Softest dishes in Rio

My partner probably summed up what this blog entry is about best when he posted on Facebook yesterday:

Ah, that awkward moment when you’re in Brazil and you realize you’ve been washing the dishes with fabric softener for the past month… 

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Yes, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I am guilty.

The most embarrassing part of all is that, on closer inspection, there is actually a small picture of a t-shirt on the front of the bottle!

Here is a photo of the offending item (lucky we didn’t use much!):

Beach vendors

Lying on my local beach is incredibly relaxing, so long as you can find a way to either tune out or appreciate the constant hawking of vendors who pace up and down the beach front selling all manner of things.

Here is a selection of some of my favourites:

Drinks

The most common franchise is the Matte Leao ice tea drink served from barrels in either original or lemon flavour. This seems to be the most traditional beverage to consume whilst relaxing on the beach. You can also buy from these vendors (and others) beer, water and soft drinks. A beer costs about R$4-5 and a water R$3-4.

 

 

 

Clothing and Jewellery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like at a lot of resorts, you can purchase a variety of clothes and jewellery from the beach. Here you have people selling dresses, sarongs, woven bracelets, hats and sunglasses. So far I have purchased a really nice sarong for R$20 but I think the hats and dresses look really nice as well.

Food

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are so many options for food on the beach, it is incredible! In addition to the traditional ice creams and crisps (which are both actually quite expensive), many vendors sell Globo biscuits which are extremely moorish little rice cracker type snacks. But, where it starts to get interesting are the more substantial and creative culinary options. In the photos above you have people selling portuguese tarts, pastels, grilled cheese on a stick, freshly made sandwiches, acai with granola and, my favourite, prawns on a stick! You really can head down to the beach and have a hearty lunch without needing to leave your deck chair!

Other

There are many vendors who sells souvenirs along the beach and some of the stock is actually quite creative! There is also the guy in the photo above that I always see selling beauty products like moisturiser, sunscreen and nail varnish. He pretty much brings a pharmacy to your chair!

Flowers

The streets of Zona Sul are incredibly beautiful due to the architecture, wide pavements and beautiful foliage that comes from the exotic trees that line the streets.

Adding to the beauty are the flower shops that sit on many of the street corners and squares. They are typically small conservatory style buildings whose glass walls reveal shelves and shelves of stunning flowers that spill out onto the surrounding pavement.

It was recently Mother’s Day in Brazil and these florists really came into their own.

What I particularly like about these stores is that despite their being a myriad of wild and exotic plant varieties in Rio de Janeiro, it is the more traditional and understated flowers  that take pride of place on the shelves  – daisies, daffodils, lilies, lavender, roses and orchids

 

Fruit in Rio

I am pretty sure that if I tried a new piece of fruit from my local supermarket every day, I still wouldn’t have tried each of the different fruits that are on offer here.

If you like fruit, in particular tropical fruits, then Rio will be your heaven.

I love melon and I have never had smoother – almost caramel-like in their flavour – melons than what I can buy in my local Zona Sul. My favourite is the cantaloupe and “orange” melon. It makes my mouth water just thinking about them.

I am also loving the watermelon, plums, peaches, apples and pears.

Of the more exotic, I am slowly becoming more adventurous… there are several varieties of mangoes that I have never see before but I’m yet to pick a favourite (more taste testing required!) The papaya and figs aren’t to my taste but there are many more similar types of fruit that I am looking forward to testing over the coming months.

What I find most interesting are the “giant” varieties of some of the fruits. There is a massive version of the avocado that I need to try. Avocado has to be one of my favourite foods but I have been warned that here they are considered more of a dessert and that typically, the big ones are sliced up and covered in sugar before they are eaten. Not so sure how keen I am on that idea but I will give it a go!

And finally, here is a picture of what I think was a giant passion fruit! It was quite sour so will need to find an accompaniment to tone down the flavour a little but it took my by surprise when I sliced it in half and realised what it was. I am not sure of the official name so “giant passion fruit” it shall be known!

A treat

As I mentioned in my last blog, I am not feeling the best at the moment.

To try improve my spirits, I thought I would treat myself tonight and picked this little thing up from our local store

When it comes to being a foodie I am a bit ignorant but this tasted VERY good. I think it is a Portuguese-style custard tart (?) but it was a bit lemon-y as well. It was a very good treat although I am not sure my poor stomach is going to thank me as much as my taste buds did!

My addictions

Arguably, one of the best things about relocating to a new place is discovering all the new foods that are available. I have a couple of favourites already but one brand in particular I am officially addicted to – Piraque.

Their primary produce seems to be snack food and below is a selection of their stock that I have grown particularly fond of!

The packets labeled Pizzaque are mini baked savoury biscuits with a herb and salt topping that tastes just like little pizzas. The long tube packaging is a larger biscuit variety of the same thing. The other packet is called Repetisco and I am yet to put my finger on what they taste like (maybe chicken…) but they are equally amazing! There are probably about five other varieties that I am yet to try but I cannot wait!

In Australia, there is a brand called Arnotts Shapes that are quite similar and extremely popular in Australia but hard to find anywhere else in the world. I have known fellow Australian expats (and myself) to get these Arnotts Shapes sent to them all over the world. It is a big call, but I think I would go so far as to say these little Piraque items actually trump Shapes!

And now for something important

After an exhausting first week, we decided to have a night in last night and hold a beer tasting exercise. The beers we were testing (whilst blindfolded) were:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the results-

My partner’s clear winner was Skol, followed by Antarctica and then Brahma (although he enjoys the Brahma served from a glass he was not a fan of the canned version)

For me, I preferred Antarctica, followed closely by Brahma and finally Skol

After our testing session ended, we tried a fourth beer which we both really liked – Bohemia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, Skol is the most popular beer in Brazil however it was bought by Brahma in 1980. Brahma then merged with Antarctica and became AB InBev which also owns Bohemia and is the largest beverage company in the world, even bigger than Coca Cola!

Carlsberg-Tetleys owns the license for Skol outside of South America and Africa and it was actually brewed in Leeds until the brewery was closed in 2011.

Supermarket report

Recently I posted about my supermarket experience in Rio so far. There is a small deli-ish slash cafe near our apartment that I had tried out when I first arrived but it was tiny and different have much variety. Since then, I have discovered that you cannot walk a block in Leblon and Ipanema without coming across the major supermarket chain Zona Sul!

There is a small one just up the road from where we are staying but, to be honest, I wasn’t overly impressed with the variety or quality of fruit and vegetables. It is though a small version compared to some of the others I have seen around so will need to test out a larger one to really assess what they have in there. The quality of fruit and vegetables is worrying though and they are quite expensive too.

Thankfully, I have recently stumbled across Hortifruti which seems to specialise in really good quality fruit, vegetables and meat at a decent price. There variety for other groceries isn’t great but I think that is deliberate due to their focus on fresh produce. I was quite surprised to find, however, that our local Hortifruti doesn’t actually sell bottled water!

But between Zona Sul and Hortifruti, I am not too concerned about finding good quality basics to get me going. I had planned to get into cooking a lot more whilst we were here but think I may struggle to find quite a lot of the more rare ingredients that I would typically use. We will see though… I have also had online shopping in Rio recommended to me so will be sure to report back on how I find that.