Grocery Shopping in Rio:The Good, the Bad, and the Smelly:Part 3

Here is the final installment of our take on grocery shopping here in Rio.

Rice and Beans

I cannot think of an American staple that compares to the Brazilian staple of rice and beans. You can find it in any restaurant, smell it cooking morning, noon, and night, and people here never get tired of eating it. Of course this is reflected in the grocery store. As you gaze down the long supermarket aisle you see one side completely full of dried black beans and the other side completely full of white rice (see below). There are various brands of each but they are all the same.

The Grocery Aisles

There are hardly any processed foods here and the processed foods that are available here have nowhere near the amount of ingredients in them as those in the US. Of course these products don’t have as long of a shelf life, but I would much rather be able to pronounce what is in my food.

Chips, crackers, cookies, and other items that can go stale are sold in individual sized bags. The humidity is so high here that the food goes bad if you don't eat it right after opening it. Pretty gross. On a side note, Nacho Cheese Doritos can be found anywhere here, they seem to be really popular.

I’ve mentioned several times how expensive things are here. Here are two examples of American products, keep in mind $1.00=R$1.69





Creme de leite is another huge item here. It is an artery clogging dairy product used in desserts and any cream sauce (there is no half and half or cream here like we have in the US).





Bakery

Of course they have your basic loaves of bread here but they sell these individual French rolls that people go crazy over. They are pretty much the only “breakfast food” here in Brazil. Every grocery store and bakery in town carries these things and they are always baked fresh and more often than not, they are still hot when you get them. They are really good-great for sandwiches!

Another thing that can be found in any bakery department/bakery is Pão de queijo (see photo below). This is a round bread with cheese in the middle. I have to be really careful to not eat too many of these-I love them!


Brazilians love their sweets. In the bakery you can always find a vast array of sweets: coconut macaroons, chocolate cupcakes, etc. Most Brazilian desserts are sickly sweet.

Things We Can’t Believe They Don’t Have Here

This list is really long but I will mention just a few things: Pam, chocolate chips, powdered sugar, brown sugar, Mexican food, anything spicy, marshmallows (on the off-chance you see them they cost about R$20 for a bag), American Wine, breakfast cereal (except for the really sugary kind), and Dr. Pepper!

Grocery Shopping in Rio:The Good, The Bad, and the Smelly Part 2

Here is the second installment of our experiences in the supermarket. Today I will be focusing on the dairy, frozen food, and meat departments…

Dairy
This is a city of yogurt eaters. Looking down the aisle you will see both sides filled with yogurt of many different varieties and brands. Activia is huge here. The most popular flavor seems to be strawberry but plum, maracujá, and kiwi are also popular choices.

Dean and I are cheese lovers and the cheese department here is definitely lacking. You won’t find any sharp cheese here (if we’re lucky we can find a mild cheddar). Feta is also unheard of. Brazilians tend to like more mellow (boring) cheeses. Mozzarella and parmesan are pretty popular and there are a few local cheeses that we’re not so crazy about. Philadelphia Cream Cheese is very popular and can be found anywhere. They have something similar to sour cream, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Butter and margarine are equal to what you find in the States.

Milk is another thing here that is totally different (see photo below). If you think you can find it near the yogurt and cheese, think again. There is no refrigerated milk -only shelf-stable milk can be found here. Grace drinks soy milk and the majority of the soy milk is mixed with fruit juice to make it drinkable (I’m told that grape and orange are the best flavors of soy milk). Another thing you won’t find refrigerated here-eggs. They can be found either in the produce department on a regular shelf or in the baking aisle.



Needless to say, our dairy intake has plummeted since we have been here.

Frozen Foods
Of course they have the basics: ice cream, pizza, French fries, and some frozen vegetables (but not as many different kinds as we are used to). This isn’t a huge frozen food country. Why buy frozen meals when your maid can prepare fresh meals for you? We don’t eat a lot of frozen foods (except for frozen vegetables), so this doesn’t really affect us.

Meat
This is where the smelly part comes in…

Bacalhau is a dried salted codfish that is very popular here. It is expensive so it is a “treat” and many people here have it at Easter and Christmas. Bacalhau has the capability of smelling up the entire grocery store because it just sits out in the open (see photo below). The smell is indescribable and as I go by it I usually do not breathe and just walk as fast as I possibly can to get away from the epicenter of the stench. I do not understand how people can enjoy eating something that smells so horrific. I am told that it is put in water for a couple days to rehydrate then cooked.


