Rio de Janeiro - Day 3

Today (now yesterday )started off by us catching a taxi to where our Rio food tour (Done by Eat Rio Food Tours "link") started. Our tour guide Tom started the company when he moved here (10 years ago from England) and decided to quit his job (6 years ago), in our tour’s group we had two couples both from England and both with good senses of humor. 

The tour started just across from a food market which, after gaining some basic information, we made our way through. First, we started with a Rio hangover cure, the juice of a sugar cane, first pure then with squeezed lime, the original tasted like grass and the second tasted like the best lemonade ever. Next, we walked passed all the spices and fruits they had on the stalls almost every stall we stopped and looked at the interesting fruits with Tom giving us interesting information about the origin and taste of said fruits. At one stop we saw how they peeled the garlic for the buyers except one layer, a handy thing when cooking and another stop was when we saw a stall selling only bananas. At the banana stall Tom informed us of how bananas were a replacement of the saying “Dirt cheap” in Brazil replaced with “As cheap as bananas” and how when things were on sale there would be pictures or drawings of bananas around the price. After we finished “totally organic” bananas we got for free from the vender we moved on to pineapples, again pineapples are used to describe something, pineapples are used to describe a problem and the problem solver was/is called the “Pineapple peeler”. Here is what we saw so far.

On our way driving through Copacobanna.

Making the sugar cane drink.

Deep-fried pastries.

Sugar cane drink with lime.

The  market.

Spices and roots galore.

Mango and pineapple.

We stopped in at a stall which sold bags of white tubes in liquids sometimes called marioc, after we walked further through the market we stopped at a stall where there were masses of this white powder made from the marioc sticks and then had pancakes made from this powder. The pancakes were made by a person sprinkling onto a pan the powder fully covering it (no oil or butter or anything needed on the pan just onto it “raw”), cooking it, putting a topping/filling on it, flipping it, folding it then eating it. We had coconut and condensed milk on one and cheese with oregano on the other. Next to the stall we stopped to have some fruit he had bought and nurtured in his home. First, we had fresh Cacao, not cocoa but the fresh fruit from which it is made. Next, we had mango (Magna in Portuguese) commonly referred to as the fruit with no strings due to its smooth texture unlike the mango you’ll be used to in the West. The mango was insanely juicy and had a great taste to it, safely the best mango I’ve ever had, next was pineapple, again it was insanely juicy and unlike the pineapple we’re used to in the West it had no core (at least it was very soft), again, it was the best pineapple I’ve ever had.  Here it is, in pictures.

Marioc (used to make tapioca) powder being made.

Marioc snacks being made.

Cheese and oregano marioc sandwich.

Cacao. 

After we’d had an assortment of crazy fruits we caught taxis (Directed by Portuguese speaking Tom) to Nova Capela, an old-fashioned restaurant with a fascinating story. It used to just be called Capela meaning Cathedral and was doing great since it opened in 1903 until there was a fire in the 1950s (I forget what year) causing it to move to its current location under the new name Nova Capela meaning New Cathedral. At Nova Capela the Brits started of the morning-lunch with a beer and us a Brazilian pineapple and mint juice accompanied with a Brazilian dish, a deep-fried ball of Salted Cod, cheese and a various number of other ingredients. 

After the quick snack, we walked down to the Lapa Arches stopping in at a bar to get some caipirinha cocktails as you do (Surprisingly dad even got one), after talking about the arches and learning about some graffiti done locally we moved up to the Selaron Steps. Unlike yesterday’s tour we learnt about his suspicious death through Tom’s insider knowledge and about the likely story behind Horje Selaron’s obsession with the pregnant black woman (likely related to a death early in his childhood).

Dad and his cocktail.

The Lapa Arches.

Graffiti/Art. 

Same.

Same.

Art of old mob bosses who used to where white coats 

and stand on the corners of the streets.

Art on the side of a cafe.

Art by Selaron.

Selaron Steps.

Selaron's house.

Selaron Steps and the tiles that cover them.

Me and dad on the side of the Selaron Steps.

On our way in to Gloria.

Where the metal (which I talk about below) is sold and melted down.

 We took some photos at the steps, went closer to his house connected to the steps and then walked through to Gloria (another part of Rio) where we stopped and “taste tested” some of Tom’s favourite juices made fresh from one of many local juice bars, I liked all of them. Also in Gloria, we saw how many of the poor make or at least try to make money, they are known as “the collectors”, they wander the streets of Rio collecting these materials out of rubbish bins and just randomly off the street. After they’ve accumulated a decent amount they go to these garage type places and sell these materials to the people that run these places for a certain number of $Real (Brazilian currency) per Kilo. The buyers then go on to melt down these metals or reuse the cardboard etc. and then go on to sell these recycled metals for a profit, all of this is done with no government funding or initiative and is done purely by the people. 

