A Day in the #RioLife

My morning workday routine starts with a 6:10am wake-up call, followed by an SSS (shit, shave, shower), a yoghurt with protein powder, and a wait for my ride into work. I wait outside in the morning sun, looking out over the sea beyond the stunning beach of Barra, the longest beach in Rio; it’s a relaxing way to start the day. Waiting for the minivan that is sent by work (and picks up multiple employees) normally gives me a few minutes of self reflection, which I try to use to appreciate life and the beauty of where I currently live. The sky is not yet fully lit and the whisper of the sunrise can still be seen in the orangey hue of the normally clear sky. Some days I just gaze and let it wash over me.

                “To Gaze is to Think” Salvador Dalí

I have been using my smartphone more and more, especially anytime I have a few moments like I do in the mornings here. The consumerist urge to buy one came later than most for me, but the attraction of the brightly lit comforter is slowly seeping its way into my daily activities. It’s just dawned on me on this winter August morning, just how much time I spend looking down at this device, reading about news occurring around the world rather than just focusing on the here and now and the beauty in front of me. This is made even more true when living in Rio, the most beautiful city I have ever been to.

At the time of writing, I have less than two months remaining in Rio before I return to the UK. This reality has hit home now that a contract extension doesn’t seem possible, and it has forced me into a new mindset. One of trying to soak it all in for fear of missing out on something or not remembering the details I may wish to recall in the future. Hence my writing this blog post and taking a deeper look into my obsessive urge to try and capture, bottle, and share life, rather than just experience it.

It’s funny because having a deadline in life really forces you to get up off your arse (and phone) and take full advantage of everything around you. Of course we all have the ultimate deadline hanging over our heads, we just don’t live like we do, clasping onto the lie that things will never change. It is only when change is staring you in the face that you really grasp the present and start to live and enjoy the moment. Of course I am not dying, just leaving a city that has entertained me for the past 8 months.

Back to my average working day. My journey to work starts with a three mile drive down the beach road, flanked on one side by towering expensive condos and the sea on the other. The sea today is very flat and calm in a pathetic fallacy way, which seems so obvious in the moment but is just a great example of confirmation bias. The sea can be vicious and uninviting but today something about it is welcoming and unassuming. The rest of the ride into work involves some obligatory traffic, a few more pit stops, a wicked view over a lagoon with the sun rising above the mountains (see above), cyclists going the wrong way down a dual carriage way, a speed bump at high speed, construction work from Ilha Pura (the future home of the Rio 2016 athletes), a glimpse at the mountains with a blue sky background, a broken conversation in Portuguese, a more repaired conversation in English – it’s an endless list of opportunities...

The site where I work is unique. Palm trees welcome you in and there is a coffee shop and garden area which staff can use in times of stress or just when they can’t find an empty meeting room. I receive a free breakfast of fruit, coffee, bread, and sliced meats/cheese and a huge banquet is on offer for lunch, which is truly splendid and has contributed to some weight gain. Today I will not be “working” but training, meaning I don’t have to produce anything, just bundles of enthusiasm. I will save my creative energy until I get home, so I can concentrate on my personal projects, not personal profits. I will be able to focus more on writing / planning / thinking about things – my favourite of non-in-the-moment activities. I send myself emails full of jumbled words on a white background, attempting to capture some idea or gist for my writing. My email signature is on the bottom but often when I come to read them, the words make no sense to me. The connection isn’t there to the mindset that created the idea and the insight is lost. It was too abstract and poorly defined. I’m annoyed at the effort I put into my writing at that moment, too constrained by an illusion of a lack of time to effectively capture the moment and glimpse the experience at a future date.

I go about my morning with the odd “Bom Dia, tudo bem / bom?” and share smiles with my colleagues. Everyone always seems so happy in the mornings – the power of a smiley greeting. I check my emails and receive some bad news regarding future vacancies and where I will be working and living in two months. Another avenue is shut off and my choices narrow. Not the best start to a Monday morning but as the coffee does its job and my stomach grumbles, I can be distracted by more pressing bodily matters. This is a full rundown of my daily activities if you hadn't realised by now. The idea of not knowing where I’ll be in two months has me a little anxious, however the good vibrations of the weekend keep me going.

