Eat Rio Blog - Page 58 of 106

How to order food in Brazil

06/12/2012/10 Comments/in Food and drink

The first time some friends from back home came out to visit me here in Rio, I was more than a little excited. It had been 18 months since I’d seen them and after such a long time, where better to have a reunion than Rio de Janeiro? On their first night in town, we had a few drinks in Copacabana and then went for a meal at La Fiorentina in Leme (sadly no longer with us).

La Fiorentina – legendary seafood and pasta restaurant on the seafront in Leme.

Back in London we would often meet up at a favourite restaurant (or try a new one), so it was like old times, chatting over a glass of wine as we perused the menu. However, when the food arrived, they realised that they weren’t in ~~Kansas~~ London anymore.

Buzios: good blood and tiny hearts

04/12/2012/7 Comments/in Food and drink, Musings

Those of you who stay in touch through the Eat Rio Facebook Page will know that the Eat Rio team (erm, that’s Mrs Eat Rio and me) went to Búzios over the weekend. Búzios is a popular beach town located on a peninsula around 100 miles (170km) northeast of Rio. Apparently Brigitte Bardot loved Búzios so much she stayed for months and is now immortalised by a statue that sits (rather provocatively) on a bench along one of the main streets.

I had heard plenty about Búzios since I came to Rio, but until this weekend I hadn’t visited. So when some workmates suggested a weekend trip I jumped at the chance. It’s really rather nice:

This is Praia de Geribá, just 2 blocks from where we were staying.

That’s a fine looking scene isn’t it? I can only imagine how this must make you feel if you’re currently suffering sub-zero temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere (heh heh!). However, you should know that we didn’t spend the whole weekend lazing on the beach…

Is this racist?

29/11/2012/49 Comments/in Language, Musings

You may remember I’ve written a couple of posts about the excellent Horti Fruti adverts that show up from time to time on the metro. The format tends to be an illustration of a fruit or vegetable in the place of some human character with a caption that plays on either the name or the origin of the item in question.

Take a look at the latest one:

Couve Chinesa is what we in the UK call Chinese Cabbage. The caption says “I am the master of Kung food”. Except that’s not exactly what it says…

Veta, Dilma!

26/11/2012/24 Comments/in Musings

Once again, like child wandering into a particle physics lab, I’m going to walk into a Brazilian issue I don’t know too much about. Apologies in advance.

All over Rio huge signs have been appearing recently. I saw even noticed a huge banner on the Sugarloaf this weekend. Signs like this:

These huge signs are imploring President Dilma to use her presidential veto to block a controversial plan concerned with the distribution of royalties related to the discovery of pré-sal (in English, Pre-salt, a deep layer of salt that suggests huge reserves of high quality oil below).

When they say “huge reserves” of oil, they’re not messing about. Petrobras estimate that there are more 50 billion barrels of oil available – roughly four times Brazil’s current national reserves. That’s kind of a big deal.

So this is good news right? Big oil party for everyone in Brazil? Not quite…

The invisible language barrier

25/11/2012/21 Comments/in Language

After waiting in the slow-moving supermarket line for 15 minutes, I finally found myself at the check-out – this was my moment. The girl had scanned all my items and I could see from the screen that I had to pay R$65 – no problem, I had my money ready. Then: disaster! She was asking me something but I had no clue what she was saying. It was clearly a question, but what did she want? She asked it again, a little louder this time and I could sense that the people behind me were all looking over now.

Panic set in, my heart rate increased as my mind desperately tryied to formulate a response. The section of my brain marked Portuguese seemed to have shut down and so my mouth just opened and closed like a goldfish!

The scene of many a stressy moment – the checkouts of ‘Extra’.

What felt like minutes was probably over in 10 seconds. She shook her head, shrugged and muttered something while taking my money. I hurriedly gathered my shopping bags, desperate to get out of the oppressive atmosphere. As I walked quickly towards the exit, she shouted to me again – by now I just wanted to run, but I looked back to see that she was waving my change at me. “Idiot!” I said to myself as I walked home, humiliated.