Once we’d tasted our juices we stopped again at a corner for some local cheese bread, basically mini cheese scones (cheese biscuits if you’re in the states) purposefully soft in the middle due to the melted cheese (yesterdays were better as, I believe, they weren’t made by a franchise). From there we caught the metro to another part of Rio, sorry I forget the name, where we stopped again for a quick drink, more caipirinha cocktails and a coke for me, and then onto a small restaurant (I use the term loosely, we sat at bar stools) type place where we tried some cyanide soup, I’ll explain later, and acai (pronounced ass-eye-eee) sorbet. 

The cyanide soup was very salty and accompanied with two shrimp and these leaves that acted as an anaesthetic causing a tingling sensation on our tongues. The way the “cyanide soup” came about was the plant the soup is mainly made from contained dangerous amounts of cyanide and the only way they (old tribesman) could make it edible/not poisonous was through a very meticulous method. First, they put the shredded plant into a basket, submerge it for 2-3 days in a river letting the current loosen up and wash through the plant, take the basket out, boil the plat for another three 3 days at which point the plant was now edible. 

The second part of our quick meal, the acai, was not as good as I had yesterday (I thought) but! There is a reason for this, what I had was the more touristy version, fuller of fillers to disguise the real flavour meaning more icey like a slushy and a lot more sugar (let’s face it, sugar can make anything taste good). I am not saying that today’s more traditional and local version was bad just that it was different and more “true”.  Photos:

Tom at the juice bar.

Cyanide soup.

From the small restaurant place we headed over to a small park where we had a rather weird fruit, it was very sour and slimey but it was well worth it to say I did it, at the park we also had Tom’s favourite juice, the cocoa plant (I believe that’s where it came from) juice just like what we had in solid (slime) form earlier in the day. The juice was weird, yes, but also a new taste which wasn’t that bad at all! Once we’d finished our quick pit stop of mystery juice and fruit we headed around the corner to our last place, the dinner place. 

There we had (suffice to say more beer) and a barrage of very tasty traditional Brazilian snacks that could be sold on the street (street food = entree/starter) etc.  First, we had a deep fried (empanada like) beef and pumpkin, pastry wrapped dish; shrimp and sweet potato (I believe) crumbed, deep-fried dish, a longer style of what we had earlier in the day and finally (in the entrees) a halloumi type cheese with a tapioca sweet and tasty sauce, all of these dishes were very tasty. 

Next were the mains, we had a lot of rice dishes, some were mixed with the same type of cheese, tomato, bell peppers and refried (or black, again sadly can’t remember) beans, beef dishes with the marioc plant again, this time in the form of chips, and then the seafood dishes. A sort of curry (as in a lot of the “gravy”) dish with prawns (generally can have any type of fish meat depending on where you have it) and then a Shepard’s pie type dish with sweet potato puree (mashed sweet potato) with melted cheese to top it off, and prawns on the bottom. 

Finally, for desserts was a very rich, small chocolate cake which we only needed a quarter of and finally-finally a parting gift from Tom, a chocolate with dulce-de-lece, chocolate (of course) and a jelly type version of one of the fruits we’d had earlier in the day at its centre (wasn’t to my taste but hey, it was to the others’).

Fruit taste testing.

Juice taste testing.

Starters.

More starters.

Mains.

Once dinner had finished we left the restaurant happily stuffed (in other words full), Tom helped us wave down a taxi and helped again with the directions, we got back to the hotel and here I am, tomorrow we had a Favela tour booked but thought better of it so instead for our final day here in Rio de Janeiro we head to the beach! I must say, I found today’s tour much better than yesterday’s. Yesterday’s tour was good, no doubt about it, but…. That tour was to see the sights and get our bearings which is good if you only have a day, today’s tour was great! It gave us an opportunity to take a tour lead by a writer for Lonely Planet, experience what the locals eat and have a great time doing it. Our guide, Tom, was great, spoke Portuguese fluently and English, had a good sense of humour and it felt like we were being shown around town by a local. I would definitely, without a doubt, recommend this tour for anyone who is coming or is in Rio. Fantastic! Anyway, tomorrow like I said is a beach, can’t wait. But until then, goodbye.

Joseph Hewson