Eat Rio Blog - Page 6 of 106

The Olympics, Eat Rio food projects and New York

12/09/2016/10 Comments/in Musings

Hello Eat Rio readers! After another prolonged break I’m back. Let’s kick things off with the Olympics. What were your impressions? To me it seemed like things went pretty well – I was working non-stop so didn’t get to see any actual sporting events, but I picked up a lot of feedback from my food tour guests and generally people had very good things to say. I also managed a quick visit to the Olympic Boulevard one afternoon.

On a rare day off I got to see the Olympic Boulevard. Despite the warnings of Zika, crime and deadly pollution, everyone seemed to be having a thoroughly nice time.

What’s been going on?

19/05/2016/22 Comments/in Musings

Hashtag fans: #thehuntrio

Hi readers! It’s been a little while since my last entry and there are quite a few things to talk about today, so I thought I’d do today’s post as a kind of bulletin:

After 5 years it’s official: Eat Rio is a “Popular Website”

Eat Rio will be 5 years old next Tuesday! When I wrote that first post back in 2011 I had no idea that this little vanity project would have such a transformative effect on my life. A website is only relevant if it has readers so a big thanks to all of you who’ve visited over the years.

Those of you who follow the Eat Rio Facebook page will have seen that local English-language news site, The Rio Times, featured an interview with me yesterday (here’s the link). The reporter, Chesney Hearst, was super-nice and asked me lots of questions about my book, The Hunt Rio de Janeiro (plug: now available to purchase on-line in the US, the UK and Brazil!). I’m going to tell you lots more about the book in the next post (bet you can’t wait!), but I was rather tickled to see Eat Rio described in the article as a “popular website”. Readers, it’s been a long journey but we finally made it!

Food tasting with the English Club

19/04/2016/4 Comments/in Musings

The first rule of English Club is you do not talk about English Club. The second rule of… Hang on – I’m thinking of something else. It’s actually totally fine to talk about English Club – it is comprised of 4 kids (aged 6-10) who live in Rio and like to get together from time to time to hang out and work on their English skills.

I met Alice, Lena, Nayana and Raoul last month when they invited me to join them for an afternoon of food tasting and discussion.

Before I arrived the kids had already been talking about their favourite foods and thinking of different ways to describe them. For me this is one of the great challenges of food writing – how do you get beyond “it’s delicious” or “it tastes bad” to find a more meaningful way to describe food and drink?

We all love to laugh at experts describing wine with ridiculously floral language (“I’m getting pencil shavings and a hint of cat pee”) but I started to sympathise the first time I tried to describe the flavour of Cupuaçú. One of our Eat Rio Food Tour guests once described this weird-tasting fruit as “like eating all the Skittles at once” which I thought was a pretty good effort!

Musa das Panelas

06/04/2016/2 Comments/in Food and drink

Luiza Souza of Bar da Gema

Amidst all the political drama in Brazil over the last few months you could be forgiven for forgetting that pans can be used for cooking (as well as for voicing your dissatisfaction with elected politicians, obvs). Happily, one of Rio’s most engaging and positive culinary personalities has stepped up to remind us all that a pan’s place is in the kitchen.

I first became aware of Luiza Souza back when I stumbled upon Bar da Gema during the Comida di Buteco bar food competition a few years ago. Along with culinary partner in crime, Leandro, Luiza runs the kitchen of this brilliant bar in Tijuca, knocking up delicious (and indulgent) treats like Polentinha (crispy cubes of deep-fried polenta topped with rich, velvety oxtail), Frango com quiabo (chicken with okra) and award winning coxinhas.

Well a few weeks ago Luiza launched a fantastic new venture which simultaneously showcases her cooking and her personality which is as big as, well, Luiza herself!

That Open Letter to Brazil

03/03/2016/14 Comments/in Musings

Simple truths vs. A nuanced argument

In politics and in life, people like simple truths don’t they? It’s far more satisfying to hear someone ‘tell it like it is’ than it is to endure the lily-livered vacillations of a nuanced argument. Just look at what’s going on in the US right now if you’re in any doubt about that. The problem with simple truths is that while they are always simple they are rarely true.

I’ve been thinking over the subject of today’s post for a while and I expect many of you will partly, or entirely, disagree with my thoughts and conclusions. Other opinions are available and if you disagree with mine then fair enough, I’d be interested to hear your views in the comments section (you might even succeed in changing my mind).

The object of my pondering is “An Open Letter to Brazil” that did the rounds a few weeks back. The author is a “writer, thinker and life-enthusiast [who] writes personal development advice that doesn’t suck” (his words). He writes articles with titles like “How to attract women” and “Shut up and kiss her”. Quite the intellectual then…