On the Rare Occasion

On special occasions our group of divers sometimes go out of our way to make something extra special. This night was the going away dinner for our good friend Nilo. A wise old man he often enlightened us foolish youngsters with his knowledge and experience. Part of that experience was a habit of cooking good meals and part of that knowledge was this amazing recipe for what was know as the pineapple fish sauce for fettuccine pasta.

It was incredible!

The sauce was pretty bland and not overpowering, the pineapples gave some flare to the occasional bite. The fish was flaky and mixed with the pasta really well. With some shaved parmesan on top the salt was just right.
This was one of the best meals I had on the island, and it was all made in our humble little kitchen. Props to my man Nilo!

The Sweet Pie!

Wow it has been a while since I last wrote. I was travelling and quite busy. But I am back now, and I have a lot of ground to cover.

What's a better starting point than pizza.

Will it ever disappoint? They come in all sizes and shapes, and can have just about anything as a topping. This particular pizza is a home-made banana and cinnamon sweet pie. My uncle Katsumi whipped this up for dinner one of my last nights visiting their home. Just by the picture I think you can see this was absolutely delicious, throw some condensed milk on top and it just about gives you a little taste of perfection.

Goiabada e Queijo

'O rei da goiabada' is what they called me, or 'the king of goiabada'. I want to estimate about 5 meals a week at least included goiabada while I was at the island. This is a typical dinner. Goiabada with queijo Prato (cheese).

Fresh Catch!

Working on an island, you sometimes come across some fresh fish. Sometimes you fry it, sometimes you make sushi, and other times you stuff it and grill it.

How do we stuff it? Well first we grill it, then we open remove all the spines and bones. Next we make 'vinagrete' which is a diced tomato, onion, salsa, olive oil, and vinegar. We layer the vinagrete on, and then put on a layer of cream cheese. Afterwards we bake the fish for a few minutes until the cream cheese has melted and sunk into the fish. Next it's chow time. It does not last long. Especially if everyone has a fork of their own.

Less is More!

There is something about pizza that is just too good to be explained. When I went visit my grandma, we went out for dinner, and to keep it simple, decided on a pizza place. Personally I am not a huge fan of too many toppings on a pizza. Take this mozzarella pizza for example.

Just mozarella, onions, some seasoning, parmesan cheese, and a little sauce and you have a perfectly delicious pizza. Good quality toppings is what makes the pizza. Everything food related is about quality not quantity! Though we want to enjoy everything of quality in great quantity!

X-Tudo

Something that is unique to Brazil is the X-burgers. Funny enough the reason they are called that is because the pronunciation of X is similar to that of 'cheese' so if a burger is called a X-something it means it will come with cheese. Learn something new everyday!

This monster looking burger is called the X-tudo or the everything burger. It has sausage, bacon, ham, eggs, cheese, and salad all in the burger. Does all that stuff really come together to make a great tasting heap of goodness? Surprisingly it's not bad. Usually this is a cheap meal made with cheap ingredients, thus the quality of the burger suffers a lot. Honestly it looks better than it tastes, however all the stuff mixed together tastes better than if eaten separately, so in a strange way I suppose they compliment each other. Who would have guessed?

Sweet Party!

A while ago, me and my fellow diver co-workers decided to go to a local party, whose proceeds were going to provide new materials for the Island's school. Who had ever heard of a school charity event being held at a bar with loud electronic music? This was certainly my first. Also tucked away at the corner of the bar was this table (left).

I know! What kind of awesome party has a huge table full of fruits?! This party does! Now tell me... Do Brazilians know how to party or not? And you thought we only had super models and soccer players...

I suppose next time you are planning a party, consider serving up some fruit. To, you know, sweeten up your guests.

Eastern Feast!

For now lets skip the my makeshift meals from the island, and go into the Easter Feast!

Yesterday was Good Friday and we had quite a feast here at my Aunt's house (even though my uncle did the cooking...).

 This is a crazy mix of arborio rice with bell peppers, string bean, chicken, shrimp, sausage and chicken.

This was a great meal, even though it was a big mixture of what seems to be a random assortment of meats with rice. The liquid from the veggies and the meats kept everything moist. Also since it was all slow cooked together, the various flavors blended together, and all the meats were nice and soft. Needless to say it was delicious and I ate too much!

Great job uncle!

Christmas!

Long overdue, due to the my internet hiatus. This is the Christmas Feast 2011!

This was a feast to remember, ranging from chicken salad and cold deli cuts to roasted tenderloin and chocolate cake. Even in the remote location of the island, and the simple lifestyle we lead as divers in this tropical paradise, we had a great feast this holiday season. I will post about our usual meals and you will see why this Christmas feast is so cherished here! Oh and I suppose it's also nice to get all your friends and family together for a party.

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.

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.

Titia Re!

