Eating Our Way through Curitiba Part II

Okay, so on a more positive note…let’s talk about food!

A trip around here wouldn’t be complete unless I talked a little about the food. I just keep discovering more great places in Curitiba. I have just a few places to talk about from this trip.

Last time I think I forgot to mention Beto Batata. This is a place in Shopping Barigüi (there are also other locations) that serves batata suiça, Swiss potato. I hadn’t heard of these until a friend told us that we should try them.

If you are familiar with US breakfast they are hash browns. If you are familiar with the southern part of the US it is like a gourmet version of Waffle House hash browns. They aren’t scattered, but you can get them smothered, covered and chunked with some amazing ingredients. They are so good!

We split one with turkey and gorgonzola cheese this time. The menu of options is two pages long. Just about any ingredient popular here, you can get mixed into your potatoes.

My last Curitiba food report I talked about wanting to head to the German bar and we did make it there this time. The Schwarzwald Bar do Alemão was a lot of fun. I spent the last few hours of my 20s there enjoying a few submarinos which is a draft beer and a ceramic mug with a shot dropped in. My favorite was the Jägermeister shot.

We weren’t very hungry so we settled for some French fries and some individual bratwurst or white sausage as they refer to them here. They were more the size of brats in the US which is much larger than those we’ve had in Germany. Good flavor, but we were surprise to find that they were deep fried. Maybe they serve them this way in some places in Germany we’ve just never had them in our travels. I do have to say the kraut was really good. I was so hungry for it.

Moving on, can you believe we’ve been here a year and had never had Crème de Papaya??!! It’s just been one of those things that we’ve wanted to try, but always chose something else. I can’t believe we waited so long! This dessert is amazing and the Crème de Cassis liquor you pour over the top only makes it better.

We had it at Avenida Paulista pizza which is by far my favorite pizza place for Brazilian pizza. It may be climbing to the top for pizza in general. The atmosphere and service is simply perfect.

Finally to my favorite meal and this goes for all of Brazil (the limited portion I’ve traveled in) and maybe up there with one of my favorite meals of all time. We went to Lagundri for my birthday, an Asian-fusion restaurant voted the best in Curitiba.

Well, the battery decided to crap out in the camera so unfortunately I have no pictures, you’ll just have to trust me on this one. It was some of the best Asian-fusion food I have ever had. Keep in mind I have not yet been to Asia however.

I got a peanut curry beef and words cannot describe how good it was. The best pieces of beef I’ve had in Brazil with vegetables and covered in a perfectly spicy peanut sauce. Amazing!

For dessert we had sweet spring rolls filled with banana and mango and banana ice cream. It was topped with a chile sauce that left just a little bit of heat in the back of your throat with the sweet.

Seriously, put this place at the top of your list if you visit Curitiba. The best part was that it is actually affordable considering the level of food quality – about $15 - $25 USD per entrée and completely worth every bite. I will mention that the area felt a bit shady, as in we were not comfortable walking back as gringos after the meal, but a cab cost R$8 to get back to Batel.

So there you have it, round two. I’m sure there are a ton more places to explore, but I have a feeling we’ll be doing a lot of repeating on our next trip in November.