Category Archives: Brazil

Beach Snackables

The snacks here are so damn good that I’m going to have to break them up into categories. First up, beach snacks. My first few days in Rio were spent mostly on the beaches of Leblon and Ipanema and I was immediately enamored by the limitless number of goodies being sold at the beach (ok, the limitless number of hot people was pretty impressive as well). Raise your hand, yell out an “oi!” and without moving from your beach chair you’re noshing in no time. These are my favorite beach vendors so far:
1. Grilled cheese on a stick: Man comes by with his portable toaster, puts a slab of “queijo de coalho” on a stick, grills it right in front of you, dips it in a can of oregano, and bam! Cheese popsicle.

2. Açai: That cool berry only found in its most delicious state in Brazil. A bit grainy but so refreshing and filling. The best are at Bibi Sucos (a juice stand off the beach), so grab yours and hit the sand or get one from her:

3. Sucole: Fruit puree frozen in a plastic baggie.  Poke a hole and suck. Heh heh. Coconut and passion fruit-mango rocked my world.

3. Globos: So these cracker like things have the same name as the major communications medium here, but I can’t quite figure out the connection. Maybe they’re both full of air. Choose from sweet or savory, these donut shaped creations are crunchy and strangely satisfying.

4. Agua de Coco: My favorite, coconut water. Ask for one of these and the seller yells across the beach to the barraca at the top of his lungs, and his or her partner echos it back. Makes it feel like a grandiose operation. When you’re finished you can ask homeboy to cut it up with his machete and the coconut meat is all yours!

5. Matte: Believe it or not, I’m off my coffee addiction (if my ex-coworkers are reading this I’m sure they are wondering what a fright I must be in the morning NOW). It’s all thanks to the matte. Get it at the stands on the street and it’s a little stronger, but on the beach it’s still a great pick-me-up.
To be continued in Salvador…

Salvador: The Grub

Bahia is the last stop of my trip and I can’t imagine a better place to wind down after months of constant movement.  The beaches are beautiful, the people are warm, and the food is well, take a look: 

1. Acarajé. A bean cake fried in dende (palm tree) oil and stuffed with a variety of stews, dried shrimp, hot pepper sauce, and/or tomatoes. Served by Baianas on the street, I would’ve liked to have done a citywide taste test but time and rain would not permit. Anyway, I would like to say that I LOVED it, but I didn’t. I just thought the idea and layout was really cool. Apparently the Baiana in Rio Vermelho does it best.  

2. Crab! Cheers to the happy hour crab spot! Enjoy your cheap beer and $2 crab while listening to the sounds of an entire restaurant pounding crab shells with plastic mallets. These crabs are small so you have to pound and crack extra hard to get the meat. A little more work for my food than I like to do normally, but it’s kinda fun to put back a beer and pound away at your food. 

3. Pastel de Camarao. I know, you’re bored of me talking about empanadas. I’ll stop. I just wish you could taste it with me.

4. Potatoes and catfish. Disclaimer, this is not Bahian food. This is me wandering into Gaby and Nadia’s capoeira school and being invited in to have breakfast with the group. There was a guy from Bermuda making breakfast and no one would allow me to refuse a plate. A magical plate, that is. Catfish with onions and tomatoes and potatoes and bananas and avocado and a huge spread of fresh fruit. An amazingly tropical breakfast that is apparently called something as simple as “catfish and potatoes.” 

5. Moqueca. Even the name is delicious… Muu-queh-caaaaaah. Mmmm. A stew made with dende oil, coconut milk, shrimp, and tomatoes, among other ingredients and served bubbling in a clay pot. This was my favorite meal. Accompanied by rice, farofa, and that squishy yellow gooey stuff that I like.

6. Brigadeiro. Chocolate balls filled with chocolate and condensed milk?? Hell yes.

 
7. Rosti. Like a big hash brown pie with shrimp, meat, cheese and/or veggies. Hearty.
 
8. Aipim Frito. Kinda like french fries but less greasy and sweeter! Goes well with…
8. Caipiroska! Like a caipirinha with vodka. I gulped up three of these made with acerola, a cherryish fruit. By the way, all of this street food is sold by vendors who are part of an artisan institute called MAUA. They were closed the day I wanted to visit, but their artisans were at every plaza, fair, and mall I went to. Seems like artisans pay a fair amount for placement and do pretty well for themselves. I was super impressed and towards the end of the night at one fair I saw that someone from the organization was passing out questionnaires to all the artisans (Jenna is excited, Jenna is very excited). Anyone who works in the microenterprise industry may also be impressed by that. So…if you go to Salvador, support your local artisans, drink caipiroskas!

Got the travel bug?
Crab & Moqueca: Caranguejo de Sergipe in Barra
MAUA: http://www.maua.ba.gov.br/

Safe in Salvador

It feels weird to head East as Chile tumbles down. Everyone I know is fine. Scared and anxious at the most. Most of my friends, in typical Chilean style, have responded to my frantic emails with humor.

