Japanese food

As a city that has a large concentration of Japanese immigrants, it is not surprising there is tons of good Japanese food available. The first exposure was on my second day. We went to this really neat little place that did all you can eat temaki, onigiri, and shish-kebabs. The temaki were expected types, salmon, with skin, tuna, squid, vegetarian, fried shrimp. The onigiri, fewer options, with ume being the expected favorite. Tons of options for the Kebabs. Pretty much all of it delicious.

The temaki, was really quite delicious. These 'simple' rolls are really not readily available in the states. Only gripe? sometimes its a bit hard to bit through the seaweed wrap.

You'll have to forgive my failing memory about some of the ordered food. The impact doesn't really change though. It was good.

Next up. Bacon wrapped potatoes? Yes please.  I wish we had something like this at all back home. Reminded me of what Tapas is supposed to be. Simple small dishes, that just keep coming as long as you are still ordering alcohol.

Next to the potatoes, are chicken hearts. Not something common in the states, really at all. They were pretty good, a bit tough, I guess, but really not much worse than like a thick sausage skin. The flavor wasn't anything peculiar or offending. So, in all, I'd recommend it. Steak bits next to that, and mushrooms (which I later found could come bacon wrapped).

The onigiri was the most unfair. The rice was so good, and I know I won't be able to get this sort of thing back home. I miss it already. I think I actually got this one with salmon inside? Unsure at this point. I ate too much though, seriously. It was endless, you want more Onigiri? Just mark it on the paper. Temaki? it's right there, choose your flavor. Too much food. This will be a common theme.

Moving on to the next Japanese stop.  Koban.

  Koban, is another all you can eat Japanese place. This one though, proper sushi. Koban in japanese is basically "police box". Pretty neat name in my opinion. The street appeal is actually pretty high. Nicely lit, inviting, and a cool front door (who doesn't like water features?).

The inside is very cool! I really like the decor of the restaurant. Has a very Japanese feeling, but at the same time has these cool middle isle booths. With the lights underneath with the glossy surfaces, I sit her asking...is this blade runner? Well, maybe it isn't, but it was cool anyway. 

The food showed up faster than I could keep track of it all. I didn't even see Mel and Gabe order most of this. Later they told me they just said what "not" to bring...go figure.

 There are a lot of...starters? You can choose what you want. Pictured above. Gyoza (really good). Mini Pastels, which, uh..I think might have had fish? Not positive anymore. Its a pastel though, which means it was great. Spring rolls, stir fried mushrooms in the back. Salmon ceviche. It was great. All of it. Next picture over, shows the white fish ceviche. Which was also really good, and more temaki. All three are salmon, but the two on the outside are "skin on" which is crispy cooked skinned salmon. The bowl has a japanese cucumber (read pickle) salad.

 The sushi itself, is really nice isn't it? Mostly salmon, which is really quite good by me. (There's some tempura hiding on the side). There's some spicy things on the 'front' of the plate, with a cream cheese on top. At the back is the Sashimi, white fish, something I can't identify next to that, Tako (octopus) and then Salmon. The nigiri takes up the row in front of that, dominated by more salmon. There's some other stuff mixed in there. Closest to the camera, is what was easily my favorite. I didn't really know you could improve salmon sashimi and nigiri. It's like a reverse sushi. It is little bit of rice, wrapped in salmon, with a bit of diced salmon on top. It's delicious. I don't know how the rice gives it so much more mouth feel, but gah. Need this.

The last japanese stop was actually on my last day. It was lunch, Mel and I walked around her neighborhood which is near a college, and some of her favorite places were actually closed, but we managed to find this little Japanese place. Had my last Guarana there. It ended up much the same as Koban, you tell them what you want to roll through for appetizers, and I'm not entirely sure how the factor to your bill. Then after those plates are cleared, blam! Sushi. Here we had less overall variety, but more tuna, which was good. And the whitefish in the foreground is all separated by thinly sliced limes. First one i ate with the lime. Didn't work so well. Rind too thick, was good that way, but hrmm execution didn't work so great. I wish we did sushi like this in the states. Instead its a much more ala carte style, and way over charged. No complimentary gyoza and temaki. I'll miss it. Somehow managed not to find a fish bread, or get some takoyaki on this trip. I'll add it to the Udon and Okonomiyaki. 

Market food

I probably can make a bunch more posts about this, but this was effectively breakfast on the first full day. Markets, or "fairs" as they are called. Akin to a farmer's market in the states, but far more regular and not hipster or hippy even.