The training today and lack of proper graft means the morning flies by, with my free buffet lunch keeping me going in the afternoon.

Before I know it, it's 5:20 and I am back in the van and heading towards my condo. The traffic is significantly worse in the afternoons because of the construction for the Olympics and all the workers leaving around the same time as us. I don’t normally go past the Olympic Park but a few days later I went past again and took this photo. It doesn’t look too ready.

The drive back goes past one of the lagoons and a nice green area where there are often capybaras grazing. These huge animals are the biggest rodents in the world.

Before I know it, I’m at my apartment with Katie. This wonderful holiday home opposite the beach is truly the place to be. We have a little Skype chat and a bit of food before going to the gym, and then head out for a walk along the beach on the warm winter evening. We stop for our favourite treat – agua de coco – at our local quiosque.

I am going to really miss just being out in the heat at any time of day. I have never lived in a place where it is just so hot all year round. It only goes below 20 degrees at around 3-4am in the “harsh” winter. It’s not just the heat as well, it simply doesn’t rain that much here and there are only a few overcast days. It is common for there not to be a cloud in a sky. It happens 25% of the time I’d say.

As a typical working day in my #RioLife draws to a close I can’t help but feel sad about the coming change. I invested a lot of time and money into learning Portuguese and was beginning to see real progress and that, along with a million other reasons, is making me feel a little low. Another much larger part of me is hugely grateful to the work colleagues who helped me get here, and the new friends that have made us feel welcome. Know that you will always be welcome in the UK as our guest.

I am a very fortunate person who has experienced enough culture and countries for two lifetimes... and I don’t plan on stopping now.  I know my next adventure will be back in the UK... but who can say for how long? The adventure after that might as well be decided by launching a dart into a spinning globe at this point but rest assured, there will be another adventure. For now I will look back on my #RioLife with a lot of happiness and no regrets. Okay one regret: I didn’t get to stay for the Olympics.

Brazil In My Mouth - Cooking Class Edition!

Now that we know we will be leaving Brazil soon, we have been putting a lot of effort into ticking everything we can off our Brazilian Bucket List. We’ve already blogged about some of it and now it’s time to tell you about my recent cooking class.

Having researched it online, I decided to book a class with Cook In Rio. This has a lot of great reviews and informative videos online and the website was clear and easy to navigate. All good signs! Laure, who we met in the jungle, was still hanging about in Rio so I invited her along to join me and we had a great time.

The finished meal - it tasted better than it looked!

Cook In Rio offers two types of class, each four hours long. I decided not to do the feijoada class, as this is not my favourite dish and is something that I think would be easy enough to recreate at home following a recipe anyway. So we went for the moqueca class. Moqueca is a dish from the northern Brazilian state of Bahia, which we recently visited on our 3-week holiday. We ate this warming fish stew in Lençois and really enjoyed it. The recipe is at the end of this post if you fancy making it!


We weren’t really sure what to expect with regards to the size of the class, as it was just a random Wednesday in the middle of “winter”, so surely it wouldn’t be fully booked…? Actually I don’t think we could really have fitted anyone else into the little room, but having ten of us there gave the whole night a bit more of a sociable atmosphere, as we were a mixed bunch from different parts of the US and Europe so conversation was easy and interesting.

Simone, the teacher, was very Brazilian – loud, talkative, open and funny. She was very inviting and gave us a LOT of information about the culinary style in Brazil and the things we were cooking. I learned that bay leaves are used a lot to aid digestion, which is important because of all of the heavy foods, such a beans and red meat. We were told that marinating meat and fish is important in Brazil not only for flavour, but to make sure all the bacteria on the food is killed! As a general rule, fish is marinated in lime juice, chicken and pork in white wine vinegar, and beef in red wine vinegar. She taught us that the word ‘salary’ has its roots in the word ‘salt’, which is how many people were paid way back when.

Laure did a great job of adding coconut milk!