Next to the bacalhau is the dried meat department (see photo below), where you can buy pretty much any kind of beef, sausage, and some pork items dried. That’s about all I can tell you because I haven’t gotten too close to this area either. Of course these items are just hanging out without being wrapped or anything either.


Beef is king here in Brazil. You can find any cut of beef you want and Grace enjoys seeing the slabs of beef hanging with butchers cutting them up (pretty gross if you ask me). The price of beef is very reasonable, which makes sense since Brazil raises so much cattle.

Chicken and various cuts of pork are also available but I have yet to see a turkey. I hear they have them at Christmas time, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
We are fish lovers (except for the bacalhau previously discussed) and we have tried many different kinds of fish here. We have been pleasantly surprised and usually eat fish at least once a week. We get salmon here but of course it’s nothing like our Alaskan salmon (sigh). We occasionally get shrimp: they are really expensive but worth the splurge.

Grocery Shopping in Rio:The Good, The Bad, and the Smelly Part 1

I have been looking forward to writing about grocery shopping here in Rio. The shopping here is so different that I can fit it into one blog post. Today I'll be focusing on produce.

Fruit
One of the benefits of living in a tropical location is the fruit. The fruit here is absolutely amazing. I have never seen such a variety of fruits and so many we are unfamiliar with. There are several different kinds of mangos. The mangos are about twice the size of a mango you would find in the US, plus they just taste so much better. There are different varieties of bananas here as well. I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to eating the bananas in the US, the ones here are that much better! We get watermelon and many other varieties of melon year round. The pineapple is sweeter and less acidic than what we get in the US. We also get apples, pears, grapes and oranges that are the same as we eat in the US.
Here are a just a few of the new fruits we have come across here in Brazil. Acerola are small cherry-life fruits that are mostly used in juices. Abacate is an avocado-like fruit that they eat here with sugar (I love avocados but am not a fan of these). Maracujá (passion-fruit) is amazing in a fruit-juice but the fruit itself is actually really sour. Açaí is really popular in the US now, but they’ve been eating it in Brazil for much longer.
No Brazilian home is complete without limes. I’ve seen people with bags of 30+ limes at the store. Lemons on the other hand are difficult to find and expensive. You will not find any kind of berry here with the exception of strawberries which are very expensive and not always available.



Vegetables
While Brazil has exceeded our expectations in the fruit department, we feel let down in the vegetable department. We get the basics, but they don’t seem to be the best quality. Lettuce wilts within hours to two days (very max) of bringing it home from the store. Iceburg lettuce is called “American Lettuce” here and nobody really eats it. The carrots are huge and not as sweet as we are used to. Many things you can find anywhere in the US are difficult to find here (for example mushrooms and celery). Spinach and sweet potatoes are nowhere to be seen.
Aipim is a popular vegetable here that I had never seen before (see photo below). It is a root vegetable similar to a potato. People here like to eat it fried. I actually prefer it to French fries but Grace will argue that!



Garlic is HUGE here. Garlic is in everything. It is even a popular pizza topping. You would not believe the incredible garlic displays in the grocery stores here (see photo below). Grace has become a garlic lover and has recently told me that my garlic bread did not have enough garlic on it.




Packaging
You will never find pre-washed packaged fruits and vegetables here (oh how I miss those bags of lettuce!). Since everyone here has a maid there is no need for that convenience.

Cleaning the Produce
Cleaning the produce is necessary after I get home from the store. Everything has to be soaked in water with a sterilization solution for 15 minutes. I soak everything with the exception of bananas, onions and citrus fruits.

Spring Break in Paraty

This past week both Dean and Grace were off school, it's time for Spring Break in Brazil. We headed to Paraty about a 3 1/2 hour drive southwest of Rio. Paraty offers the best of both worlds: the beach and the rainforest. This is a big beach destination for Paulistas (people from Sao Paulo). The main tourist area there is in the historic district. No cars are allowed in this area and the roads are made of rocks. Walking on these rocky roads is an adventure in itself, but we saw several delivery bicycles riding over these rocks. I'm not sure they got to their destination any faster; they had to ride pretty slow over the rocks.



They had a week of rain before we arrived so the water was not as clear as it usually is there, but us midwesterners still found it beautiful. We decided to try out sea kayaking. Dean and Grace went together and Grace was pretty much along for the ride although she did do some paddling. We stopped at a couple beaches during our kayak ride (thank goodness because my shoulders were really tired). Grace and Dean did some snorkling while I took some pictures and relaxed on the beach. The water waslittle too chilly for me to take the plunge!