São Paulo is a big city with many culinary options. Lucky for me I also have the option to eat at my aunt Regina's house. This time we went simple with some salad with balsamic dressing, and a fresh pasta made with ham, garlic and cheese.

The best things in life are the simple things!

Obao!

Obao is an all Asian dinner. Walking through the door is like teleporting to some Asian country. The decoration, the servers, and the food is all Asian. All the dishes in our party looked quite good. However I can only write about the one I ate till the very last rice grain.

I don't remember the exact name of the plate I got, and their online menu isn't up yet for me to double check. In any case it was very good, but spicy as any real Thai food is. I drank quite a few cups of water. It was a bed of rice with chicken and an assortment of veggies. The sauce was a "brown" sauce, which was very liquid. The rice absorbed the sauce to give every bite an intense dose of flavor, but was cooked so it didn't become a soggy mess. This is a small place for a big dose of great Asian cuisine.

Shake Shack!

WOW! This place is awesome!
It's in a park and there is no indoor sitting. This gives it a unique setting, however this is not so agreeable in freezing temperatures. Despite the cold we ventured out in our coats to feast on greasy unhealthy deliciousness!

I believe this is called a double stack or something of the sort. It is a normal burger with their version of the vegetarian patty added onto the mixture. This veggie patty consist of portobello mushrooms on top of a fried cheese patty of a unmatched cheesiness deliciousness. This place also serves up a great chocolate and vanilla shake, which your biggest complaint will be that it eventually ends. The fries are ok, but I imagine the cheese fries are great. I have already made plans to go back and to order these... Oh and yes don't go here if you don't agree with the blog title.

No Words Can Describe

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

                                                           I am going to skip some of the New York posts and go ahead and write about my New Years. I went to the Ze Maria party in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. No words can quite describe this party which rolls from 8pm of the 31st to 8 am of the 1st, only so you can find yourself going to the beach after for the after party. Oh and yes they serve food there (there were over 300kg of salmon to be served...).





I helped myself to some sushi first and then I complimented my dinner with an all inclusive risotto that was absolutely stunning, some spoonfuls of two types of creamy shrimp sauce, some baked fish and 3 pieces of fried coconut covered shrimp. Again I don't really know what to say, because honestly no words can describe. If you find yourself wanting to have an unforgetable new years on a paradisical island look no further then here, just don't ask the price.

Philly in Philly

On my way to the Big Apple I had an hour to kill in Philadelphia. Logically, I went to get a philly cheesesteak. Unfortunatelly I couldn't leave the airport so I had to settle for, well, what was available. Though I will admit that if the bread had been a little less rubbery, it could have made for a quite good sandwich.

To summarize, I have had a Philly cheesesteak in Philly, so that's off the bucket list (Though I look forward to coming back for the best of the best that Philly has to offer).

Cucina Italiana

I don't think I will ever write badly about an Italian restaurant, but that doesn't mean I don't know where to give credit. La Vecchia Cucina in Santa Monica is a high end package of deliciousness.

I had the vitello piccata with linguine alla puttanesca. It was very rich in flavor and the meat was very soft. The restaurant tables are packed pretty close together in a very Italian way, and I didn't feel like it disrupted from the experience.

Lazy as a Dog

I will make a confession. I could eat a burger everyday and be totally ok with it though not with the fat I'd gain. Today we have the Lazy Dog Cafe burger. A pretty standard burger for an american restaurant.

It is both big and filling, and make you feel like a lazy dog afterwards. If you want a good american sit down restaurant, and you feel like getting a burger this is a good place to start. Don't expect to be blown away by it. Not pictured, the potato hush puppies and the mediterranean pizzetti are very good. Oh and lest we forget, they also offer a pretty delicious apple pie, so don't eat like a pig dog and save up some room.

Steak, YES!

Recently I found myself in a random steak house. This place was called Prime Cut Cafe in Stadium Promenade, Orange County. This place was amazing, also home to the Best Chocolate Cake Ever. However be prepared to shed a couple ounces in gold off of your wallet. Like all steak houses most entrees went for for around $20-25, throw in some drinks, maybe a salad and dessert and it adds up pretty fast. Now onto the part you actually care about, the food.

Simple dish, baked potatoes (I'm guessing with eggs and plenty of cheese), roasted garlic (literally melted in your mouth, eat it with the steak if you know whats good for you and bad for your breath), and coulotte steak (part of the top sirloin). Absolutely delicious. Not much else to be said.

Sausage Feast

Portillo's is a Chicago based hot dog and other stadium type food restaurant. Its one of those quick, but not really fast food dinner types. Tonight I got a standard hot dog (left) and a polish dog (I liked this sausage better). Not pictured is their chocolate cake milkshake. Yes they drop a piece of brownie into a vanilla shake, yes it was good, and yes it was thick and very filling.

For the price it's pretty good, however it is just a loaded hot dog. You won't miss out by skipping this place, unless you are a fan of cheap sausages.