A Mini Gastronomic Guide to São Paulo

 During my most recent trip to Brazil, I dedicated my stay in São Paulo to seeing dear friends while eating great food. In a city the size of São Paulo there are thousands of restaurant options, but is always good to have the insight of the locals.
I hope this mini guide will be useful not just to those who are visiting São Paulo, but also to those who live there and would like to try out a new place.

My first day in SP was very inspiring; I spent it with my friend Xênia, a talented singer and song writer to the Brazilian band Aláfia.  After catching up for a couple of hours, we went out for lunch with another great friend of ours, Samira (about whom I previously wrote a post - click here to see it) and by Julio, Xênia's roommate who is also a musician.

The place of choice was Mercearia (Rua Rodésia, 34) at the Vila Madalena neighborhood. Mercearia is a traditional bar and restaurant in the neighborhood and the hot spot to many Brazilian artists. The main dishes are à la carte, they change according to the week days and come with all you can eat buffet. A simple menu and hype crowd make this a fun place to be.

We had dessert and coffee at the place next door, Café Vintage (Rua Rodésia, 76), a very cute place that also serves food and have a vintage store inside.

In the neighborhood Pinheiros I met my childhood friend Sarinha (about whom I previously wrote a post too - click here to see it). She took me to a place called Goa (Rua Cônego Eugênio Leite, 1152) a sophisticated vegetarian restaurant where not just the food is great but also the ambiance and service. The prix fixe menu of a starter, main dish, dessert and fresh juice changes daily. During weekdays at lunch time the full menu comes at R$28,90 and the executive menu at R$24.

Sarinha also took me for an afternoon coffee and cake at Deli Paris (Rua Harmonia, 484), a french style café that offers delicious sweet and savory options.

Bistrô O Chá (Rua Aspicuelta, 258) was also introduced to me by Sarinha. A tea house franchise from Lisbon, this place is cozy and the menu counts with dozens of tea options from all over the world. Plus the food is great too!

My meeting with my dearest Daphne was fast but delicious. She took me to Be Fresh (Prof. Carlos de Carvalho, 95, Itaim Bibi), a healthy food restaurant, with many vegetarian options. For those who like to combine light food and relaxed environment.

P.S: Just a reminder that everything writen in blue is a link that will take you to the website of the places (I couldn't find websites to all the restaurants listed in this post). Enjoy!

Curry with a Story

In 2011 I had the opportunity to visit India with my friend Ana Letícia. As we traveled to several different parts of the country, I think we can agree that one of the nicest experiences we had was a cooking class we took while in Udaipur.
That we were going to learn a lot about indian food we already knew, but we had no idea that we were about to have a lesson in culture, strength and courage from our hostess Shashi.

We were welcomed with enthusiasm by her, to her simple home, and after she placed a bindi on each of our foreheads, she started to tell us her story. She was married by her family to a complete stranger, a man that didn't even speak the same language as herself. They had two kids, and by the time the oldest one was 9, her husband died. Forced to follow his culture's costumes, disallowing her to ever remarry, she was also put through an extensive mourning period where she was not allowed to leave her house. During this period, the late husbands family constantly checked on her to see if she was doing as she was expected but never did they help her and the children, financially or in any other way.
She started doing laundry for a nearby guest house during the night in order not to be discovered, till one day the guest house owner came over to her place while she was cooking one night and ended up staying over for dinner. He loved the food and suggested that she would start teaching cooking lessons, as many of his guest always asked for it. She didn't speak English at the time and her first answer was no, but her son reminded her that she also did not speak Hindi when she first married her husband but that she later learned it.
She gave it a shot, and her first students were a couple of Australians. She had to mimic her way trough the whole thing and wrote instructions in Hindi in a piece of paper. The next day the couple came back, with the whole thing translated onto a CD, so she would only have to print out the recipes for the next students.
Today she has it translated to French, German and Portuguese. One of her students later on started her blog, by which way we found her.
Beside all this the food was delicious! Here is Shashi's curry recipe that is always a big success in my kitchen:

INGREDIENTS:

Me at Shashi's kitchen

- 2 tablespoons of oil
- A pinch of cumin
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 large onion
- A piece of ginger about 1 inch long
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon of coriander powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of red chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- A pinch of turmeric
- A couple of vegetables of your choice, some of the most common combinations are:
*cauliflower, potato and tomato
*peas and potato
*eggplant and tomato

METHOD:

My friend Ana learning from the master

Cut the onion in half, dice one half and put the other half in a food processor with the ginger, garlic and a pinch of salt until smooth.
Add oil to a large pan over medium-high heat. Add cumin and diced onion and let it cook for a minute.
Add to the pan the food processor mixture and cook until the onion starts to turn golden.
Add coriander, red chili, turmeric and salt to the pan plus 1/2 cup of water and mix well.
Add the vegetables of your choice (but not the tomatoes) and cook for 5 minutes with the pan covered.
Add tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes.
Check a piece of vegetable to see if it's cooked, otherwise keep on adding water little by little until it's done.
Serve with white rice.

