you

06/02/2014/12 Comments/in Musings

Last weekend Mrs Eat Rio and I went to São Paulo for some quality time away, just the two of us – no friends, no family, no chores or computers. This was my sixth or seventh visit to Brazil’s largest city and I loved it! In fact each time I visit São Paulo I like it more than the last.

São Paulo doesn’t immediately hit you as being a beautiful (or even a particularly nice) place to be. On my first couple of visits the weather was misty, cold and grey, the buildings were mostly nondescript and covered in pixação and the people seemed to lack the easy-going, friendly outlook I had grown used to in Rio. Read more