In this case, we went to the Saturday market down the street from my sisters house. Its basically all local farm fresh food, but it bounces around to various parts of the city. Rather unsurprisingly its A LOT of fruit. The vendors are all very friendly and want you to try their wares, offering fruit cuts, or entire small fruits (mini bananas!). It makes sense, given its the best way to show how fresh it is. I'm advised everyone does this and to not feel obligated to buy anything from a vendor just because you stood still too long and the pushed fruit at you. I don't normally do breakfast so I got my fill.
 
 

In this picture, front or center, two types of dragon fruit. Not sure if there is a flavor difference between the two. Just below the orange colored with stems are Passion fruit. Star fruit on the top left. Guava to next to them. Kiwis and Papayas. All the way to the right and front are Pear-Apples. The weird green fruit is called a "Sugar-Apple". Haven't had one yet. The packaged small fruits are called Acerola, or Barbados Cherry. Just below on the left nearly cut out of the picture are Mangosteen.

These are AVOCADOS. They are really freakin big. I should have put my hand in the picture for reference. I think they eat them (and everything else here) with sugar.

I didn't grab any pictures, but they have meat and cheese stands at these markets as well, and all the way at the end they have a fish monger, the fish was extremely fresh, and lots of variety. Some of it no real good translation for. I may at some point see what I can do to grab a picture.

For lunch, we went to Karaoke at a place in Liberdade, the Japanese cultural center of the city. I unfortunately didn't grab pictures of food at the karaoke place, a little too busy singing I guess? Under the Sea, Evangelion theme song, and Total Eclipse of the heart were some big highlights. I had a really solid bowl of ramen here, complete with boiled egg and naruto slice. I got the miso variety which had a slightly more flavorful broth. We had cake there which was a Matcha (green tea) cake my sister ordered beforehand from a place literally across the street.

The cake was really good. There was a sort of green tea jelly layer, as well as the cake portion itself being slightly tea-flavored. Or maybe it was just green. Either way. Yum. We then headed across the street to see the pastry shop the cake came from. Holy crap. I walked away with a few items, but seeing as I was already full from the cake, noodles, and creme puffs, it was a big "eyes bigger than stomach" situation. Still, I now have Melon bread waiting for me. Score.

In liberdade we walked around, and went in a variety of little Japanese shops and it reminded me of my childhood in ways that I didn't really expect. Though, we didn't manage to find any "sadness candy". If you've ever seen grave of the fireflies, those candies will never been the same since. We didn't have the most success getting bubble tea, they were out of bubbles. The bakery where these crazy macaroons and pastries were had a "upstairs"cafe which had bubble tea, alas hindsight is 20/20.

On Monday, we went to downtown section of Sao Paulo and hit "the market". Ultimately its a large building that looks like it was once a train depot, that was built entirely to be a market square from the beginning. This plays out like the local fair on Saturday, except all the time.

  

I don't even know if I can hope to get in all the comments about the things I saw here. It was much slower than normal, being that it was mid-Monday, some of the booths weren't even really open.

obviously they had sundries, various nuts, dried fruit, meats, dried fish, fresh fish, oils, jellies, cheese, many many types of cheese. Mel was happy to find there is now a Brazilian company doing cheddar and feta. she used to pay import prices, $$$.

Of course I had to stop by the pepper stand! I did not directly sample any of the fresh pepper wares, as this is a dangerous proposition. However, I did not leave empty handed, and have many spicy joys to bring to the US with me.

Seriously though, how cool is it to see all the types of olives you could possibly want? Want fresh garlic cloves? We've got that. You wants palm hearts? Yep. I wish I could have walked away from here with more. It just wouldn't have made much sense, especially since just about every meal I'll be having hear is likely a "meal out". My brother-in-law was complaining that the list of places to take me was longer than days and meals available. Guess I'll just have to come back for a round two!

We finished up our time at the market by getting some well known 'market food'. Above there is something of a deck and a bunch of places selling beer and hot food.

In this case the hot food in question is Mortadella sandwiches. For the uninitiated, mortadella in the US goes more by the name of the region it comes from. Bologna Italy. I'd pretend this was somehow a higher quality bologna, but it wasn't really *that* much improved over what you might think of. It was, however, better than my expectations. My sandwich is on the left. It is a smoked Mortadella with sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella. Mel's to the right was a "spicy italian"Mortadella and looks like more standard fair of tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, maybe some mayo hiding in there somewhere. Gabe's in the rear, obviously not mortadella but a sort of pulled pork. It was a bit too dry and salty unfortunately. My smoked was actually really, quite good. I can't say I was surprised, ingredients list sounds great. The smoked flavor really came out quite well. We also had this sort of fried fish..uh stick? You apparently eat it with hot sauce normally, I'll gladly comply.

