Welcome to São Paulo...
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
I cannot believe how lucky we have been with the weather here though. It rained quite a bit in Buenos Aires which sucked a little but everytime we have done outdoor activities with our tour group we have ended up having really nice weather. Like the day we went to the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls, it was a beautifully sunny day and now it´s raining cats and dogs again. A few people from our group went to the bird park in Foz do Iguaçu and got to touch a toucan which sounded like lots of fun... we are just suffering a little from a bit of burnout at the moment and really benefited from the sleep in.
The morning we left the Brazilian town of Foz do Iguaçu was gloomy and grey. We had a bit of rain and thunder to contend with. No problems with the flight except for a little turbulence just before we landed in São Paulo.
São Paulo is HUGE.... the population (about 23 million and growing) is bigger than the entire population of Australia and makes Adelaide seem like a tiny country town. We were just passing through which I think everyone was happy to do, so it was all very safe for us.
After a hold up with our luggage at the airport (all of the luggage came out first except for one of my bags which came out almost dead-last) we were off for our trip to Paraty in two buses. The highways are crowded and chaotic and drivers here don´t seem to have the same organic commonsense as the chaotic drivers in Buenos Aires or Phuket in Thailand. It may explain some of the thousands road deaths a year in Brazil. We even had a narrow miss with a smaller car when our driver was changing lanes... luckily we were only travelling at around 15km/h at the time.
Julio was trying to find us some place to eat lunch and we pulled over into almost every dodgy little truck stop we passed. It was crazy, and not one of us looked forward to eating at all. We did get to stop at a pretty good place though. It was still a truck stop / diner at the side of the road, but it was a pretty good churrascaria style buffet (more buffets......aaargh!!!) with decent meats and the salads were pretty cool too. We got to try our first manioc flour dish which was dry and pretty tasteless (we put this down to the fact that it was a truck stop, but we were proven wrong as each time we have this dish it is the same).... maybe a bit harsh, but I don´t think I would order this on purpose.
At least we can say that we ate at one of the most dangerous cities in the world and survived to tell the tale! =)
On the way again and it is starting to get dark. The drive down to the coastal town of Paraty is very windy and a bit scary in the dark. Especially as drivers here have the tendency to turn off their headlights completely when a car in front is near and use the hazard lights instead to show their presence on corners etc.
I had my iPod on my ears for pretty much the entire trip just to chill out a bit.
Posted byAndrew at 1:15 am 0 comments
It´s showtime! Rafain Churrascaria Show
After braving a walk to the local supermarket in Foz do Iguaçu to pick up some water, we jumped on the bus with our fearless tour guide Julio and our informative local operator Antonio to go to see a show and get some buffet dinner (just in case we haven´t been putting on enough weight already!). It was the Rafain Churrascaria Show and was actually pretty good value, although the amount of corn was very high. It was a bit cheesy too but that seems to be the norm over here =) hehe.
The cultural show featured dancing from all over South America and started with Paraguay (did I mention that we got to see Paraguay a couple of days earlier while our bus was stopped on a bridge half way in Argentina and half way in Brazil?) and moved on to Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and others. When the tango came on I was very aware of pretty much everyone looking at Kellie and I at one point or another to see our reactions. The tango was ok, but seemed like a rehearsed performance by people who hadn´t necessarily learned the dance (the dancers performed in most of the different dances) and seemed a little forceful at times. The highlights of the night were the Capoeira, and Samba but there was one with a woman dancing with Bolas or Boleadoras which was amazing... very percussive and my favourite.
The food was great and there was a grill with lots of different meats and some strange and surprising mixtures at the salad bar.