The next day we went on a horseback ride. Naturally this activity was chosen by Grace. We rode for three hours and stoped about half-way at a waterfall that had a little pool at the bottom. Grace had a blast sliding down the rocks and swimming.






We are glad we were able to get out of the city and relax in Paraty. On our way home Grace lost her fifth tooth! She wasn't too thrilled to be going back to school, "Only one week off isn't long enough!" However losing her tooth made her excited to get back to school and tell her friends all about her spring break.

On the Road in Rio

We have been driving here in Rio for about four months. Here is what we have learned so far:

Safety Precautions
Get all windows tinted: by doing this, people don’t know if you are a gangster with your crew in the car or just a mom and her daughter on their way to the supermarket. The window tinting has the added bonus of keeping your car slightly cooler on those days where it’s really really hot (we get a lot of those here).

Have a “fake wallet” to give out in case you are stuck in traffic and robbed: ours contains a good amount of cash, an old key card for a hotel, and some expired Visa gift cards.

Before We Take Off
Before we leave the parking garage of our gated, guarded condominium, I always be sure and lock the doors, make sure all windows are up and I put my purse in between me and the car door, in case of someone breaking the car window trying to make a quick grab of my purse. This happened to someone I know and she was blamed for the incident because 1)she did not have her windows tinted and 2) she had her purse on the passenger seat instead of hidden from view.

And We’re Off (finally)
Take a deep breath and we’re off! There are a lot of buses on the road and they have priority. The bus drivers are very aggressive. Never cut off a bus! Often, there will be three lanes marked but five lanes of traffic plus motorcycles weaving in and out trying to get ahead. Getting cut off and cutting people off is inevitable.

Stoplights are optional! If a stoplight does not have a camera, feel free to treat it as a yield sign. This applies to all stoplights from 10:00pm-6:00am. The cameras are turned off at this time because if no cars are coming, it’s just safer to keep driving. The red-light cameras are also speed cameras. This is the only way you will get a ticket in Rio-there are no traffic cops. If you run a red-light, expect your ticket in the mail anywhere from 3 weeks-3 months.

At times the traffic is unbelievable here, especially on Fridays. If at all possible, we avoid going anywhere on a Friday. If you see guys out on the road selling food and cold drinks you know you are going to be in your car for a long time.

At the Stop Light
Stop lights are inevitable and possibly dangerous. As I come to a stop light I always try to have an escape route, just in case. I also continuously check my mirrors because as I mentioned before, the motorcycles weave through the traffic and they love to break windows and steal what is in sight. Another very real possibility here is carjacking. People will walk up the car, point a gun at you and you better just get the kids and get out of the car.

A common sight at stop lights are children juggling for change and adults selling anything from umbrellas to cleaning supplies. People are also hired to hand out newspapers that you can read while you navigate through the traffic!

Safety While Driving
Our car is the only car in Rio with daytime running lights, a common feature in the US. Here they are unheard of. I’m not kidding, every time we go somewhere at least one person lets us know we have our lights on.

Last month a law was passed stating that children under the age of seven had to be in car seats. I’m not sure how this will be enforced since most people have tinted windows. We have witnessed children in the front seat, children on the driver’s lap, infants being held and children jumping up and down in the backseat. Of course no seatbelts were involved in any of these situations.

Surprisingly enough, the motorcycle drivers wear helmets!

Parking
Since Rio is a city of 11 million, parking is at a premium. You can expect to pay for parking pretty much anywhere you go. Most stores and malls have the usual take your ticket and pay on the way out deal. Street parking is another story. We have yet to see a meter here. Unofficial people will often direct you to a spot and tell you they are going to guard your car while you are away. Some require payment up front, others you pay when you leave. Once we were parked on the street and it was the pay as you leave situation. We got in the car expecting to be immediately swarmed by the parking guy but he didn’t show up (very strange). We pulled out and finally saw the guy sleeping on the curb. Needless to say, we got free parking that day!

On the Postive Side
I feel like this post has a negative tone to it, so I want to end on a positive note. I may sound like I am contradicting myself, but aside from the bus drivers people are actually pretty calm drivers given the circumstances on the road. We don't see a lot of road rage here. People aren't yelling out their windows at other drivers or giving each other rude gestures. Cariocas (people from Rio) have a laid-back attitude and patience that I could only dream of having-I still get mad every time I get cut off (which happens every time I drive).



You may be thinking to yourself, they must be exaggerating. If you don’t believe us come to Rio, we would love to take you for a drive!