O Camarada!

On my way to the beautiful archipelago of Fernando de Noronha I had a brief stop-over in Recife. The night before my flight, I decided to treat myself to a delicious meal from a near-by restaurant (I stayed at the Cosmopolitan Hostel in Boa Viagem).

After talking about the several options available, I decided to go to the Camarada restaurant. They have various seafood dishes, mostly shrimp, and the servings are usually for 2 people. I inquired about what dishes were available for one person, and out of those I chose the 'Ao Carribe'

This dish is shrimp in a catupiry (It's a Brazilian cream cheese, but slightly different... One has to taste it) based pineapple sauce. With it comes rice with broccoli and fries. The shrimp comes served in a split pineapple which gives the plate a very cool presentation. Everything balanced out really well, the rice and fries were really light to offset the heaviness of the sauce. If I had to complain I'd say I could have done with some more shrimp, it was delicious!

ps. dessert here.

Chocottone!

As far as I know, chocottone is a Brazilian invention, taken from the Italian panettone. It replaces the traditional crystallized or dried fruits with chocolate nuggets. It is a sweeter more appealing to kids version of the old traditional sweet bread. Both are suave, airy, light, and to me absolutely delicious. My first post about it was about panettone and nutella. This time I had it for dessert after lunch and decided to accompanied it with some 'carioca' ice cream (chocolate and vanilla). Results below.

Now that Easter is rolling around, Panettone is a traditional eastern treat. Now you can add to it, and make your eastern all the merrier!

Martín Fierro!

Martín Fierro's Restaurant in Sao Paulo is a higher end restaurant with a very simple and common feel. The area is not big, with some tables inside, and some more in the veranda out front. Most of the plates feed more then one person, the idea is for you to pick a couple to share between your party. They also have a variety of appetizers and Argentinian empanadas. To start we got a couple of empanadas (pictured left). I choose the heart of palm and meat fillings, and they were both very good. The filling is moist and full of flavor, and the crust crumbles as you bite down, and yet is soft to chew. One could come to this restaurant to only eat the empanadas...

For the main course (pictured right) we got a peice of picanha (tri-tip steak), roasted potatoes and a salad (You can see the corner of the bowl on the top right corner). The salad could be a meal on its own with a variety of leaves, prosciutto slices, small blue-cheese crumbles, big pieces of tomatoes and heart of palm. The potatoes were roasted golden with garlic and rosemary seasoning. In the traditional way, the picanha was lightly seasoned with rock salt, and came medium rare (for some reason the picture came out looking a lot more rare than it actually was). The prime meat was tender and juicy.

This is a great restaurant where you can enjoy high quality specialized food without having to go to a gourmet restaurant. For the outstanding quality of the food it is fairly reasonably priced. I definitely look forward to coming back and enjoying this Argentinian's culinary abilities.

Start the Morning Right!

People say that breakfast is the most important meal. However in today's busy lifestyle it is hard to sit down and enjoy a good nutritional breakfast. That is why when we can, we should take full advantage of the opportunity handed to us. In my vacation time in Sao Paulo I often times get opportunities like that. This is such an example.

A mixed fruit and veggie juice, a bowl of granola and milk, with a mini baguette with mozzarella and strawberry jam. When you start a day like this, things are bound to go well!

Yogurt Fad, It's Everywhere!

The Brazilian summer heat is good on the beach, but bad on your daily schedule. Lucky for us the frozen yogurt fad has come here as well. Frozen yogurt by the pound is dangerous for the wallet, but so so good on the tongue.

Ok so here we have some cream and chocolate flavored frozen yogurt as a base, some granola and strawberries to complement and a little chocolate syrup to finish it off. I don't think I need to say it, but I will... It was delicious.