Firestarters

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Recently, I have received a number of messages from people curious to hear more about the various plants I grow in my window boxes (you can’t prove that this is a lie, so let’s just go with it shall we?). I responded that surely not many people would be interested in my horticultural antics and anyway, how can I give this a spin that would make it anything to do with Rio specifically? They were quite insistent and said I’d think of something. Well, I am still a little dubious, but I’ve never been very good at saying no… (even to imaginary people)

Yesterday I was forced into doing a herbal harvest. I say ‘forced’ because things were getting quite out of hand. Not only were the basil plants turning into small trees, but the oregano was starting to strangle the roses and all the plants (apart from the poor roses) were starting to flower. Drastic action was required.

Ever wondered what a chive flower looks like? (of course you have...)

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Milestones

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Ever had one of those moments when you realise you recently strolled obliviously through a milestone? Well, I just noticed yesterday that I have now 102 posts (103 if you include this one). There I was, waffling on about my bedroom walls and using that as a tenuous excuse to show you my photos of flowers, when I should actually have been playing a fanfare about the fact that I was writing my centurion post!

I believe that it is traditional to use an occasion such as this to do some big retrospective about what has changed since you wrote your first post, where you want to be this time next year, all that kind of stuff. I don’t know though – it strikes me as a little self-important. I will say that I have enjoyed writing this blog, it’s been really nice making contact with people (some I knew before from back home, others I’ve never met, but who hang out here with me in Blogland), and it’s kind of flattering that you guys can be bothered to come back and read what I have to say once in a while.

The presence of this is explained at the end of the post. Piqued your curiosity? Good, so read on.

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A Nasty Food Surprise

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Yesterday I told you about the Sanduichão (better known as Torta Salgada Fria), an enormous, savoury, sandwich cake, often decorated with large amounts of mayonnaise and tomatoes that have been cut into pretty rose shapes. Looking at the comments I think it’s fair to say that the non-Brazilians who have tried it (been subjected to it?) did not like it. Too much mayonnaise was a common complaint. But of all the comments, the one that made me laugh the hardest (in a mean way) was Brasilicana’s:

I am permanently prejudiced against the Sanduichão because my first experience with one was traumatic. It was covered in mayo (without all the veggies on top) and it was dark at the party. I cut a big slice for myself, thinking it was cake, and imagine my surprise when I tasted corn, chicken, and lettuce. BLARGH!

 

Ahhhh, I know it’s not nice to laugh, but I can’t help it – I’m a bad person I guess. As well as making me laugh, Brasilicana’s story brought to mind all kinds of food-surprise memories.

It does look like cake doesn’t it? With the lighting low, I’m sure we’d all make the same mistake… (Thanks to Rebecca for the link).

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The Megasandwich of Brazil

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If you’ve been reading Eat Rio for a while, you may remember a post about the air conditioned Big Fresh bus – Frescão. In that post I mention that in Portuguese you can make some words bigger (or just more) by adding ão on the end, so that ‘fresh’ (fresco) becomes big fresh (Frescão!). Well it works with sandwiches too! Feast your eyes on the SANDUICHÃO (sounds like sandwish-OW!):

We got to the party a little late, so most of this monster was already gone, but nevertheless, I hope this gives you an idea of the magnitude of this sandwich(ão).

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(Nothing But) Flowers

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When I was 13 I painted the walls of my room alternately bright red and bright green. This wasn’t an act of adolescent rebellion (my Mum wasn’t bothered), I just thought it would look interesting. The inspiration behind this particular colour scheme was the cover of an album by David Byrne (former front-man of Talking Heads) named Rei Momo.

I saw those red circles on the bright green background and thought to myself "Yes, that colour-scheme will look great in my bedroom...".

 

Funny how things link up isn’t it? All those years ago, I loved this album but had no idea what ‘Rei Momo’ meant. Then 20 years later, after randomly settling in Brazil, I was writing a blog post about the oversize chairs on public transport in Brazil. I needed an image of a larger person sitting in one such chair and what did I find?

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