The result - kohlrabi and potato curry with white rice. I also used the kohlrabi greens to make a side dish.
Bon appetit!

The Creations of Samira

One of my favorite things about writing this blog is that it has given me a vehicle to acknowledge to myself and to whomever else is reading it, what an amazing group of people I have for my friends.

Today I will talk about a very special one, Samira, who is my friend of about 9 years now, and with whom I have shared many special moments in many different places all around the world.

Samira and I enjoying the beach in Rio

My two favorite things about this girl are her sense of humor and her creativity. Samira has an amazing ability with her hands that go from braiding her own hair and her friend’s (like mine many times) to sewing, drawing, painting and much more.

But the one thing that she got really into is crochet, I guess one of the reasons could be that as a model, she is waiting in a casting room or backstage area and crochet is an easy thing to bring along like a book. She has taught me some basic stitches but I was never able to translate them into anything wearable, but her on the other hand, makes the most distinct, stylish, unique and cutest things ever.

Such is the success she has with her creations that orders are now popping up from all over the place, from baby wear, to dresses, bikinis and most recently dog clothing (I ordered something for Sasha - can’t wait!).

She doesn’t have a website yet, but if you wish to get quotes or more info on her work and orders please e-mail her directly at samira_carvalho1@hotmail.com

Besides all the success with arts and crafts, Samira is also one of the founders of Clã das Amoras (The Blackberry Clan), a community created to honor the beauty and culture of all black women, defending their freedom of expression and building their self esteem.

Here is some of her crochet work:

Samira's cute niece wearing hear creations

Bathing Suit

Dress

Bikini

Baby Shoes

Hand Bag

House Socks

Another Dress

Bikini Top with Studs

10 Years Later

Last week I got great news: my childhood friend Maria Clara is visiting New York with her husband.

I was thrilled cause Maria Clara was way more than just some girl in my class, we were very good friends back then. We went over to one another houses uncountable times to play and do home work, we had numerous sleep overs, went to the movies together every week, I knew her whole family and she knew mine. At the beginning of high school however she moved to a different school and we lost contact.

Well, Facebook just fixed that, and last Sunday we met up again after 10 years, this time in the big apple.

You know how they say that when true friends meet again no matter how long they’ve been apart it feels like they were together the day before? That’s exactly how it was.

We strolled around the Flea Market in Williamsburg, had lunch at The Meatball Shop, walked across the Williamsburg Bridge back to the city to Nolita where we stopped by Café Habana for a frozen margarita. I mean, is not everyday I meet someone I enjoy walking around with for 3 miles over 6 hours.

A day spent with a friend is a memory made

But besides her sense of humor, kindness and bright personality, this girl has yet another reason to be loved and admired by everyone around her, she recently won a fight against one of the scariest monsters of our time, cancer.

At 24, she is finally out of the hospital, where she lived for months under medication that alone would make many of us give up the fight.

Her trip to New York is the beginning of a one year plan to travel around the world with her husband after going through what was certainly the toughest year of their lives.

It was great seeing you guys. I wish you all the love, happiness and health in the world! Enjoy your traveling!

You can follow up with Maria Clara’s trip on her blog www.mariaclaracallil.com

Cidadão Pró-Mundo (Pro-World Citizen)

From all the people that I have kept in touch with through adult life from back in school days, my friend Sarinha is the one that has by far the best job of them all. At least in my opinion. 

She is the administrative director of a NGO in São Paulo, called Cidão Pró Mundo (Pro-World Citizen). 

For them it all started in 1997, when the founder brought a foreign friend to visit a low-income community in the south west of the city. To his surprise, all the youngsters in the community got really exited to meet a foreigner and kept trying to communicate with him. 

That’s when the idea to use English as a tool to promote equality emerged. Classes started to be given at the students residences up to 1999 when they got their own space. Today they have a partnership with Cambridge University Press and are using one of the most well established learning materials in the world.

But to say that English is all they teach would be really diminishing the great work being done. The kids who attend these classes don’t really have access to good schooling in general, and the volunteers have been striving to teach basics from other subjects while using English language in the classroom. 

In the first part of the course, students learn how to talk about Brazil in English, to boost their self-esteem. Afterwards they are exposed to projects focused on work experience to feel confident about getting into the labor market.

Today they serve 8 communities, have 300 volunteers and over 700 students. 

And as if all this wasn’t exiting enough, People of Change, a NGO that makes documentaries about organizations that strive for the betterment of their community through sustainable changes not just to honor them but also to encourage others to start similar work, just release a teaser on the documentary they did on Cidadão Pro-Mundo. 

Watch with English Subtitles: 

Want to help? Pró-Mundo is now raising funds to buy text books and other school supplies. With a small donation of R$60 (about USD $30) you can buy all the supplies a student will need for a whole year. To donate please e-mail faleconosco@cidadaopromundo.org.br

Liking Cidão Pró-Mundo Facebook Page also helps!

Congrats Sarinha, for all the hard work! You are for me a source of inspiration.