Everything In Moderation

I’m finding more and more that the one thing most cultures have in common is their love of food. Brazil is no exception. This past week another feira has been held in the center of town in front of the cathedral. This time it was a fair focused on the foods of the world which looked to be sponsored by the Lions Club. In addition, there were multiple craft vendors there.

We attended the feira three times and had dinner there twice. We had been told about this feira by my husband’s coworkers and had been looking forward to it. We had some good food, but it was Brazilian. There were really only a few booths that offered different cuisines such as German, but all seemed to have their Brazilian touch. I don’t think I would have called any of it truly authentic.

We’ve found that one of our favorite foods here is Pastel. I’m sure my arteries aren’t quite as fond of them, but everything in moderation. Pastel is a pastry like dough which holds a variety of fillings both savory and sweet. My favorite so far is Frango e Catipury (chicken and a cheese that is unique to Brazil). These pastries are then deep fried to a light golden brown. They aren’t too greasy which is probably why I like them. We've been told that this is actually a Japanese food, really Brazilian. There are several Pastel shops around the city, but we are told repeatedly by locals that there is nothing like ‘special event pastel.’ I have to agree. I’ve had them at the weekly feira and they are great. I think we found the best one so far at this past week’s event. We had Pastelão, which was a larger pastel filled with mozzarella, tomato, onion and several spices. They were so good. We had this for dinner on Thursday and Sunday – so much for moderation.

Although incredibly sweet, the desserts are great too. We usually stick with Doce de Leite which is similar in texture to our fudge, but in caramel flavor. We branched out this week though and tried a few different things. First, there were the large chucks of coconut that had been candied in a sugar mixture (this was my favorite), then there was shredded coconut that had been stirred into a caramel like-filling. It was like eating the filling of a thick pecan pie with coconut instead of nuts. We also tried a large round toffee-like candy that was covered in peanuts. It looks a lot like our peanut brittle, but is soft and tasted like a Payday candy bar.

For the crafts, it was great to see some local art. There was a lot of jewelry, leather and woodworking. I picked up a few unique Christmas gifts. However, just like craft shows at home, there was a fair share of things that were a bit on the tacky side. It was still fun to look at.

So for the most part I think it is safe to say that we like the food down here, especially the feira food. I think the problem is that there are too many ferias! Moderation is a hard thing to stick to, but I better start. We've got less than a month until our trip to Florianopolis on the coast among all those Brazilian bikinis!