After a good night of a little R & R, I think one of the main things that I have come to love about Rio is the many tastes the city has. From the first day on Sugarloaf Mountain with the ice cream we ate, ever since my taste buds have been craving the local food. On Sugarloaf, the group stopped for a nice dessert which included delicious fruit and ice cream. The second night we were here, the crew had a great (unplanned) sort of buffet family dinner. I got to try and eat new foods that I have never had before.
The third day was a day filled with a lot of walking. We looked at many sites and a lot of architectural buildings downtown. What was nice was that we were able to find our own way to our final destination of the night and that was the delicious Porcao. I have to say this was one of the best restaurants I’ve ever eaten at. I myself am a big meat guy and Porcao was the definition of that.
During the fourth day of lunch, we were again able to experience and find something of our liking. I decided to get pizza. It was very good topped with ham, onions, and green peppers. This was a little different than the normal pepperoni that I am used to. Along with food, I’ve had my share of the local drinks here. The local draft, Brahma, is very good as is the Caipirina. I am usually not one to try new things but since I’ve been in Rio, I have been falling in love with doing such things.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the food we experienced in Rio. My mom was shocked to hear that I tried so many new foods, especially foods like crab, calamari, and shrimp because I never thought I was a seafood kind of gal. Even the pig tail, feet, and ear at the Feijoada restaurant was surprisingly delicious.
My mom took my sister and I to dinner after picking me up at the airport. We went to Patrick J’s and ordered typical bar food like chicken fingers, nachos, quesadillas, etc. I couldn’t even finish half my plate because the greasy heavy food was too much for me to handle compared to all of the food we had been eating during the week and I instantly wished I could transport back to Broth or one of the other delicious pay-by-the-kilo restaurants in Rio. Being in Rio reminded me how much I love fruit and I made myself a fruit salad consisting of strawberries, pineapple, banana, and watermelon to snack on at home rather than my typical chips or other junk food. While it doesn’t compare to the strange Amazon fruits we were able to taste in whole, juice, and ice cream forms down in Rio, it will have to do. I’m going to recreate the ice cream treat we had at the top of Sugarloaf sometime soon, too bad I can’t have the views of Rio to go along with it… Now all I need is a caiparinha!