Monday, December 1, 2014

Sao Paulo: Days 1-2, In which we ate all the delicious foods, drank all the beers, and ran in the Parque Ibirapuera.

So after letting it all hang out, we flew back to Sao Paulo for the remainder of our trip. One of our first stops was Brew Dog Bar, Sao Paulo. We love James' and Martin's beers, and their wonky TV show so I was super excited to FINALLY be having a Brew Dog beer, at the Brew Dog Bar.
We were the first ones in the bar that Monday afternoon and got to enjoy the open space and the beers.
A little while later, our friend SD showed up, and I had to take photos.
A slightly more "normal" selfie.
I ordered the "Paulista dog" which was a hot dog, with vinaigrette, mozzarella cheese and those crunchy potato chip strings. IT WAS DELICIOUS!
After a night of catching up with our friend and drinking too many beers we went back to our hotel near Parque Ibirapuera.  We woke up early to go run a few laps in the park and look for Godofredo, the galinha d'angola. (I Named it.) I also wanted to find a CB dog look a like in the park.....
For a Tuesday morning it wasn't busy so we could running and taking photos of the park's residents, like this beautiful vulture.
We also took many selfies in the park to document our run, because "no foto, no #proof" haha
I took a photo on the bridge again.
And took a photo of the buildings looking in the direction of Avenue Paulista.
Once we finished our laps, we took photos in front of the famous "Monumento as Bandeiras."
Post run,  we cleaned up and met L's parents for lunch at Coco Bambu, a seafood specialty restaurant in Sao Paulo.

We started with the bolinhos de bacalhau. (cod fish croquettes) DELICIOUS
And had Pao de Quiejo. (Cheese bread. It has a gooey cheese center.) YUM
Then we had grilled Coalho cheese with a sugar cane reduction. WHY DOES THIS NOT EXIST IN CHICAGO?!?
And then our main courses came- Curry Shrimps and some sort of delicious fish, with rice, mashed potatoes and fries. It was quite the spread for the 4 of us, but rest assured we licked those plates clean.
Coco Bambu even reposted my photo of our meal there. If all that food wasn't enough, I got a Brigadeiro, a chocolate mousse dessert with crunchy chocolate balls. I dont generally like chocolate, but this was yummy.
Post food coma inducing meal, we took our first selfie of many. I love these folks a lot.
I dont think we ate dinner that night because we were so stuffed.

The next morning we woke up and went back to the Parque Ibirapuera and took more selfies. This one was on self timer and luckily our camera didn't get stolen. HA
And we saw more park residents, like this gorgeous black swan.
And more vultures. By this time since we had not seen Godofredo, I had concluded that more vultures= less godofredo. {sad face}
The obelisk with the fountains.
Post Parque Ibirapuera, L and I met Mae and Pai at the famous Mocoto.
We ate ALL THE DELICIOUS THINGS. Including fried tapioca, tapioca filled with cheese, sausage and onions, and grilled cheese (just like we had on our 1st visit almost 2 years ago)
I had a few caiprinhas, and we shared "carne do sol" with beak peppers. I could not resist the banana covered in melted cheese for dessert. Stick a fork in me, i was so done, but this food is like nothing you've ever had in the USA. It is so much better!
We finished lunch with coffee.
Some of the insanely cool graffiti in Sao Paulo...
So after a huge lunch at Mocoto, we went back to the hotel and rested. Then we went back to Brew Dogs for an impromptu party with 20 of our closest friends.
I got all meta and took a photo of a Brew Dog glass with the logo in the background.
I am sad I did not get any photos of our friends at this party, but I think it is a barometer of how awesome this gathering was. We got to catch up with some of our good friends who live in Sao Paulo and had a freaking blast. This is one of MANY moments on this trip where I felt the love of our friends. I have no doubt in my mind that Brasil is my unofficial 2nd home.

6 comments:

  1. I love fried cheese...not sure about with sugar cane

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  2. Wow, those dishes ALL look amazing!

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  3. Okay, reading your Brazil posts - your trip sounded amazing!
    The food sounded phenomenal - Pao de Quiejo, Brigadeiro, caiprinhas, etc. During the World Cup I tried to have some caiprinhas, they were delicious.

    That is really cool that you saw a black swan.

    Parque Ibirapuera looks like an amazing running path wow.

    Nice that you made it to Ipanema beach, I remember they showed it a lot during the World Cup broadcast.

    Really scary the stories about crime on the beach wow. I guess the stories about being aware and careful are true. Maybe I'm better off that I didn't go to Brazil for the World Cup, since I couldn't find any of my friends to go with me (I would have gone as part of a tour though)

    That Nike Rio running club shirt does look awesome.

    The Rio seawall bar spot at sunset where you could see Christ statue looked awesome.

    My Japanese friend did say that outside of Japan, the largest concentration of Japanese people is in Brazil, which really surprised me.

    Your whole trip looked awesome, I can imagine how the emotions flowed when you were in a place you had only dreamed about before.

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  4. Ha ha, I was going to ask how you got that pic of you guys running. Yay, camera not getting stolen!

    The food all looks so good. And white. My favorite food color! (Ha ha, mostly joking). When you say it's better than the states do you mean, better than Brasilian food you've had here? Cause I know you guys eat at some kickass restaurants here with delish! But I have never seen anything like these dishes!

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    1. I forgot! I wanted to say that I need to recreate that hot dog, the vegan version, at home! :D

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