My week-long Brazilian adventure came to an end on Friday. While I was happy and relieved to have everything I needed to accomplish in Brazil accomplished, a part of me wasn’t ready to bid farewell to this town, and the people that made my experience such a special one… at least not without a final lunch!
To make my last day special, as well as to celebrate the end of the long workweek, my friends took me to Acai for lunch, an outdoor restaurant that looks like it belonged in Hawaii rather than on the busy street of Faria Lima in Sao Paulo. Acai, they told me, is a real popular hangout especially on a Friday and although they are not known for authentic local cuisines, they have some great casual eats.
The restaurant, part juice bar and part tropical island-inspired restaurant, served wonderful variety of fruit smoothies, including its namesake, acai. Acai is a nutrient-dense Brazilian berry used to make drinks and desserts. I ordered the acai smoothie with ginseng, which was refreshing and satisfying. (Its grainy texture and sweet flavor is seriously addicting!)
I was not disappointed when I ordered a Filet Mignon sandwich with thick slice of mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and arugula on a sesame bun, with a side of crispy fries either. The meat was tender and seasoned deliciously with salt and pepper, and the flavorful juice oozed out with each delicious bite.
I was too full to eat dessert but I took bites out of other’s, including the Papaya Cream and fresh pineapple with lime juice and zest. They were both so delicious that I wished I had some room left for the dessert of my own!
My weeklong adventure in Brazil was an amazing one. I could not have imagined having a better time than this, and I owe it all to the wonderful people I had the opportunity to meet here. I look forward to returning to this place soon 🙂
The conference rooms in the San Paulo office are named after traditional Brazilian dishes – Churascaria and Feijoada. Upon learning that Feijoada is a black beans and meat stew that is traditionally enjoyed as a Wednesday or Saturday lunch in Brazil, I would salivate every time I entered the conference room, just imagining how wonderful it would be to enjoy a big bowl of the hearty stew.
Lucky for me, this place offered food buffet style, and customers would pay based on the weight of the plate. This was very convenient for me for several reasons. First, the obvious reason, is that I didn’t have to exercise my meager Portuguese (all two words I learned) and order something expecting it to be one thing and turning out be something completely different. And second, because it gave me the chance to nourish my body with much-needed vegetables.
After mounting the plate with salads and side dishes, I finally arrived to the bean stew and poured a ladle-full of it on the bed of flavored rice. The stew had bits and pieces of everything – from beef chunks to sausages – and looked very hearty … and it certainly was. It was a total comfort food, and a good temporary departure from all the heavy meat dishes that I’d been devouring for days.
Right when I returned to the table, the skewers of meat started appearing non stop, and I had to flip the little card that reads, “no thank you” just so that I can pace myself! As each meat arrived, Aldo explained for me what it is. “Oh, this is ‘Picanha’, the sirloin, and the most popular cut of steak here” and “This is lamb, you’ll like it.” When Cordeiro arrived, however, Aldo couldn’t find the word to translation it, so instead, he pointed at his rib and said, “it’s this, it’s this.” And Essio, the comedian, said, “That’s not a rib, that’s FAT!” and we all died of laughter (note: Aldo is a slim man). Essio told me that his motto in life is, “I may lose friends but I’ll never lose my joke,” and Aldo’s is, “I may lose my self esteem, but I will never lose my joke.” In a span of just an hour, I had every part of a cow imaginable, including the heart which was chewy and flavorful. I meant to take more pictures of food but I was so busy devouring the meat 🙂
Aldo, the adventurous one, took me to the kitchen to show me how the meat is cooked. The manager of the joint was so gracious for allowing us to go inside and even letting me pose with a skewer! I was so tempted to take it and run!
I am amazed at the level of intelligence and diversity the people I met in the Brazil office posses. Not only do they have a strong command of the English language (written and verbal), most of them are virtually fluent, and English in not the only foreign language they speak and understand. Many of them speak Spanish (which is very similar to Portuguese), French, and even Japanese (there are a high population of Japanese-Brazilians in Sao Paulo). The saturation of highly educated people here is probably due to the fact that our company is an American company and communications are conducted primary in English and this high, multi-lingual percentage may not be an accurate representation of all the businesses around, but still, this is a pretty fascinating phenomenon. And did I tell you that they all have wicked sense of humor?
I was told that pasta dishes are delicious here and patrons can watch the chef make fresh pasta from the glass window located in the center of the restaurant. When I dine, especially in a new place, I like to try the daily special the restaurant offers. There was something I saw under the “winter special” that caught my eyes (I couldn’t believe from the 75 degree whether that it is winter here) and I asked my friends what it is. They searched for the word, and after a moment, they said enthusiastically, “Oh, it’s a sheep! It’s a sheep!”
I had a hearty plate of steak, rice and beans at a little hole-in-a-wall diner a few blocks from the hotel. I actually wanted something else on the menu but they were out of all three items I wanted to try. I was happy with the dish I ended up having, but I was hoping that I would have maybe a side of vegetable to go with the steak (what was expecting?). The restaurant was part diner, part bar (and a juice bar too) and part convenience store — a one-stop shop for everything and anything you need.
I’m realizing every day that I’m not one of those sensitive people who lose appetite when they’re under work stress or pressure (or just plain busy). Instead, I’m one of those unfortunate ones who eat under pressure – and eat enormously. And it certainly doesn’t help when the food here in Sao Paulo is so darn good – perhaps one of the better food I’ve tasted in a long time.
Hello from Brazil!
Andiamo Ristorante is a little Italian restaurant on Rua Do Rocio, a street populated by office high rises and cute eateries that make businesspeople happy every day. Italian cuisine wouldn’t have been my first choice in a city full of wonderful, unique native dishes had there been more places open, but I was happy with my selection when I was greeted by a kind, English-speaking hostess. This may be an equivalent of a chain Italian restaurant in the states, but what the heck. This place was cute and I was hungry!
Lavender and OliVE 