Eat Rio Blog - Page 41 of 106

ParTOBA and the Brazilian sense of humour

05/07/2013/20 Comments/in Art and culture

Humour is a strange, intangible thing isn’t it? We often just laugh at something without really thinking about why we find it funny. Of course comedy is massively subjective even among people who grew up in the same town, but how does it transfer across cultures? I’ll start with a short tale from my childhood.

When I was 9, I went to France for 10 days as part of a school exchange programme. We were paired off with French kids from a school in Versailles and spent the days all mixed together in the classroom or on sight-seeing trips. At the end of each day we would go off to the family homes of our respective French kids. I remember feeling a bit nervous and homesick, but it was also really interesting to see how French families lived, what they ate, what they did with their spare time and so on.

Looking back, I now realise that my French family were seriously rich – ‘old money’ rich. On the weekend when all the other kids went together on a trip to a local fun fair, I went with my French family to their château in the French countryside. Seriously, it was a proper château! The main building was encircled by a moat and beyond that there were countless acres of forest which the family had been using to hunt deer and wild boar for generations.

This isn’t the exact place, but it looked just like this. How lucky was I? source

My French friend and I spent quite a lot of time running around the grounds, fishing in the moat and doing other things that 9 year olds enjoy. Then, in the evening, I remember the whole family gathered around the television to watch something. I wondered what family treat I was about to enjoy – would it be something my family and I enjoyed like The Muppet Show (or some French equivalent)?

No, I discovered with dread that we had gathered together to watch a 2 hour special of these two:

Cuia de Pajé – Brazilian Viagra

03/07/2013/9 Comments/in Food and drink

If I were to say that today’s post is about a Brazilian cocktail, I imagine that the first drink on most people’s minds would be the caipirinha. But having just looked back through the Eat Rio archives, I realise I’ve already said rather a lot about Brazil’s most famous cocktail, with posts ranging from how to make one and 5 things you should know about them, to what I consider to be The Ultimate Caipirinha.

So today I’m going to tell you about a very different cocktail that may give you a little more than you bargained for! I first discovered this drink at a nice restaurant in Santa Teresa called Espírito Santa [no longer with us]. The cocktail is called Cuia de Pajé (sounds like “KWEE-ya de paz-EH”) and it’s pretty spectacular!

Order this drink and then watch the jealous glances from the other tables!

OK, first things first – that’s a pretty unusual drinking vessel isn’t it? The drink is served in a Cuia, a traditional indigenous drinking gourd which is decorated with a rather fetching pattern. OK, the next question has to be about that golden powder floating on the surface – what’s that all about?

Brazilian Bolinhos

28/06/2013/22 Comments/in Food and drink

It would be unfair to say that Brazilian food is unsophisticated – if you live in one of Brazil’s larger cities, you can certainly find food sophisticated enough to stand toe-to-toe with any European or North American über-restaurant (by the way if you happen to be a sugardaddy/sugarmummy and feel like treating me, my wish list starts with ORO in Rio and D.O.M. in São Paulo – arrival by helicopter is preferred but not a deal-breaker).

So yes, fancy Brazilian food does exist, but typical Brazilian food tends to be relatively simple (though no less delicious for its simplicity). Many of my favourite Brazilian dishes are sold in bars as petiscos and this group can be further subdivided into categories, one if which I will look at today: Bolinhos.

Let’s start off with one of the all time classics:

Bolinhos de Bacalhau

A classic bolinho which originated back in Portugal. When bolinhos de bacalhau are good, they are sublime. Soft, fluffy potato mixed with rich, salty cod, deep fried to produce a crisp, golden shell. Enjoy with some hot chilli sauce and an ice cold beer. My two favourite bars for bolinhos de bacalhau are Nova Capela (Lapa) and Pavão Azul (Copacabana).

The bolinhos de bacalhau of Nova Capela are the best I’ve had.

Something truly terrifying!

26/06/2013/4 Comments/in Food and drink

Let me set the scene. It had been a long day. I started at 7.30am with a conference call from home and after getting to the office in Barra, I worked through until around 9pm at which point I was spared the bus ride home by a colleague who gave me a lift to Botafogo in Zona Sul. From there I took the Metro to Glória and then walked up a very steep hill to arrive home at around 10:15pm.

The twin forces of fatigue and hunger were fighting it out inside me, so I opted for a quick bite to eat and then collapsed on the sofa with a glass of wine and made myself comfortable next to Mrs Eat Rio who was watching something on TV. The first glass of wine went down very nicely, so I helped myself to another. Having finished the second glass, I found myself getting drowsy…

I woke up to find that Mrs Eat Rio had also dozed off. Then I looked up and saw this playing on the TV:

Truly terrifying isn’t it? Just to be clear, I only saw that first advert in the compilation (and without the comments that have been added between clips). I was still quite drowsy and wondered if Mrs Eat Rio had slipped something hallucinogenic into my wine. Read more

All about me!

25/06/2013/11 Comments/in Musings

There’s an implicit conceit in writing a blog isn’t there? It’s that you judge what you have to say to be worthy of people’s attention. It’s the equivalent of walking into a room and shouting “Listen up everyone! I’ve got something to say and I think you’re going to like it!”. I’m sure we bloggers also have some higher motives, but if we’re honest, I think there’s an element of ‘vanity project’ in every blog.

This makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, but with a subject as interesting as Rio, I feel happy enough to simply describe what I see and speculate on why things are the way they are. Then I can sit back and read what everyone else thinks in the comments. For those that don’t enjoy what I have to say, at least there are some pretty pictures!

The Eat Rio Facebook page just passed 500 likes!

People have all kinds of different ideas about what should go into a blog. Some people use their blogs as a kind of journal through which they invite you into their personal lives, others go for a more cold, fact based approach.