Eat Rio Blog - Page 57 of 106

Rio – are you being served?

21/12/2012/35 Comments/in Musings

One day, a few weeks after I arrived in Rio, Miss Eat Rio (as she was back then) had a headache. There were no pain-killers in the house so I was just about to go to the pharmacy when my future mother-in-law simply picked up the phone. 10 minutes later a guy knocked on the door, delivered the medicine and then got on his bike and rode back to the shop!

“Wow!” I thought. “They delivered a single packet of pain killers? How can that be worth their while? They must charge a hefty delivery fee”. But no – I was told that this was just normal service, no extra charge.

These delivery tricycles are used to deliver all kinds of things in Rio – from ice and drinks to gas canisters and goods from the supermarket.

In the following weeks and months I learned that many other aspects of Carioca life were similarly taken care of. My mother-in-law had an empregada (maid) who did the cooking, cleaning, washing and other household duties. I had mixed feelings over the idea at first, but man did I love having someone else iron my shirts…

Brazilian Brands: Paçoquita

19/12/2012/18 Comments/in Food and drink

Regular readers may be aware that I’m not a big fan of super-sweet things. I do like chocolate (I’m not completely crazy), but the really sweet things like Brigadeiro are a little too much for me.

With that in mind, it may come as a surprise to hear that I rather like today’s Brazilian brand.

Paçoquita

Name: Paçoquita (‘passo-KEE-ta’)

Product: Paçoca (‘pa-SOCK-a’).

Description: First let me explain that Paçoca is the generic name for a super-sweet, crumbly sweet made from ground peanuts, sugar and salt (and sometimes that Brazilian favourite, sweetened condensed milk). Paçoquita is surely the best known brand of paçoca. The website is slightly vague about when the Paçoquita brand was established, but it looks to have been someone in the 1980s. Today they are commonly found in a small basket or bowl next to the cash register in Kilo restaurants, gas stations and Casas de Sucos (juice bars). The bright yellow, matchbox sized brick has striking red lettering with a chirpy looking peanut man on the side.

The Rio Color Run

17/12/2012/6 Comments/in Musings

Because of my activities yesterday, I needed to spend an extra 10 minutes scrubbing my chiselled body in the shower this morning. No, I didn’t enter the Rio Erotic Mud Wrestling Competition (after last time I promised myself never again!). Instead I entered the Rio Color Run!

The idea is pretty simple: a 5km run/race during which competitors dressed in white are pelted with paint. Sounds like fun right? The race started at 8am in Glória and as Mrs Eat Rio and I arrived, we realised that a lot of other people also liked the sound running around and getting covered in colour.

We hadn’t even started and already I was leaning on Mrs Eat Rio for support.

Brazilian Brands: Aviação

14/12/2012/11 Comments/in Food and drink

How do you feel about brands? Whether it’s food, clothes, electronics or detergents, they’re all around us whether we like it or not. Some of us willingly embrace a brand, while others feel that brands are simply a cunning marketing ploy to fool us into paying more than the fair price.

I have to admit that I find some aspects of branding really interesting. I like the design elements of the packaging and find it interesting how these are involved in the way we (at least some of us) develop an affection for certain brands. Of course a lot of this brand indoctrination starts at a very early age so that by the time we’re old enough to be buying our own tomato ketchup we don’t even stop to think about why we always pick Heinz.

An interesting aspect of transplanting yourself into a new country is that you come to the market cold. Many of the brands from home are unavailable and so you find yourself adopting new favourites.

Cow Hand Soup

12/12/2012/16 Comments/in Food and drink

Last Saturday some friends and I went to a kind of fundraiser for one of Rio’s top Samba Schools, Portela. It was pretty cool actually, there were a bunch of different bands playing up on a stage, there were plates piled high with feijoada and there were ice buckets full of beer. Oh yes, and there was some serious heat!

A day of samba, cerveja, feijoada and fun!

With the temperatures up around 40°C (104°F), the ice cold beers slipped down very easily (along with a cheeky caipirinha or two). Eventually the sun sank, our boozy afternoon became evening, and I started to experience that special kind of hunger that comes after drinking a little too much.

Luckily for me, Mrs Eat Rio’s appetite tends to be well aligned with mine, so we decided to leave the stage area and go in search of sustenance. We wandered past stalls selling beers and caipirinhas and then we saw the sign.