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comida-di-buteco

Comida di Buteco 2014 is nearly here!

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If you like to eat, drink and have fun, Rio really is a great place to live. Sure it might not have the range of cuisines and night life of a cosmopolitan city like New York, nor the levels of culinary sophistication of a city like Paris, but what it lacks in those departments, it makes up in sheer gusto.

It’s only been a month since the excesses of carnaval died down, and already the spectre of the World Cup is looming (62 days and counting!). But let’s not get ahead of ourselves – this Friday (11 April) sees the start of everyone’s favourite bar food competition – Comida di Buteco 2014!

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Feira das Yabás

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Portela-Madureira

The home of Portela samba school is here in Madureira, Zona Norte. 

 

Carnival in Rio means different things to different people. Some look forward to the blocos which make up the Carnaval de Rua (street carnival), while others just want to get the hell out of town until it’s all over. Then there is another group for whom carnival is all about the Sambódromo and the competition between the samba schools. The people in this latter group often support a particular samba school in a way more commonly associated with football fans.

Personally I can’t pretend that it bothers me much who wins, but in the same way that I’ve picked a football team to nominally support (Botafogo), I’ve also picked a samba school – Portela. And the main reason I picked Portela was that it shares a home with Feira das Yabás.

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tapioquinha-com-abacate-tomate-ovo

A Tapioquinha for brunch

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Mrs Eat Rio and I are off to São Paulo this weekend to enjoy the culinary delights that Brazil’s largest city has to offer. Sadly the Eat Rio budget won’t stretch to D.O.M. this time, but our greedy stomachs are quivering in anticipation of a visit to the highly rated Mocotó. Speaking of food, I’ve been playing about in the kitchen myself recently and I thought I’d share my results.

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Chowzter-award-Rio

Chowzter Awards – the Rio result!

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Anyone who has been anywhere near Eat Rio or the Eat Rio Facebook page recently will potentially be getting a little tired of hearing about Peru. For those of you who haven’t been following proceedings, I flew to Lima just over a week ago to take part in the Chowzter Latin American Fast Feast Awards.

I have to say that I had a seriously good time: hanging out with fellow food-obsessed people, drinking the occasional pisco sour, eating delicious ceviche – it’s a great way to spend a weekend. But it wasn’t all fun – there were some nervous moments. Yes we were there to have a good time, but we were also there to represent our cities (and countries) of Latin America.

Chowzter-awards

As the ceremony got under way, our compère for the evening took us through a countdown of what had been judged to be the 50 most tasty ‘fast feasts’ in Latin America. As I heard dish after delicious dish described, I started to wonder if my photos and descriptions of Rio’s nominations had been enough. We were up against mouth-watering tacos from Mexico City, empanadas from Buenos Aires, ceviche from Lima and arepas from Caracas. Against such stiff competition, would the judges really be impressed with any of Rio’s offerings?

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Representing Rio!

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Hi everyone! I have to be quick today as I’m very short of time and have a hundred things to do. Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, I’m flying to Lima! I’ll be in Peru’s capital for 2 reasons – an awards ceremony and a food festival!

 

Chowzter Latin American Awards

Chowzter is a website that makes recommendations for what it calls ‘Fast Feasts’ in more than 100 cities around the world. You can read more about them on their website, but basically they champion local, independent food purveyors with an emphasis on traditional dishes rather than ultra-modern gastronomy – you won’t find too many ‘foams’ or liquid nitrogen on their pages! I got involved with Chowzter earlier this year and have put together my own set of recommendations for Rio.

Tomorrow night I’ll meet up with the other Chowzter people in Lima for the Latin American Food Awards!

Chowzter-awards

The 2013 Chowzter Latin American Awards. Go Rio!

 

 

Mostly this will be a great opportunity to meet fellow gluttons and discuss the relative merits of farofa, arepas and tacos (or later in the evening, perhaps we’ll put forward our arguments for the supremacy of cachaça, pisco and tequila!). Read more