Eat Rio Blog - Page 30 of 106

MMA and UFC in Brazil

20/12/2013/7 Comments/in Musings

If you think about sport and Brazil, probably the first thing that will come to mind is football. For many people, this country is synonymous with the beautiful game and that’s hardly surprising.

But when I first arrived in Brazil, it was another sport that surprised me. Or perhaps I should call it a ‘sport’. There are quite a few competitive activities that spark arguments over what constitutes sport. Golf is one. Darts, snooker and pool are others. I think it’s fair to say that if you can play your chosen ‘sport’ whilst enjoying a few beers with friends in a bar then it’s more of a game.

Regardless of whether you view it as a sport or not, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and especially the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) are a seriously big deal here in Brazil.

UFC in Brazil – kind of a big deal. In fact the Brazilian Gracie family were involved from the outset, with Rorian being a co-founder and his son Royce being the first ever tournament winner.

A few months after I had settled in Rio, Mrs Eat Rio and I were invited to a meal at a friend’s house. There were 3 couples in total and about half way through the meal, one of the guys checked his watch and announced that it was ‘time’. He turned on the TV and I found myself watching UFC.

Everyone continued their conversations as before, though now the other two guys at the table were glancing up at the TV occasionally and making the odd comment about the fight. Everyone else continued as normal.

Apart from me…

What to do with Graviola

18/12/2013/6 Comments/in Food and drink

One of the things that first excited me about Brazilian food was the huge variety of fruits available here. I would stare with wide eyes at the huge lists of weird and wonderful sounding fruit in the Casas de suco (juice bars).

Hmmm, decisions decisions…

One of the fruits that I loved from my first taste is called Graviola (Annona muricata). It has a bunch of other names such as Soursop and Guanábana, but let’s stick with the name used most commonly here in Brazil. It’s quite an impressive beast – large, green and spiky!

Graviola – spiky, green, delicious!

When you cut one of these fellows open you will find white flesh and fairly large black seeds.

Blitz the flesh in a blender with some water and some sugar if you want, pour the juice through a sieve and you’ve got a a delicious drink!

So, another delicious tropical fruit – end of story, right? Well, not quite!

Photo Post: A glimpse of sunshine

16/12/2013/0 Comments/in Musings

You may have heard that Rio (and several other states in Brazil) was hit hard by rain last week. There was massive flooding which left at least 2 dead and more than 4,000 displaced.

Well I’m happy to report that we had a completely dry (and in fact sunny!) weekend. And this morning I woke early to find that the sun was still shining. In fact the sun looked like it was doing its best to squeeze its way out from under a layer of dark cloud that had shown up over night.

There wasn’t much space, but the sun managed to find a sliver of clear sky.

I’ve lost count of the number of sunrises I’ve watched from my bedroom window. The components are always the same – sun, Sugarloaf, Guanabara Bay, some clouds – after a while you wonder if you’ve seen them all. Then something totally different shows up!

What to do with Bacalhau

13/12/2013/10 Comments/in Food and drink

Brazilians’ Portuguese roots are never more obvious than when they break out the Bacalhau. Suddenly they insist on drinking vinho verde and hold strong opinions on whether the brand of azeite (olive oil) on the table is any good. At least that’s how it works in my Brazilian family!

In simple terms, bacalhau (sounds like “backal-YOW”) is cod that has been salted and dried. Way back in the days of the great Portuguese explorers, this was a vital way to preserve the fish for long journeys. Of course today we have refrigerated storage, but the drying and salting process gives the fish a distinct texture and flavour that is highly prized.

Many bacalhau dealers cut the fish across the middle to accentuate the thickness of the fish.

In Britain we call the fresh fish “cod” and the dried, salted version “salt cod” (though apparently people from the west of England refer to salt cod as “toe rag“!). As far as I can tell there is no distinction in Portuguese – both fresh and salted versions are referred to as bacalhau.

When it comes to the salted version, there are a number of different grades and varieties. The thickest part of the fish (lombo) is most expensive, costing around R$60/kg (US$30) in the supermarket. The thinner cuts from around the fins and tail are cheaper, but still a long way from cheap.

Most of the bacalhau in Brazil comes from Norway.

A British journalist who came on the Eat Rio Food Tour recently, made the point that it’s a pretty crazy situation when one of the world’s most affluent countries (Norway) is selling an endangered (=expensive) fish to a country ranked 77 places below it on the list of countries by GDP per capita.

Pipas

09/12/2013/4 Comments/in Musings

Last Sunday was a funny kind of day – it started off rather dull and hazy, then later on the cloud cleared and it turned into a gorgeous sunny day. This suited me perfectly as I had to work during the morning and the only thing worse than having to work on a Sunday is having to work on a sunny Sunday!

With the work (and clouds) out of the way, I went up onto the roof to enjoy the sunshine. When I got up there I found that I was not the only one enjoying the afternoon sun.