I have to say that had Simone not been so knowledgeable about the food history of Brazil, and generally so entertaining, I would probably have been a little disappointed with the experience. There just wasn’t really much cooking involved. The things we made were pretty simple (which I’m not too surprised about, having eaten a variety of Brazilian dishes), and there was only one cooking station, so rather than all of us cooking while Simone gave instructions, we just took it in turns to do a bit of the prep or stirring while she took the lead.

It was a good experience and the food was tasty. I suppose the class isn’t really aimed at people who have been living and eating in Brazil for as long as me, but rather for people who are on holiday and want to do something a bit different. Whatever my expectations had been, I left happy and full and I count that as a success!

Muqueca Baiana 

(serves 4)
For the sauce

1 large onion, cut into rings

4 peppers (any colour) cut into rings

2 tbsp palm oil*

200ml coconut milk

1 bunch fresh coriander

Salt

For the fish

600g white fish fillet**

2 limes

1 tsp ground cumin

Salt and pepper

1. In a bowl, marinade the fish fillets in the lime juice, with a couple of pinches of salt, a generous amount of black pepper and a teaspoon of ground cumin. Leave to marinade for around 10 minutes.
2. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan and add the onion and peppers. Fry until they soften and the onion becomes translucent.
3. Add a pinch of salt and the coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer, then nestle the fish (in whatever size pieces you like) in the sauce. Lay the coriander, stalks and all, on top of the stew and simmer with the lid on until the fish is cooked through (probably about 20 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces)
4. Serve with rice and whatever other sides you fancy!

*I don't know how easy palm oil is to find outside of Brazil so my suggestion would be to use vegetable oil and then add a teaspoon of sweet paprika at the end of frying. This will give a colour and slightly musty flavour that is similar to the oil.

**Traditionally this dish is made with whole fish, cut into pieces. It is also often made with prawns, so you should feel free to experiment with different fish and seafoods - the world is your oyster after all!

The Best Thing Since Sliced Sugarloaf

Pão de Açúcar / Sugarloaf

 Coco Loco  -  cachaça, coconut milk, coconut water,

condensed milk and ice cream - yum!

We were waiting and waiting for the clearest of days during these cooler months so we could explore TripAdvisor’s top rated site in Rio, which is the most famous viewpoint in all of the city, if not the country. However, time was slowly running out and our remaining weekends in Brazil were now countable on one hand, so we had to bite the bullet and just go for it. In the morning we took the bus to Copacabana and started the day with a bang as we explored Zona Sul, feeling a bit more comfortable walking around the streets than we had when we arrived in February. I say bang because one of the first things we did was try a cocktail called Coco Loco, which was was not only delicious but meant we started the morning with a bit of a buzz. The weather was a little hazy and we were worried that it wouldn’t clear up but after lunch it looked significantly better, so we jumped in taxi and headed to the foot of the first mountain.

We were expecting a queue but there were very few people and we managed to get a good spot on the first cable car that arrived. Seemingly about 1pm is a great time to go as most people are eating lunch. With the morning haze cleared up, the cable car journey was beautiful. Even Katie, with her fear of heights, seemed to love this one (although not my comments on the reliability of the engineering in Brazil).

The first cable car took us up to the mountain called Urca, where there is a large selection of shops, restaurants, and cafes. There are also several view points, and the one over woodland was great for bird-snapping. From Urca you could take a (very short, very expensive) helicopter ride but we decided against it as neither of us had any spare underwear and we have seen how Cariocas drive cars...let alone helicopters. Urca had some of the best views of Rio we have seen, with Christ visible of course, as well as most of Zona Sul (South Zone) such as Ipanema and Copacabana.

From Urca you can take a second cable car to the actual Sugarloaf mountain, which is a lot higher than Urca and hence has a different perspective of the city. We ate ice cream (Dolce de Leite Magnum and a Cornetto), drank beer, watched a giant lizard, spied on a private beach, and generally just absorbed the view for over an hour. It was a great way to spend an afternoon and if you visit Rio, it’s an absolute must-see.

