Cocktail Recipe for a Broken Heart

Here’s the deal: I recently had my heart broken. We all have our methods of coping and mine certainly have to do with eating and drinking. I get snobby about it too. Yes, I self-hate by eating things that are bad for me, but I do it with style. To name a few, in the past week I’ve had Queso Fundido at Tamarindo, truffle fries at B Restaurant, homemade donuts at Camino, and the burger at Zuni. Fatty fatty boom boom, is what you’re thinking.
But, the real secret to mending a broken heart is a cocktail. One that takes you away to a tropical place, one that has a lil’ kick to wake you up, and one that has something new and surprising. I made a foray into Fruitvale for some ingredients and while I was buying limes the checker leaned over and said in a soft Spanish, “powerful.”
Huh? The debit machine? Is it new?
“No, you.”
Oh yeah?
And then he said smiling, “You’re happy too. You’re a very happy person.”

He didn’t strike me as the psychic type, but I decided that regardless, he was right. And I was in the mood for a little flattery.  I catwalked my happy ass down Fruitvale Ave like “I’m powerful, I’m happy, and I got hella limes. Can’t stop me now!”
La Margarita Ferronlandia (isn’t this just a tamarind margarita? NO, shut up.)
 
Ingredients:
Tequila (I recommend Espolon, not too expensive and high quality. You can get it at BevMo for $20)
Triple Sec
Lime
Tamarind Juice (See below for info on Tamarind)
Pico Limon (Get at Mi Tierra)
Sugar
Agave Syrup

To make:
Throw equal parts tequila, triple sec, and lime into a shaker. Triple the tamarind juice. Add agave syrup to taste. Shake it all up with a bunch of ice. Pour sugar into a low bowl and, depending on your chile tolerance, pepper with pico limon. Dip the rim of the glass into a bowl of water and dip into your pico/sugar mixture to create a rim (or half a rim). Put ice in the glass and pour in the shaker contents. Drink. Invite more happy people over.

About tamarind: Tamarind is a unique sweet and sour fruit that’s used a lot in Mexico (and other parts of the world, but that’s where I’ve had it). The fruit grows inside a brown pod and unless you’re a savage like my aunt Denise (who makes a mean margarita) you won’t go through the effort to make the pulp. If you want to make the attempt you can get a bag of pods for $2 at your local Mi Tierra market, or if you’re lazy like me, you can buy the juice for $3 also at Mi Tierra. Gringos, just say “Tienen tamarindo?” and you’ll be fine.

Got the drinking bug?
Mi Tierra: The closest one to me is on Fruitvale Ave, near E 29th.
Los Hermanos: Just a few blocks down from the Mi Tierra, on Fruitvale and E 18th. Limes  are 8 for $1 and they’ll throw in a boost of confidence!

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

Buenos Aires: Day 1 and 1/2

Call me trendy, but I also love this city. Doing so much each day that we are gonna have to do a play by play.
Sun: Arrive evening. Meet Ariel (my friend who I met in Istanbul but is from BA) in Palermo (like Soho) at a bar. Mirrors on the wall, disco balls, red velvet and a live neo soul lineup that took me by surprise. First it was Prince (to go with the decor), then D’Angelo, then Earth, Wind & Fire and then Erykah Badu! It was like they were in my ipod, sans the vocal talent of above named artists. But the musicians were good and the place made for great people watching. Better yet, hipster watching.

Mon:
1. Alto Palermo. It’s pouring rain so of course I went to the mall! But this isn’t just any mall. Kinda posh, but full of Argentine designers and summer sales.
2. Palermo Soho for 10 minutes until it started raining cats and dogs on me:(
3. Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). Great Andy Warhol exhibit and a sweet collection of Latin American artists. I liked Antonio Berni: example 1 and example 2. Yummy and slightly expensive cafe.

4. Ateneo Gran Splendid. Theatre turned bookstore/cafe. Cafe is on what used to be the stage. People spend hours here and I would too. I had hot chocolate because I had puddles in my shoes by then.

5. Walk down Avenida Santa Fe. Lots of stores, we ducked into Galeria Bond St, think the Haight in an underground mall.

Tattoo shops and punkish clothing galore. A few blocks up was Galeria 5ta, an underground vintage mall… just follow the scent of mothballs. Get your cute retro shorts here.

6. Hostel for a sec then to Centro Cultural Konnex for a drum cirlce called Bomba del Tiempo that happens every Monday. Props to Stephan for telling me to go here. Huge crowd and such an awesome open space, puts the Bay’s use of space to shame.

7. Pizza and empanadas at Guerrin. Apparently it’s a classic. They make this chickpea bread that you put on top of the pizza- it adds a whole new dimension.

Got the travel bug?
Alto Palermo: http://www.altopalermo.com.ar/
Malba: http://www.malba.org.ar/web/home.php
Ateneo: Av Santa Fe 1860
Galerias: Av Santa Fe 1670 & 1270
Bomba del Tiempo: http://labombadetiempo.blogspot.com/
Guerrin: Corrientes & Talcahano