Eat Rio Blog - Page 76 of 106

5 things you should know about Caipirinhas

06/05/2012/17 Comments/in Food and drink

One of the first things that many people want to do when they arrive in Rio, is try a genuine caipirinha (cai-pi-REE-nya). I was exactly the same when I got here – I had indulged in Brazil’s most famous cocktail many times in England, but now I wanted to know what a real one tasted like.

In the two years that have since passed, I have been researching this topic with (ahem) diligence and dedication and today I will share with you some of my findings.

1. Caipirinhas don’t necessarily contain cachaça

When you order a caipirinha in Rio, it is quite normal for your waiter to ask “With cachaça?”. The first time this happened I was confused. Would he ask me if I wanted gin in my gin and tonic? The reason is that many people here have their caipirinhas made with vodka instead of cachaça. “Aha!”, I hear you say, “But that is called a caipiroska (or caipivodka). A caipirinha, by definition, is made with cachaça”. Personally, I agree with you – it’s just that most of the waiters and bar staff in Rio don’t. Every so often, if you don’t specify, a caipivodka will arrive. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Delicious Rio Roadkill

05/05/2012/12 Comments/in Food and drink

One of the pleasures of living in a tropical climate is that all kinds of exotic fruit are available year round. Of course “exotic” is subjective term – for me, exotic fruits include mango, guava and papaya (in Portuguese, manga, goiaba and mamão respectively). I guess the average Brazilian would be more impressed with raspberries, rhubarb and blueberries.

Here in Rio, there are mango trees everywhere. They are huge and easily recognisable because of their distinctive finger-like leaves and the fact that they are often heavily laden with fruit.

Look out below! Having one of these land on your head would be unpleasant.

As I said, you find them everywhere. I snapped this one in a hospital car park:

A Million Meals in London…

01/05/2012/10 Comments/in Food and drink

This morning I woke to the sound of cocks crowing and the gas truck playing Beethoven. As Dorothy said, there’s no place like home, and after 2 months away, I’m finally back! But before I get too carried away with all things Brazilian, I thought I’d tie up a few of the loose ends from my time back in London. Depending on your viewpoint, think of this as food-gloating or a few recommendations for your next trip to London.

First of all there was the night out in fast-becoming-trendy Brixton Market.

Apparently there are loads of these stylised shop-fronts around Brixton market. As well as liking the images, I rather enjoyed the fact that Michael’s Meat is still displaying an “01” number. 01 numbers were phased out at the end of the 1980s..

British Breakfast with Broccoli

22/04/2012/8 Comments/in Food and drink

It’s hard to believe, but my 2 months are very nearly up. This time next week I’ll be back in Brazil! As a treat this morning, my Mum and I decided to have a fry-up. For non-English readers, a fry-up is the rather unappealing name commonly used for the traditional English breakfast.

There are plenty of variations, but I would say that what we had this morning is pretty much the classic. Toast, bacon, fried eggs, fried mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. Aficionados will be screaming “What about the sausages?!” – well yes, I suppose a sausage or two should have been included, but we didn’t have any and I was very happy with what we came up with:

It's not something you'd want to eat every morning if you had plans to live past 55, but once in a while it's not going to do any harm is it? If you added a couple of sausages and a slice or two of black pudding you would have what is known as a "Full English".

These spices are nices!

18/04/2012/12 Comments/in Food and drink

With less than two weeks left in England, I’ve been starting to get a little panicky about all the outstanding items on my England to-do list. I spent most of last weekend traipsing all over London on a mammoth shopping trip, picking items that are either unavailable in Rio (Colman’s mustard, PG Tips and of course delicious Marmite) or massively expensive (electrical goods general).

One of the food things I miss most when I’m in Rio is Indian food and I had been meaning to go for a curry ever since I got back to London. With time running out I was starting to think I’d missed my chance until last Sunday when I had a stroke of luck. It happened to be a particularly freezing day and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and then I stumbled upon this rather amazing Indian food market!

There must have been around 30 stalls, clustered together close to the Southbank Centre, next to the Thames. The majority of them were selling food from various parts of India.