Feira do Hippie

Every Sunday in Ipanema there is a market called the Hippie Market (Feira do Hippie), and the day after visiting Sugarloaf we decided to take a morning and see what all the fuss was about. As our regular readers know, we are massive market lovers and can think of no better way to spend a morning/day/night than looking at the delightful items and same-same tat that is sold around the world. The hippie market was very nice and sold many items that we haven’t seen anywhere else. Also the stalls didn’t all sell the same things as each other, most stalls were unique actually, which meant we had to navigate the entire market to ensure we didn’t miss the one thing we wanted! The market isn’t that big and you can walk around in an hour easily (depending on how many things you buy of course.)

We bought a bag that Katie fell in love with when she saw one Swedish friends in Jeri had. I bought the hardest thing in the world to transport back in a suitcase; a huge round plate of painted glass that is as beautiful as it is fragile. Anyway it will look lovely hanging in the window of a new flat somewhere.

That’s about that for today, enjoy the rest of the photos from our glorious weekend living the #RioLife.

Copacabana Beach. Have you heard of it? I'm not sure it's that well known...

Ipanema Beach

People were climbing Urca and Sugarloaf!

Sugarloaf from Urca Mountain

There's quite a lot of wildlife at the top of Urca. We saw this Mico...

A huge lizard...

Lots of leaf-cutter ants...

And have you ever seen such a red bird?! Beautiful

The view from the top of Sugarloaf

Christ from Sugarloaf

Ceará In My Mouth

Final food post from our holiday! But not the last one from Brazil, don't worry. This post is about the food we ate in Fortaleza and Jericoacoara, both of which are in the state of Ceará. 

Now, Rio de Janeiro might be a coastal city but there seems to be a distinct lack of fresh seafood, and what there is tends to be very expensive. With this in mind, you can imagine how excited Dave was when people told him how cheap and delicious the seafood in Fortaleza is! We had already eaten quite a lot of fish in the Amazon but David was really looking forward to eating prawns and crabs that he has heard some much about from his colleagues. I don't enjoy shellfish but I do enjoy watching Dave eat it so all in all we had high hopes!

These lovely, crunchy, battered prawns were devoured by a certain someone while we were sitting on the beach at the Croco Beach kiosk/resort. It was a great place to spend an afternoon, but very touristy and therefore not quite as cheap as we were hoping. But regardless they were munched with gusto. The sauce was a generic mix of ketchup and mayo but the kiwi was a pleasant surprise! Kiwis aren't cheap here so it was a bit of a luxurious garnish.

During our whirlwind beach tour Dave convinced me to let him order a seafood sharing platter. It came with prawns (for him), langoustines (for him) and fish (for me). As you can see in picture below, the fish wasn't particularly prominent. Everything was grilled and well seasoned and David really enjoyed it. The fish was quite fishy and full of bones so not really my cup of tea but I did manage to eat half a langoustine. Now, I can appreciate that it was fresh and well cooked, and the flavour was pleasant enough (a little sweet and a bit smokey from the grilling) but just like with prawns, it was the texture that really got in my way. I just don't like that crunch...even the thought of it now is making me shudder. I don't know why, but it is really unappealing to me and so no matter how great this kind of thing is, I don't know that I'll ever be able to enjoy it.

As well as the above platter, we ordered some crab. Naturally, because we always order too much! But crab is hard to come by in Brazil and it was so cheap in this restaurant that I insisted Dave get some. Unfortunately, it took over an hour to arrive and when it finally did we simply didn't have time to eat it because the coach was leaving. It looked and smelled amazing though. Oh well, maybe next time!

Now, this next restaurant was a little decadent but we went at the end of the holiday when Dave was starting to get the blues about going back to work. It is called Coco Bambu, and there are several branches in Brazil, with one opening soon in Rio. It was very highly rated and when we arrived the queue was massive so we were really excited.

We started with a kind of anti-pasti plate of sundried tomatoes and Brazilian halloumi, roast aubergine in tomato vinaigrette, herby marinated prawns, fresh grilled tomatoes and a really delicious salmon ceviche. It came with various breads and we demolished it in no time. The salmon was the stand-out on the plate, but everything was really tasty. Great start!

Next we shared another dish from the starter menu - lobster in butter with capers and mixed peppers. I was apprehensive about the lobster for obvious reasons but actually it was quite soft and not too crunchy. This was a really tasty dish and the flavours all worked very well together. So far we were very impressed with the restaurant, even though it was quite pricey. 