Finally, I can't really talk about market food without mentioning street food. They are pretty related, since at the market there are some expected vendors around. One, which is pretty great, is fresh ground sugar cane juice. Mixed with some various fruits of your choice. Ginger and sugar cane...so good. I know I've been on a ginger kick for a while, but man this was good. We also snagged a Lime and sugar cane juice. Really, the only issue with these things (besides I suppose lots of sugar) is that they tend to go bad pretty quick. Might just mean that you get a short cut to making some ginger beer. The second street food. Pastel. These are pretty much everywhere. We grabbed some on Saturday, but we also had some Sunday as a snack while walking a popular culture street (and fair day) before late lunch at Gabe's aunt's place. These are fried "envelopes"of dough with various filling options. Sweet or savory or cheesy. The dough is a lot lighter and crispier than I had expected, I was ready to assume it was too filling. These things are one of my favorites now. I've had the shredded beef and "pizza"filled variations. Only complaint, and a small one at that, is that these things are served right out of the fryer, and they are hot, and the filling ends up sliding down to the bottom. Just means its "good to the last bite" though right? I'll see if I can get a better picture of one of these marvels.

Update: I got pictures of Pastels. Lots.

Pizza is love. Pizza is life.

So, for the uninitiated, pizza in Sao Paulo is like pizza in Chicago or New York. In theory it should have a bit of a "international recognition". At very least, it is better than pizza in Rio, where they put ketchup on top.

I'm sure Gabe and Mel struggled with "which" pizza place to take me to, the city is not lacking for them in any way. We ended up at a very 'atmosphere' driven place called Braz. It was packed! We got there at 8:30 and had a 1/2 hour wait (this is 'early' for the dinner rush). They have a nice outside deck waiting area, we ordered drinks and a bread appetizer. The appetizer immediately reminded me of Will!

Not as spicy, but salami and cheese folded into the dough. So good. Ugh, my mouth waters thinking of it right now.

The inside is a big open high roof area, and at the back you can see two tall smoke stacks, they are for the wood-fire brick ovens. Glass walls surround the place, and don't impede the view of the outside. The rear of the restaurant is an outdoor dining area, and some benches. Its nice out there, with large cabana umbrellas and large trees and a somewhat 'jungle feel'.


The pizza. To start, the ingredients are unusual though not the full extent of "crazy toppings" as I am to understand it. Did not have the Quintal, but just as a way to show.

What I did have was the Tacchino, Which consisted of smoked turkey breast, Catipury cheese (like a philly cream cheese I'm told), and leeks. The local cheese was in addition to the mozzarella.

The pizza was good in my opinion. It was the first I tried. I thought the entirety of the pizza was rather sharp. I had the impression it was the cheese in combination with the leeks, but after consulting with my sister and Gabe, apparently no. In fact, there is some catipury cheese in their fridge, at some point I'm supposed to try it. It's very spreadable like cream cheese. I wonder how it would have changed my perception of this particular pizza. The turkey was pretty underplayed, I didn't really pull any distinct flavors from it. Overall, interesting flavors.

Next up, Caprese. A regular mozzarella cheese base, with additional buffalo mozzarella, large slice of tomato, a basil leaf, and black olive pesto. This pizza slice is, if nothing else (and it is very much else), an impressive presentation. Something to be noted about Sao Paulo pizza, it is to be eaten with a fork and knife primarily. This pizza exemplifies that necessity.
The picture unfortunately isn't the best, since the cheese sort of slid. Every bite of this slice ends up a little different, since its basically impossible to get even portions of anything. That said. This was delicious. The olive pesto was really amazing, and obviously the buffalo mozzarella was good, though it was a bit tough to cut through. I actually think that this was the best pizza of the night. I wish I could talk about it more eloquently.



One of the pizzas ordered, we did so because it represented a 'grown up' version of my childhood favorite pizza of cheese and black olives. This is called the Paulistana. Smoked mozzarella, tomato chunks, and sliced olives. With this particular pizza, the best bites were the first bite, and the last bite. The smoked mozzarella  is amazing. It's so rich, and smokey and just...shit. I really need this. The problem is, the flavors in the pizza don't end up consistent. The last bite was good because it had a good slice of olive to it. We all agreed this pizza just needed a little help. Was still really good though..seriously.

The last pizza was Contadino. Mozzarella pizza with in house smoked sausage with fennel. The sausage was chopped really small, and spread quite evenly across the pizza. The sausage is so strong! The little bits of sausage end up being very crispy. It wasn't overly salty at all, or even very greasy, which I think is overly the problem with sausage in your typical papa jonhs/ dominoes/pizza hut. Also to be noted, the crust and bread are quite delicious, and at the table sits a can of olive oil, for drizzling over pizza, or primarily the crust. At this point, I'm full..4 slices of pizza later. Then I get guilt tripped to carry on to dessert.

