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Published: December 19th 2005
Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit...!
This pot might last a day and a half, but that's pushing it!You know what one of the greatest things about traveling is? The food! And the experiences are all the more interesting if you are traveling in a foreign country. We have been very fortunate to try many different things these past few weeks and they all have been good (ok maybe one or two weird things). With that said, we have created a posting dedicated to food and at the end we will throw in some interesting facts we have experienced (or in Heather's case, re-experienced) during our visit here in Brazil.
First of all, let me say that I am sure that somewhere in the Brazil Code or Constitution there is a law that states the following:
If any family residing in the country of Brazil is to have someone visit from another country, then it is hear by declared that said family will be required to continuously and consistently feed their guest(s) until a time that the guest(s) can not longer lift their limbs. Anyone not abiding by this law shall be pelted with Mango and Papaya. Every time we tell someone about how fit we have become over these past months, they start to laugh and say
“Not for long!”
One word that I learned right away is “fome” (sounds like foamy) or “com fome” which means hungry. Every time you turn around someone is asking us if we are foamy, but I can’t remember the last time I was hungry since we seem to eat all the time! Well let’s get it started.
Breakfast and Dinner For Breakfast there is generally an assortment of breads and crackers, a variety of cheeses, sometimes fried eggs and cheese, freshly made fruit juice and coffee, and occasionally cereal. Brazil is definitely not a cereal-for-breakfast culture. They have about five types of cereal: Frosted Flakes, Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows, Chocolate Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs, and then plain Corn Flakes.
As for dinner, most of the time it’s fend for yourself - raid the fridge and pantry and don’t overexert yourself, whatever is quick and simple.
Lunch Unlike American culture, the biggest meal of the day is Lunch. I know we have mentioned this before, but now let us take the time to fully explain what this means. You know how on Thanksgiving you eat so much food that you want to take a nap?
Well it isn't that extreme, but pretty close. With most meals you usually have one main dish, and a couple side dishes, but here you can have 2 or 3 main dishes and enough side dishes to kill a donkey. (Now bear in mind, kids are done with school by lunch and most adults are able to come home from work for lunch as well. Our maid/cook (also common to have) said she counted 19 people pass through for lunch one day!) Since we are visitors (refer to the law stated above), they won't settle for us trying just one of the dishes, we have to try all of them. After eating, half the time I barely make it to the bedroom for a siesta, I just fall asleep at the table. The first weeks here my eyes were always bigger than my belly, but as the weeks have progressed, I have learned to start with small portions and if I am still hungry, go for more, but that usually isn't the case.
In Idaho our staple food is potatoes, here it’s beans and rice. I promised Heather I wouldn’t make any fart jokes here, so I won’t, but
they sure are a magical fruit. You are almost guaranteed to have some sort of a bean dish and rice for lunch, like Feijoada, the bean dish (like a stew) with meat and tripe that we mentioned in our last posting. Now that I think of it, I can not remember one day that has gone by without beans and rice - A lot of starch, starch, starch, lacking a little in fruits and lacking a lot in the vegetable department. But the food can’t get any more natural, fresh and unprocessed - and it beats fast food, that’s for sure! So this leads me to our next subject.
Fast Food “Do you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Brazil?”
“They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese? “
“No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the !@#$ a Quarter Pounder is.”
—Adapted from
Pulp Fiction Ok, so I don’t know what they call a Quarter Pounder here in Brazil because I haven’t been or plan on going to McDonalds and amazingly eating out isn’t that common, but there are some interesting things to note.
For those of you who like to “Super Size” your meal, you won’t be able to do that here. Super Sizing at McDonalds is not allowed in Brazil. The movie Super Size Me (watch it if you haven’t yet) may have had a little influence on this mandate, it’s a popular flick here. So maybe you like to Super Size your meal because you have a thirst you can never seem to quench, don’t fret. They also regulate the amount of ice that can go into your soda so you get maximum drinkage, unlike in the US where the ice to soda ratio is 75% ice to 25% soda.
It seems as though Brazil is making progress on the battle front of unhealthy food, but somehow a few of the local fast food joints seem to slip under the radar. Our second day here, one of the family members asked if I would like to share a hamburger from a place called Come Come, pronounced Co-Me Co-Me. I said sure, it was about 7pm and I could use a little snack. Twenty minutes later, in he walked with a container that would hold at least 4-5 burgers and opened
Grilled cheese anyone?
