Last Stop. Rio!

Last update of our Brazilian vacation Hello?! Isn't this a NYC food blog?

I think all of those pictures of SUN! SAND! HAMMOCKS! caused the Brazilian gods to be way mad at us. Welcome Clouds. And Rain.

Luckily the last 2 days in Rio were sunny enough for everyone to whip out their bathing suits.

But first some food updates.

Koni. A sushi shop specializing in hand rolls.

This was shrimp tempura with roe. Looks like cheetos right? It's roe.

This is at the famous Cafe Columbia coffeeshop. Lots of tourists for all the sweets in the glass cases.

We settled on a walnut and goat cheese (?) quiche and some fried fritter.

Aah Brazilian steakhouse. Where they try to load you up with lots and lots of carbs, and then loads of servers unleash towards your table and come around with skewers of meat and carve you all things brown and grey.

This was Porcão which I highly recommend.

Have no fear! Mr. Broad, was not about to fall for those carbs! They even had a huge buffet consisting of sushi, fish, pastas, salad (aah, veggies!) But Mr. Broad was ready to get his meat's worth (aside from some sushi). We pushed them aside, turned our card to "Green" and said Sim! Sim! (Yes, Yes for the non-Portuguese speaking tongue)

The servers cutting the meat onto people's plates.

I'm presenting Chicken Hearts.

Sidenote- How did food like ribs become "normal" but chicken hearts became like, totally ewwww??

Well, somebody get out the rebranding campaign. Offal is back.

Lamb, chicken hearts, and other things brown.

I took the "take a bite of meat and move on" technique.

As if there's any room...(There wasn't, but I had to take the picture)

Enough steakhouse. This is Feijoada. (serves 2 but really probably could have served 6).

This dish is as typical Brazilian as American apple pie. (However, it was the first time I saw it at a restaurant so you be the judge).

Starting at the top: pork rinds on some greens, dried sausage, farofa (fried manioc or flour), fried plantains, and an orange. Random.

It comes with rice and some blood sausage stew thing. And some black beans not pictured.

This is what it looked like plated.

But time for some sights...

This is a reading room in downtown Brazil. Those are all books. I was in love.

The famous Christ the Redeemer. So apparently they recommend going to see this statue on a non cloudy day. No kidding.

Still quite a sight. Even if you are Jewish.

A favella in the distance. We could NOT stop talking about City of God. Okay, I could not stop talking about City of God. But like scary crap. Who shoots down a military helicopter?!

And the beaches. The Olympics are all the rage. Note to Rio, you may want to fix the situation mentioned above with the favellas shooting the helicopters thing.

This guy had shrimp that he sold on the beach.

And we tried the national drink on a self guided pub tour.

And this was just the start.

And finally a soccer game. It was pouring rain. POURING. And out came the flares by the opposing fans.

So Brazil. Two weeks in Brazil and I'm ready for more South America. I am now recommending Brazil to everyone. Go and follow our itinerary. And even hit up the samba club. Which there are no pictures of, because DUH tourists. But it was AWESOME. SAMBA! And Brazilian Steakhouse! Okay, I can pass on the Brazilian steakhouse for awhile. A long awhile. But samba music. Getting Mr. Broad to dance to the Samba, is worth the trip back to Brazil for sure.

Oh white man dancing. How I love...

BRAZIL: 10