Eat Rio Blog - Page 46 of 106

Brazilian Brands: Diamante Negro

26/04/2013/0 Comments/in Food and drink

What is it about chocolate that inspires such adoration? I’m sure you’ve all seen those articles in which “scientists say” all kinds of things about chocolate (it releases endorphins, is good for your heart, etc). But on top of all that science stuff, I think many of us are more than a little sentimental about chocolate aren’t we? I for one could talk for hours about the various chocolate bars and confectionery of my youth (don’t get me started on the infamous case of the shrinking Curly Wurly).

You can gauge the amount of love there is for a product by the intensity of longing that exists among expats who can’t get hold of it anymore (personally I obsess over Marmite, HP Sauce and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk). I wonder how many Brazilians living abroad have saudade for today’s Brazilian Brand.

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Diamante Negro

Name: Diamante Negro.

Product: Chocolate.

Description: This chocolate bar goes back a long way and (surprise surprise, this being Brazil!) it has a football connection. In 1938, the World Cup was being held in France. Germany had just invaded Austria (the Anschluss even extended to the football teams, leaving the tournament one team short!), but for French journalist Raymondo Thourmagem, the story of the tournament was a Brazilian player, Leônidas da Silva. Thourmagem was so impressed with Leônidas that he dubbed him the Diamante Negro (Black Diamond) and the name stuck.

Lacta, a Brazilian chocolate manufacturer, opportunistically decided to rename their chocolate bar after the great player and again, the name stuck. They came up with a rather nice slogan too: “Viver é bom, com Diamante Negro é melhor” (To live is good, with Black Diamond it’s better).

Igreja da Penha

23/04/2013/8 Comments/in Things to do

At the start of one of my first trips out of Rio, we were driving through the North Zone of the city when we passed a rather amazing sight. Luckily for me (kind of) we simultaneously hit a traffic jam, so there was plenty of time to get a photograph.

Crepuscular rays shining down on the twin steeples of Igreja da Penha.

What a striking sight: a church with 2 steeples, perched on top of a huge rock, seemingly surrounded by favelas. My curiosity was well and truly piqued.

Time passed, other things came up, and Igreja da Penha remained one of those places I kept meaning to visit. Until recently!

Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Goodnight!

19/04/2013/17 Comments/in Language

Good morning everyone! Hmm, a time-of-day specific salutation like ‘good morning’ doesn’t make much sense on a blog page that can be read in any time-zone and at any time of day after it’s been published does it? Here in Brazil, time-of-day-specific salutations come in 3 flavours:

Bom dia (sounds like ‘bown JEE-ya’) – Good morning
Boa tarde (sounds like ‘boa TAHR-je’) – Good afternoon
Boa noite (sounds like ‘boa NOY-tche’) – Good night

And already I’ve run into trouble. “Bom dia” literally means ‘good day’, but it is used in the way that English speakers say ‘good morning’ (i.e. not used after midday). Also, I’ve translated “boa noite” as ‘good night’, but it is also used in the way that English speakers would say ‘good evening’. Everyone still with me?

Back in England I know instinctively when to switch from ‘good afternoon’ to ‘good evening’ – around 5.30pm – but here in Brazil, I am far less sure about when to make the switch from ‘Boa tarde’ to ‘Boa noite’.

For some reason it always seems to be taxi drivers who correct me when I get it wrong (and they appear to take great pleasure in doing so I might add!). However, seeing as several taxi drivers have wished me ‘bom dia’ at just a few minutes past midnight, I’m not sure I’m going to take too many lessons from them!

The Carioca taxi driver. The caption that goes with this image says “he drives with his elbow out the window, pretends the air conditioning has broken down [TL: they always do this!] and definitely doesn’t believe that a straight line is the shortest path between two points!”. See the original post (in Portuguese) here it’s pretty funny!

Salve Jorge!

16/04/2013/14 Comments/in Art and culture

It’s been a while since our last music post, so I thought that today we could start with something topical from the legendary Caetano Veloso (bonus points if you can work out why it’s topical).

Caetano is a huge name in Brazilian music and deserves a post (at least one!) all to himself.

My first Portuguese teacher played that song to me during one of my first lessons. It’s a nice song for someone learning Portuguese as Caetano sings very clearly and the lyrics include some great words such as the rather magnificent sounding deslumbrante (gorgeous/glamorous/stunning).

So, apart from it just being a great song, did any of you work out why I picked that particular track? It’s because in exactly a week it will be St George’s Day, or as they say here in Brazil, Dia de São Jorge.

Back in England there has been a campaign simmering away for years in the (mostly right wing) press to make the day of St George (England’s patron saint) a public holiday. Well, what The Daily Mail, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and a host of far right organisations haven’t been able to achieve in England, has been a reality here in Rio for years – 23rd April is a public holiday.

“Take that ya dragon!”. George absolutely hated dragons and did his bit to ensure that dragon populations were kept under control in 3rd century Turkey.

It’s not just the English and Cariocas who have love for St George. He is also the patron saint of Georgia, Portugal, Malta, Beirut, Preston, the Boy Scouts of America and people suffering from skin diseases and syphilis!

Photo Post: Crazy flowers

13/04/2013/7 Comments/in Musings

I spotted these crazy flowers when we were in Petrópolis a few weeks ago. To be honest with you I have no idea what they’re called, whether they are indigenous to Brazil or anything else. The flower starts off as a simple, lantern-like pink capsule, but later on this opens up to reveal sections 2 and 3.

I’ve put these second and third sections in expanding panels below so you don’t see all the images at once – just click the panel text to open it up.

Here is the first capsule:

Looks like a fairly simple little thing doesn’t it? A bit like a chinese lantern crossed with a cherry (or something).