When we arrived at our hotel in Rio, we waited for our room and found our way to the roof deck… how about kicking off the vacation with some empanadas and an amazing caipiririnha!
As per our tradition.. we sought out the best food tours of Rio and found a great one with Eat Rio. Our food tour started at a Portuguese restaurant where we had salt cod croquettes and traditional Portuguese “Pastel de Nata” which is a traditional Portuguese egg custard tart and completely delicious! (incidentally there is a place in London’s Soho district called Cafe de Nata that sells these divine little tarts in a few flavors, well worth checking out if you find yourself in London!) … back to Rio.. anyhow, after this was a stop at bar for multiple flavors of caipiririnha! traditional , passion fruit and berry.. I’m a traditional gal myself but they were all delicious and packed a punch!
After the caipiririnha was (thankfully) a walk around the street markets. The array of vegetables and fruits was insane. The peppers laid out like a postcard, so much color everywhere in Rio, even at the market!
We watched the tapioca pancakes (beiju de tapioca) being made in front of us, they were heavy but delicious! After the tapioca we stopped at a little stall at the edge of the market that made sugar cane juice with fresh lime, it was so yummy! Not so sweet as you may think, it was super refreshing.
A couple more stops found us at a traditional Amazonian restaurant where they served a strange soup called Tacaca which has leaves that left your tongue tingling, its the same leaves used to make a specific kind of cachaca called Jambu which does the same thing – not my tipple personally, but always game to try! Then of course the Amazonian açaí bowl which was thick and decadent and delicious, made fresh from the pulp of the açaí berry and slightly sweetened with guarana syrup.
More walking through the streets to keep the appetite up took us to our final destination which was a northeastern restaurant that served a whole tapas style meal of local dishes. Queijo coalho com melado (grilled slabs of cheese from northeast Brazil served with sugar cane syrup), Suco de Cupuaçú (strange tasting Amazonian fruit juice), Bolinhos de carne seca com abobora (pumpkin and beef croquettes), Cerveja Therezópolis (locally brewed beer), Cachaça de Jambú (the weird spirit that makes your tongue tingle!), Carne seca com abobora e feijão de corda (air-dried, salted beef with pumpkin and beans), Moqueca Baiana (stew of shrimp or fish, made with coconut milk, peppers and red palm oil), Escondidinho de frango (creamy mashed cassava with chicken, topped with grilled cheese), Couve (bitter garlicky collard greens).
We got back to the hotel and didn’t eat another thing all day after that!!
The Brazilians love their steak and my oh my do they do it well. Picanha and all the trimmings is an insanely protein and carb loaded dinner with meat, beans, rice, farofa (made from yuca flour). It’s a one meal a day type dinner! We went to a famous restaurant in Ipanema called Garota de Ipanema which is allegedly where the Bossa nova jazz song “Girl from Ipanema” was written! Can you believe how much food this was for 2 people.. we barely scratched the surface. Note to self… don’t eat for a week before Picanha!
