Eat Rio Blog - Page 71 of 106

The Brazilian Sushi Experience

04/07/2012/28 Comments/in Food and drink

There are times when the thought of some heavy Brazilian or European food just doesn’t do it for me. I feel hungry but can’t quite work out what it is that I want to eat. Then it comes to me – sushi! Light but also satisfying. The clean, fresh taste of fish, the salty tang of soy, the burn of wasabi, the vinegar edge to the pickled ginger. All washed down with a crisp beer or a glass or two of sake. Yum!

Yummy sushi selection platter. Great when it’s hot. Also great when you have a hangover (or is that just me?).

I wouldn’t want to eat sushi every day, but if I go more than a few weeks without, I start to get cravings. Luckily for me, sushi is very popular in Brazil, most likely due to the huge Japanese Brazilian community (the largest Japanese population outside of Japan) based primarily in the states of São Paulo and Paraná.

Before I go any further I should tell you that I have never been to Japan. I am dying to go, but so far the opportunity hasn’t arisen. The reason I mention it is that I want to make it clear that what I’m about to say is not about ‘authenticity’. I am perfectly happy to believe that what the British commonly refer to as ‘sushi’ is just as unauthentic as what the Brazilians call ‘sushi’ (maybe even more so). OK? So moving on, I want to tell you about the aspects of the Brazilian sushi experience that I find interesting/unusual.

The Ultimate Caipirinha

29/06/2012/10 Comments/in Food and drink, Musings

In today’s post I am going to tell you about what I think is the best caipirinha there is. I never thought I’d find a fruit that suited this cocktail better than the good old classic limão (lime), but I’m confident that when you try one of these you will agree. The fruit in question isn’t easy to find, but if you can track it down, you will have something pretty special on your hands. Let’s take a look at it shall we?

Limão cravo, rangpur lime, canton lemon, hime

Limão Cravo – unassuming looking little fellows aren’t they? This fruit goes by many names (even in Brazil!): Limão Galego, Limão Lava-tacho, Limão Bode, Limão Rosa, Limão Capeta. Outside Brazil the list grows longer still: Rangpur lime, Canton Lemon, Hime Lemon.

A confusing list of names for a citrus fruit? After recent posts, I don’t expect any of you to be surprised by that! This fruit was mentioned in the comments of a few recent posts and I had been keeping a look-out for them for a while. You don’t find them in every supermarket, but I managed to track them down a few days ago in the organic section of Zona Sul. As I appear to be going through a bit of a mystery-fruit obsession a the moment, you won’t be surprised to hear that I hurried home to take a better look at these strange things.

What to do with a Cupuaçu

27/06/2012/12 Comments/in Food and drink

One of the food things I found most exciting when I got to Brazil was the huge variety of fruits available, most of which I had never heard of. Graviola, Caja, Umbu, Jabuticaba, Taperebá, Bacurí are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. No need to mention that I didn’t recognise half the names of the fruit I did know, like morango, maçá, abacaxí (strawberry, apple and pineapple respectively).

Regardless of my poor Portuguese, I was at the juice bars dotted all over town, I was presented with a huge list of bewildering fruit to choose from and did my best to try them all. Some are good, some are just OK. Possibly the most astonishing in terms of all-out flavour madness has the be Cupuaçu (sounds like coopwa-SOO):

The Cupuaçu fruit has a thick, hard shell, covered with a light brown dusty powder.

Hmmm, it doesn’t look very fruity does it? Looks more like a yam or some other root vegetable. Even at this stage it has a strong fragrance, but how do you get in through that hard shell?

Giant, South American pine nuts

26/06/2012/34 Comments/in Food and drink

Who knows what these are? Easy right? They’re pine nuts …in a weirdly small bowl.

Pine nuts in a small bowl?

Aha! But look again!

Fruit pulp refreshment

25/06/2012/8 Comments/in Food and drink

If I had to choose between very hot weather and very cold weather, I would choose the heat. Just as well really, because it can get very hot here in summer and the winters are mild. I’m no masochist, I don’t enjoy being too hot, but sometimes it’s worth it for the pleasure of cooling down – think beach/waterfall or less glamorous options air conditioning/cold shower.

And the heat has clearly shaped the drinks culture here – red wine is commonly served chilled (even in an ice bucket sometimes!) and of course beer must extremely cold. Another chilly drink that I enjoy making home starts out looking like this:

A frozen block of fruit pulp from the Cacau fruit.