Posted byAndrew at 12:49 am 0 comments
More on Restaurants II
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Last Thursday we went to a local (Palermo) restaurant on Av. Charcas called Restaurante Paté. The service was great and the fritas here (while not my priority for a good meal) were the best chips I have had yet in BsAs. The meals were really tasty too with my Bife de Chorizo and Kellie's Milanesa Napoletana both very hearty. The next night we tried a place across the road called Tabaré Parilla which has completely blown me away as far as the food is concerned. Kellie had the rack of lamb with mushroom sauce and I had a huge cut of lamb which was so succulent and tender. This is a must do, although be careful with how you order here as the service can be a bit lacking. Having said that we did get some complimentary glasses of chapagne to finish the night. Both places weren't as cheap as the others but with mains still in the $25-30peso range at the end of the meal you are still only paying a total of about AUD$25 each for awesome food and accompanying drinks. It was so good that we went back last night with friends Roger and Dru which was when the waiter stuffed up a couple of the orders. I still recommend this place. Try it.
Posted byAndrew at 4:38 am 0 comments
More on restaurants
Saturday, March 24, 2007
We have had some really nice dining experiences here, some of them more formal than others.
- Chiquilin on Montevideo and Sarmiento near where we were staying -- formal parilla restaurant... bit pricey compared with other experiences, but I think the bill was still only about $40pesos each for mains, sides and drinks.
- Pippo's on Montevideo and Sarmiento. Next door to Chiquillin... Cannot compare this parilla with Chiquillin... it wouldn't be fair, but it was still a nice experience. The food here was okay and the prices I think were definitely reasonable. I think we got away from this meal of pasta and Bife de Lomo for about AU$25.
- Campo dei Fiori on San Jose and Venezuela -- another more formal Argentine parilla place, with really really good pasta. Prices were similar to Chiquillin.
- Marini Gourmet -- buffet style with all Argentine and international food represented... very good and the parilla is awesome. BBQ Lamb leg was great. Total bill was about $29pesos for food, another $10 for drinks and $5 for the band.... yes we had to pay for the band that we didn´t know would be there. It was a fun night regardless.
Cafes have been okay too, but some are definitely not at the same level as the restaurants.
- Cervantes II -- the best and cheapest cafe. It was reliable and very close to where we were originally staying for CITA. Milanesa con Fritas (schnitzel with chips) for $6pesos is not one to miss.
- Scuzi... absolutely no resemblance to its Aussie namesake. It was okay but I reckon overpriced for what you are getting.
- La Opera... one we went to a few times but similar to Scuzi. Their service was good though.
Posted byAndrew at 9:11 am 0 comments
Forming a new culinary tradition
Thursday, March 08, 2007
I don't know why this started but it seems that everytime we visit a new place, we instantly seem to seek out the local Indian restaurants. We ate at one while in New Zealand and came very close in Thailand. For dinner on the first night in Santiago we ate at the closest place we found, which funnily enough was an Indian restaurant called the Majestic. Not quite the South American experience we were after but the food was amazing (both in taste and price). We had raita, roti paratha, rogan josh and dal. Followed with some local beers called Austral which were a bit malty for my tastes but still a good accompaniment to the food. I think the bill was around $10,000 Chilean pesos which is about $25 Australian.
Posted byAndrew at 8:00 pm 0 comments
Steak, steak, steak.... and more steak!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Steak, steak, steak.... and more steak! Beef is said to be the national food and I have a premonition that there will be a lot of it involved in our dining experiences. Plus Empanadas, which are pastries filled with different ingredients. Maybe a salad or two if we can fit it in. I'm a little more worried about us coming back heavier - not just our luggage. Dancing at all hours may negate the effects of all of the excess calories... here's hoping anyway.
The parillas (steakhouses) in Argentina are meant to be awesome and serve an amazing amount of food (read beef). Cafes have parilla menus but the actual steakhouses are meant to be better.
- Wikipedia has a round up of the food awaiting us in Buenos Aires.
- The Lonely Planet guide to Buenos Aires also highly recommends the local cuisine.
- Here is a guide to dining out in Argentina
- A blogsite with photos of some great looking dishes
- ...and a traveller's account of the food
It sounds like most places start serving dinner from about 8-9pm each night which may take some getting used to. We are staying in apartments during our stay in Buenos Aires so we can always buy some stuff to help us acclimatise. Really looking forward to eating out though. We've been warned off of the local pizzas, but I'll give anything a go once.
Posted byAndrew at 5:07 pm 0 comments
Labels: buenos aires, food, travel