Heather's favorite, and becoming mine too, is a cheese called Queijo Coalho that you can get grilled on a stick! it to reveal the largest hamburger that I have ever seen in my life. For those of you in Idaho that have experienced Big Judd’s, a burger this size would even make him weep. It was topped with different kinds of cheeses, egg, beef, and corn (a little weird, but good - corn is also a common condiment on hot dogs), and there might have been some lettuce and other vegetables on there, but I am sure all the grease dissolved it away. The burger is meant to be shared by 4 people, but I am sure it could easily feed 6-8.
So I ate the whole thing, they rolled me to my room, and I slipped in to a coma. 3 days later I woke up and I was foamy (remember it means hungry), but I craved something different, maybe Arabian…was I in luck! Next door to where we purchased the enormous burger there is a placed called Habib’s, Arabian fast food. We haven’t had the pleasure to indulge in this fine delicacy, but as soon as we do, we will let you know.
Fruit The thing that I love most about Brazilian food is the
wide array of fresh fruits. Such a variety and they all taste so good and you will never go too long without having some sort of a juice. Whether it is tangerine, orange, mango, acerola (size of a cherry, but 3 times the vitamin C of an Orange), cashew, etc, they have all been tasty so far. If the last one seemed weird to anyone, it did to me at first until someone showed me the cashew fruit and at the same time I learned where cashews come from. The fruit is about the size of an apple and on top where we would expect to see the stem, there is a raw cashew nut in a shell. You could eat it, but it is much better in the roasted form we are all used to. Learning lesson- complete.
I would have to say that my favorite fruit that I have tried so far is Mango. Ever since Heather was in Brazil 7 years ago all she could talk about were the Mangos here and how good they were compared to the ones you can buy in the states. I wasn't a believer at first, I thought they couldn't
Oyster Shucker Extraordinaire
Heather enjoying some oysters at the beach taste that different, but then I had one and I was converted!
Beach Eats We visited a beach last week and next to us a gentleman filled me in on a Brazilian proverb (or he made it up, I am not sure, but it stuck with me)…
“In Brazil we may be a poor country, but at the beach we live like Kings!” And he was speaking the truth. Anything and everything you need or want is at your fingertips at the beach. Whether it be fruit, fish, crab, shrimp, oysters, drinks, barbeque, sunglasses, paintings, trinkets, nuts, clothes, mariachi band, it is all there and at unbelievable prices! It is very unlike any beaches you will find in the US. Speaking of beaches, the seafood here is divine. Crab, crab, and more crab. If you couldn’t tell from the pictures, we have eaten a lot of crab and the reason for that is because it is very affordable and very tasty.
Ok enough food talk, I am getting hungry. Here are some random facts that I have learned I thought were interesting to share:
Fun Facts -Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world (ok
A good place to rest
This is Pau Amarelo Beach I already knew this one, but regardless I thought I would share)
-The showers usually have only 2 temperatures…Summer and Winter or cold and warm.
-Brazilians do not drink from the bottle or can that much, they always use a glass, cup or straw. So if they buy a beer from a vendor on the street, it usually comes with a small cup.
-Funeral Parlors are open 24 hrs a day. I thought the only place I would ever see a neon “Open 24 hrs” sign was at a gas station.
-Driving here is unlike anywhere I have seen, a little chaotic, but I guess it is easier to forget your blinkers, drive between two lanes until you decide which one you like best, or run red lights as long as you honk your horn.
-Carnival is towards the end of February this year, but they start to practice in January once a week for this big celebration. I guess since it begins at midnight on the Friday before Ash Wednesday and lasts for five days they have to make sure they now how to really party when the time comes.
-At most stores in the mall, anything you buy
can be made in monthly payments. Even if you were to buy a shirt that cost $60, you could elect to make it in 6 payments of $10 as long as you use your credit card.
-You don’t flush your TP. We were really uncertain about this at first, but we asked and they said yep don't flush it - and that means
all toilet paper.
-And the Brazilians would like to set those who don’t know straight, they do not live in trees, they have houses and apartments.
Love Ben and Heather
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Phil & Talitha
non-member comment
yum yum
wow, I wouldnt last a minute there. Good for you guys glad to see that things are going great!!! keep us in tune with whats up.