Eat Rio Blog - Page 64 of 106

Peeling Pineapples and Wearing Watermelons

26/09/2012/10 Comments/in Language

I didn’t enjoy languages at school – in fact (to my later regret) I dropped French at the earliest opportunity. Since then I have come to realise that although I’m not particularly gifted in the learning department, I actually find language fascinating.

During my pre-Brazil travels around South America, I routinely met other travellers from around the world and I was delighted to discover that seemingly every nation has a different word for the noise a rooster makes in the morning. While British birds say “cock-a-doodle-DOO!”, their Brazilian counterparts say “Cocoricó”. I had a whole international list of rooster noises in my head at one point but I can’t remember them anymore (isn’t it annoying how you always forget the really important stuff?).

The linguistic fun continued when I got to Brazil and discovered that Brazilians have some hilarious turns of phrase. Someone who thinks they’re always right is the ‘owner of the truth’ (dona da verdade). Those glass fronted chicken rotisseries are known as Dog TV (Televisão de Cachorro – thanks Aki!).

Dog TV – not only for dogs…

The Brazilian eating experience that gives me the fear

24/09/2012/23 Comments/in Food and drink

Thinking back, I realise that I’ve written quite a lot about the culture of lunch in Brazil. There was the fact that Brazilians have a proper, sit-down lunch with plates and cutlery every day (the modern British norm of a quick sandwich at your desk is not an option here). Then I looked at the joys of the Kilo restaurant – the rules and the strategy!

On the whole I’ve taken to this aspect of Brazilian culture very well – I really enjoy taking a bit of time to get away from my desk to have a peroper lunch. But during my first year here there was one lunchtime word that would leave me trembling mass of fear and stress: Spoleto.

Spoleto – the scene of so many stressful lunches…

Hortifruti, The Beatles and English Potatoes

22/09/2012/2 Comments/in Food and drink

Remember those great Hortifruti adverts? Well they are back with more! And this time they have touched on a couple of subjects close to my heart.

I try not to drop this into conversation too much (just enough that everyone knows about it and hopefully is impressed/envious) – but before I came to South America I worked at Abbey Road Studios in London. You know, that place where a little band called the Beatles recorded 90% off all their music (amongst a host of other legends). Well the latest offering from Hortifruti makes a reference to Liverpool’s finest and another, apparently, English classic:

I played in the Potatles. ‘Batata Inglesa’ and the world of flavours.

The most beautiful spider in the world

21/09/2012/32 Comments/in Musings

Hmmm, that’s a bold post title isn’t it? Still, a little hyperbole never hurt anyone did it? Spiders on the other hand – they hurt people all the time. Well, actually not so much, but I understand that some people aren’t big fans of spiders. So as well as showing you the Most Beautiful Spider In The World (MBSITW), I thought I’d start off with a nice, friendly, non-spidery animal.

Facebook followers may have seen this little fellow before. This is a Blue-gray Tanager and when we were in Bahia we would see these guys every morning as we had breakfast. They are particularly fond of bananas.

The best way to drink a cacau caipirinha.

19/09/2012/11 Comments/in Food and drink

A couple of days ago I mentioned the fish that we ate on a remote beach in Bahia in the northeast of Brazil. When you’ve walked a couple of hours to get to a beach, you realise that you are basically a captive audience so if there’s only one thing on the lunch menu then you’d better hope you like it. As I said in the post, luckily for us it turned out to be one of the most delicious fish I’ve ever eaten.

On that same day, as we were waiting for the fish, a different guy came past and asked if we’d like a caipirinha. Regular readers will know I’m rather fond of Brazil’s classic cocktail and so won’t be surprised to hear that I immediately asked what fruits they have (caipirinhas can be made with all manner of fruit, not just lime). The first fruit the guy mentioned was Cacau and I stopped him right there. Cacau is the fruit whose seeds are used to make chocolate, but those seeds are surrounded by a sweet, refreshing pulp that tastes nothing like cocoa.

When the guy disappeared off to make the drinks, I expected him to return with a drink served in a plastic cup. As discussed before, this does not automatically mean it will be a bad drink and who could expect them to have anything else in such a remote location? But what he actually came back with was this:

Caipirinha de Cacau!