It’s ironic, two weeks ago, as Mikael and I walked on the beach in Curanipe, a small beach town close to the epicenter of the quake, I thought about taking a picture of the house we were staying in. It belongs to the family of my friend Cote and smells like pine, sea, and my favorite memories as a teenager. I’m trying to limit the number of photos I have of lone buildings, they just gather cyber dust in my computer. So, did I take a picture of the bright purple house on the shore? Naaa. It’ll be there when I come back. 
Cote says the house is somehow still standing and her family had already returned to Rancagua by the time of the quake, but Curanipe and the surrounding coastal towns were hit the hardest by the Tsunami. Nearby in Pelluhue , where we sat in a beach bar drinking beer, a bus of retirees was swept away and over 300 homes have been destroyed. 
That moment in front of the house served as a lesson to not take the beautiful places and people I visit for granted.  That being said, I’ve had two days in Salvador, Brazil and have been blown away by how colorful and beautiful it is here. It’s the kind of beauty that doesn’t try hard to impress you– just a sunset with the neighborhood kids and ice cream next to the full moon. I’m staying with Gabriela, one of my oldest friends, and if this wasn’t a welcoming enough place, she only makes my stay here more warm and comfortable. I’m taking lots of pictures. 

On the beach in Barra my first night.
That really bright light is a stage in the water. We plan on buying floating thingys and  swimming to the stage next Saturday. 
Outside of the Igreja do Bonfim, where people tie ribbons around themselves and the church gates and make three wishes with each not.

Gaby helping me make my wishes. 
Sunset at Ponto de Maita.
Ice cream at Sorvetería da Ribeira (that’s Gaby’s bf, I didn’t pick up a cute Brazilian boy at the ice cream shop).

Beiju and chocolate at a street fair. That strawberry fell on the ground but he still wanted it, hence the expression on the vendor’s face. 


Pelourinho – Centro Historico. 
And now to the beach!

Want to help in Chile? 
Click here for a list of relief efforts

Rocinha

“Favela is a plant that grows up on the hills, so when people used to come to the flats to work they said they lived where the favela grows. The name stuck.” -Nildo

Rocinha, literally meaning “little ranch”, has grown from a community of small farms to the largest favela in Brazil, housing something like 350,000 people. Pharmacies, grocery stores, and butchers (with live chickens) are open 24 hours. Beer costs a buck. Everyone is chillin outside or dodging traffic. Miss a beat in this rhythm of motorcycle traffic, labyrinth stairways, cobwebs of TV and phone cables, blaring music, gritonas, and you’ll definitely get get a toe crushed. After the tranquility of Ipanema, it’s actually kinda nice.

Nildo, my guide, admits that he gets lost sometimes and he’s from here. I found him through Favela Tourism Workshop, a group that trains youth from Rocinha to be tour guides and helps them receive their guide certification from the department of tourism. A better bet than going with a guide from Copacabana and arriving in a jeep with 10 gringos. Nildo is short, a fast-talker (in perfect English), honest but gentle when telling you the ugly truths, and damn good at metaphors.

“You know the horse that just sits and lets flies gather all around him but doesn’t do anything to swat them away?” he said. “Yeah, that’s how the police were when they were here.” Corrupt? Of course. How’s the violence? We see it everyday (although he said City of God was over the top). “But it was never like this when i was a kid,” he said. “It’s changed.”
But on to the positive, because that’s what we don’t hear about. What else is changing in Rocinha?
From the top: At the entrance to the favela there’s a blinding white building being constructed. It’s a community center, part of a government initiative to “clean up” the favelas, along with more motorcycle taxis, a surf school, a hostel for international volunteers, “pacific” police, and a new hospital. Despite cynical attitudes towards government and police, it seems Nildo and others are still excited about the initiative.

From inside the favela:

Uncle Lino: His organization, “Trade a gun for a paintbrush” provides kids who are struggling with drug addictions with a safe place to get creative. Uncle Lino, with the help of volunteers, teaches kids to create art projects with recyclable material.

25 of the 50 kids he started working with have gone to college. WOW, write grants much, Ferron? That being said, 50% success rate, you ask the grantwriter? Across the road from the school I saw three boys, no older than 10, blazed out of their minds. One of them was rolling his joint back and forth in a trance. I’d like to see YOU pry it from his hand and replace it with a paintbrush. Despite his tough job, we got some good laughs out of Uncle Lino. Just had to ask him about government assistance.

The free kindergarten: Minimum wage in Brazil is about $500/mo. Most kindergartens cost $300/mo per kid. So here’s the only free kindergarten in the neighborhood, built by the government, sustained by a few philanthropists and these women. In 1983 Senhora Teresa (pictured in the middle) started a co-op downstairs where unemployed parents can come to learn a craft (mostly using recycled materials). The purses, clothing, and home decorations are sold in stores in Rio and have been picked up in France and Japan. Proceeds go to the school.

On the way out Nildo takes us through the market and we end up at the bottom of the hill. I asked him to strike a pose here. Behind him reads, ” Welcome to Rocinha. The only danger here is that you will never want to leave.”

Got the travel bug?
Favela tour: http://www.favelatourismworkshop.com/
Nildo aslo does private tours in the evenings: [email protected]