Day 36: Eating and drinking like Cariocas

Carioca = Rio native!

Full day today. We booked a “Foodies About Town” experience through Airbnb. It was awesome. We joined 5 new friends — David, Mike, David, Gayle and Louise — and guide Vinicius for a 6 hours.

This is Vinicius…

This is how the tour was presented on Airbnb:

And this is the summary of everything we did, shared by Vinicius over email after the tour.

• Street Market: Caldo de cana (sugar-cane juice with fresh lime juice), Beiju de Tapioca (tapioca pancakes), Manga Palmer (large sweet mango with no strings), Jaca (Jackfruit), Maxixe (spiky, lemony cucumber), Jiló (small green bitter vegetable related to egg plant/aubergine), Acerola (sour red berries high in Vitamin C), Pitomba (like a primitive lychee)
• Nova Capela: Chopp Brahma (Brazil’s most popular draft beer), Bolinhos de bacalhau (salt cod and potato croquettes), Pastel de nata (classic Portuguese egg custard tart)
• Belmonte (Caipirinhas): Limão (Lime), Maracujá (Passionfruit), Morango (Strawberry), Siriguela (Yellow, plum-like fruit)
• Juice Bar: Suco de Acerola (juice of the acerola berry, high in vitamin C), Suco de Amora (juice of the Brazilian blackberry), Pão de Queijo (chewy Brazilian cheese bread puffs)
• Amazonian Restaurant: Tacacá (the strange Amazonian soup which leaves your tongue tingling), Açaí (fruit pulp of açaí berry, slightly sweetened with guaraná syrup), Cerpa (pilsner beer brewed in the Amazon)
• Final Northeastern Restaurant: Pastel (deep-fried pastry parcels), Bolinhos de jaba (pumpkin croquettes with cured beef), Cerveja Colorado (Beer from São Paulo), 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), Couve (shredded bitter collard greens cooked with garlic), Maria Bonita (cured beef, rice and beans, fried yuca/cassava), Bombons de Cupuaçú (sweet cupuaçú fruit covered in dulce de leche and chocolate), Cafezinho (coffee to finish)

Food and drinks were delicious but the best part was seeing several cool neighborhoods, restaurants and bars from a local’s perspective. The kids were generally really good and even when they weren’t, our fellow eaters and guide were super nice and understanding.

Interesting / tragic note: at our final restaurant the TVs were playing news coverage of the death of Ricardo Boechat, a famous Brazilian news personality who died in a helicopter crash. Our guide had been listening to him live on the radio this morning.

It was hot and humid. We were all a sweaty mess by the end so we made a beeline for the hotel pool. The water is relatively warm so the kids are obsessed.

They were there from 4:30 – 8pm with a short break for pizza and pasta in our bathing suits.