I feel I should mention the menu because it was huge! It honestly took us ages to choose our dishes because there were probably about a hundred things on the menu, a lot being very similar with just slight variations to the sauce or accompaniments. But we were happy to take the time to read the whole thing, especially once our white wine sangria arrived! It was really delicious and full of fruit. Another extravagance but hey, what are holidays for?! We're not backpacking anymore you know. Anyway, we chose a main to share and it's just as well because of course, it was big enough for two. I wish that was clearer on all menus in Brazil, because sometimes it's really hard to tell just from the price. But we had suspected this was the case based on the dishes being taken to other tables so on this occasion, it wasn't a surprise.

Well, we finally decided on a fish dish, although it didn't specify what fish so this is a mystery! Grilled fish, with a sauce of mango, passion fruit and ginger, served with broccoli rice and pumpkin puree. Oh and it was topped with chopped cashew nuts. A bit of a weird sounding combo but that just made it all the more appealing. I don't really know what to say about this meal other than that it was soooooo sweet! The pumpkin puree was okay but tasted more of the cheese that was melted on top of it than anything else. The rice was nice but there wasn't as much broccoli as I have had before. The actual fish was meaty and tasty but the sauce...oh my, the sauce. Objectively it was a really tasty flavour, with big slices of juicy mango. Unfortunately, it was so sweet and creamy that it was basically like a fruit custard or melted ice cream, which believe it or not didn't really go so well with the fish! Such a shame.

Moving on, the photo on the left is of some seaside snacks we had while sitting by a lagoon during our three beaches tour. Sliced sausage and Brazilian halloumi. Both grilled to perfection over a few coals in a bucket. On the right is an epic pile of three ice creams, from a shop that boasts fifty flavours! And during the half an hour it took us to decide, I think we tried almost all of them. In the end we settled for ferrero rocher, dulce de leite and one called Obama, which was hilariously a mix of dark, milk and white chocolate with chunks of chocolate and caramel. Delicious!

I'm going to whizz through these next things because this post is getting too long! First up is a tomatoey stew of sting ray, if you can believe it! We got it in a really really cheap restaurant in Jeri and it tasted good, if a little basic.

Next is a tapioca pancake filled with chicken, tomato, mozzarella and basil. Tapiocas can be quite dry but this one was really tasty and a great little snack to keep me going until our lovely romantic dinner with the Swedes!

And here it is - a feast for four from the delightful little restaurant Na Casa Dela in Jericoacoara. It was all outdoor seating in a beautifully decorated garden with fairy lights and other wonders hanging from the trees. We got two types of beef which were obviously delicious and then as many vegetable sides as we could! I would highly recommend this restaurant because the food and service were both brilliant.

This banana cake is apparently a bit of a famous dish from Jeri. I am told it was nice enough, but very sweet and nothing special. Just a biscuit base with condensed milk and bananas on top, sprinkled with cinnamon and baked. Nothing to complain about of course, but nothing Dave will be looking back on and pining for.

On the left is a well known Brazilian dish called vatapá. It's a seafood stew with a coconut sauce that had an incredible depth of flavour. No chilli, but a lot of creamy, rich sauce and apparently excellently cooked prawns and lobster. On the right is what I ordered - cashew-crusted (perfectly cooked) steak with a black pepper rosti. Absolutely delicious! Both dishes were from a great restaurant in Jeri called Tamarindo. 

Dave couldn't leave Jeri without trying this dish we had seen at so many restaurants there - prawn stew in a pineapple! He really enjoyed it, although I think the big chunks of pineapple maybe made it a little too sweet at times, but then we have come to accept this as something we need to get used to when fruit is involved in any Brazilian dish.





Our final mean in Jeri was from a rough and ready fish restaurant called Peixe Brasileiro, where Dave personally selected a fish that had been caught that morning, which was then grilled simply and served with lime and a few sides. I have no idea what kind of fish we had but it was flaky, creamy and delicious. And there was a band playing at the cafe across the tiny little street so we got some free entertainment too! A great way to end a lovely few days in sandy, sunny Jericoacoara.