I don't regret dessert in the slightest. We managed to narrow it down to three options. The tiramisu, the flan, and Panna cotta. None of these are particularly unique dessert options, but they are all REALLY well done. The Tiramisu is not heavy like I've come to expect, but was very light and flavorful. The flan was good, not "technically" flan, and a little more dense. The Panna Cotta won me over completely though. Loved it. So good.


Now then. Time for me to catch up on writing about two more days! I think I'm going to need to start writing more down on paper.

First Day

This journal is going to be hard to keep up with. As complaints go, its a pretty good one, "We are doing too much stuff, I don't have time to stop and write!".

 First day for lunch we "kept it simple"since I had really only just gotten of the plane a few hours prior. We walked down the street to a place that Gabe and his mother frequent. Casa De Praia. "The beach house". It was very cool open deck, chairs under the awning, and really no windows or doors to be closed in the place. We started with fresh coconut water!

Their primary fare? Seafood and smoothies. I ordered fried flounder (took some time to figure out the translation for that one) filets with butter, mushrooms, and capers. It came with two sides, fried rice with bananas and cashews, and "mashed" hmm..potato? If you've been to a Peruvian chicken place they server Yucca fries. It is *That* potato, except that is also the same thing as tapioca. Here the root itself is called manioca. Mashed really was more "pureed". Appetizers for the table were fried calamari and manioca fries. Of course, I also got fresh coconut water.

The fish was really good. Cooked just right, capers really got the mushrooms going. The rice was pleasant, i really couldn't taste much of banana, but then they have like 10 different varieties of banana so who's to say? The manioca was different, a bit more like a squash puree it was pretty good. I of course sampled other people's foods. Something that is fairly common, its not rude to try something off of someone else's plate, you don't even really need to ask (so I'm told). I grabbed pictures of it all, the pasta that Stella had was quite good.

For dessert (even though I protested I didn't have room), was a cup of a very dense chocolate fudge kind of pudding. Apparently pretty common, I actually like the "messy" presentation, thought that the white stuff might have been marshmallow, which would have made for an interesting take on a s'more. It turned out to be a light whipped cream, which i was glad for, since after a few bites I needed it to help lighten the ever so think and rich chocolate. I finished the desert, glad to have had it, it was really quite good (and apparently a common dessert item).

 Mel had a frozen passion fruit , which was actually quite good. Very tart, as long as you don't mind the seeds. Served in a frozen passion fruit rind "cup". It was really quite tasty. Passion fruit, I'll miss you.

This is the kind of place that I'd go to all the time if I could in the U.S. this kind of casual seafood fair just isn't the norm though.

Part Deux, it delivers.

Ku-va. Home run. This is the hole in the wall experience. In the airport! The chairs, plastic. The décor, nearly sterile except things you wish you didn't notice. Some accent color walls and low lighting. The service? Fast! Cuban restaurant success. I ordered the roast pork. Comes with rice, beans, fried plantains, and with sauteed onions and in "mojo" sauce. Accompanied by a Cuba Libre.

The shredded pork is delicious. De-lish-eeus. Surprising quantity, I couldn't finish the plate. If you want to know what kind of impact a single ingredient can make, particularly onions. I've never seen it quite so clearly before. The onions are done so right. Caramelized, sweet, and quintessentially flavorful. The mojo sauce, is effectively the brine, not something drizzled over. Onion, garlic, lime, vinegar. It's not spicy, but it sings. I squeezed the lime seen over it and the rice.

This meal saved me from the mediocrity I was otherwise to be subjected to. It gives a hint of a Carolina pulled pork just not quite so vinegar heavy, and as seen a touch of cilantro. I'm not normally a big bean fan, and I was sceptical of the soupy side bowl, but it was actually quite good, even if I kicked it with the provided tobasco.

Finally, who doesn't like fried plantains? Caramelized, sweet, punchy, welcome in any 'equatorial and below' dining. I don't even like Bananas, but I LOVE me some plantains.

Only strikes? Cuba Libre with "house rum", they offered Bicardi, then Captain Morgan. I probably paid a lot extra for the authentic sounding rum, but come on. I was going to mention the fault of "the rumble". Which is, there's a slight background noise and tremor you can feel in your feet that seems like your are still on the plane (though perhaps a nicer plane). Now that I'm sitting at my terminal (where my 8pm flight is now a 11:30 flight) it's here too. Oh well...thanks Miami.

Bad Decisions

If you would like to punish yourself, be sure to show up to the airport four hours before your flight. Also, if possible have a lay over that gets delayed twice (woo... 8 hours in the airport and going). At BWI, the aforementioned early departure location, I started to fall asleep while reading. In this particular case it was while reading Vonnegut, a first for me. I decided getting up and moving around was the right call. Concourse, another word for 'really large hallway'. The options at airports have expanded recently. Probably driven by the impetus to show up earlier to get through security then be stuck on the 'other side'. A trap I'm clearly familiar with. These options, however, are not really suited for 10am. Ram's Head Tavern? I think not. Honestly, there are no good decisions ahead, maybe the coffee, but man do they try. Wine bar? Yep they've got that. Luxury watch brand kiosk? You'll find it and it's starting at 700 doller time pieces. Pandora Jewelry? Uh huh, that and under construction Victoria's Secret. Given the over priced *anything* at Hudson News, I can only imagine these other shops.

So, just about everything here is waiting for me to make bad decisions, especially you Chipotle. Before a flight? Really?? I guess it could be Taco Bell. Clearly I *have* to make a bad decision. Give in to my rumbling stomach and eat something while I still have two hours to kill. Cinnabon. Sin_a...forget it.

If you think the photos are appealing I can tell you I did my best to be flattering. In reality it was pretty sad. As Louis C.K. says "No one is happy in line at Cinnabon". So, for nostalgia? For the times when your options were "That" or The Golden Arches? Because, when leaving the land of the free, you embody the brave and "Do it up"? 'Murica!

The "Bon" itself? Pretty bad. Outsides stiff and stale. Impressive really, given at 9:20 am you'd think they'd be pumping these shame-rolls out at a pace to fill every proximal nostril with a brain pathway "poor decisions" button. Worst case their "morning rush" ends at 8am? Yet here I am, stale Cinnabon.

The bottom also was chewy and stiff, something wrong with their "keep warm" plates, or just bad process? Cinnamon filling bland, and the dough basically flavorless. The "goey center" was as advertised, more cinna-goo and softer dough. If anything just makes me wish I could do away with the remaining 3/4. The frosting was caked on, not drizzly and running down the sides like all the unkept promises of advertising. Yay sugar? Is that what saves it? Nope. "Life Needs Frosting" the box would have me believe. Now I question that, and really, how you still exist.

Might be a "part deux". I'm trapped in Miami airport and there are 'authentic' Cuban restaurants.

Food Journal-isting

It's been many years since I've had reason to use a blog. For anyone who might have found themselves linked here, feel free to poke back and look at the poor examples of writing-for-assignment, near the end of college. Interestingly, they are posts about topics I still find relevant, just try not to judge too harshly.

All of that aside, I'm starting anew. I have a trip to Brazil to visit my sister and a reason to want to assemble the things I do in one place, not just so I can share the photos, but also my thoughts. Very specific thoughts, about, what else? Food.

It is in our every day lives, and as many of you reading this might know, I struggled with that very dichotomy of utilitarianism and enjoyment driven from food. Seeking ways to simplify my life through Soylent (no relation to the Green kind made of people), attempting to eat healthier, and balance the social interactions that all take place around food.

As I prepare for my south bound journey to the land of rain forests, and large coastal cities, I took upon myself to go get myself a good traditional American Burger. Five Guys, following rock climbing, was a pretty good spot to get food. I ordered my burger the same way I always do from Five Guys, with A1 Steak Sauce and Grilled Mushrooms. Cajun fries came "uncajuned" so Andrew and I were left to cover our fries in the peppery mess ourselves after he asked for it at the counter. I guess you can even mess up the simple things. Outside of this, it was what I've come to expect from Five Guys, it might not be a life changing burger, but its some of the best offered by 'no waiter involved' restaurants.

If you've never had your cheese burger this way from Five Guys, I recommend it. If I had bothered to write down my "review" or "tasting notes" while eating, perhaps I'd have more to say about this particular combination. Ultimately, A1 is tangy and gives a somewhat smokey flavor, the mushrooms aid the umami from the beef patty, which is generally a good combination of greasy and just a bit crisp. I don't really like a mix of cold toppings on their burgers since they immediately get wrapped into foil, and tomato while "traditional" to the burger, usually just means potential slide-y sloppiness. I dub it the "Steak burger" and can potentially include their grilled onions as well, adds a good sweetness if you like that kind of thing.

Two days. I expect I'll be writing about some great things, probably some things I won't even have a good basis for comparison, and, given my 7 hour lay-over in Miami, you might see some Cinnabon.