So in the last post we started the
remainder of our trip in Sao Paulo- and ate all the delicious things,, drank craft beer and ran in my favorite place, Parque Ibirapuera.
After going to Mocoto and nearly being in a food coma, we went back to Mae and Pai's house and Mae showed me all the wonderful baby photos of L. Even at 2 years old, he had swagger.
When we went to the local Pao de Acucar (grocery store chain) for some water I saw this can of Fanta passion fruit soda. It did not disappoint.
On the way to the park we met a new friend.
On day 3, we started the morning in Parque Ibirapuera. I love the artwork on the walls in the park.
Almost 2 years ago while running in the park, I saw a Galinha D'Angola (helmeted Guinea Fowl) and I named it Godofredo. The first 2 days in the park I noticed there were more vultures and no Godofredo... Things weren't looking good until I looked across the lake and saw.... GODOFREDO! (He is in front of the tree...) I was so happy to see this super cool bird.
Since I found Godofredo, next up on the list of impossible items to find (that I made up), was a Brasilian CB look alike. We actually saw a red border collie pass by us in Rio, but i was not quick enough to go crazy dog lady on it.
Here I am posing in front of the area Godofredo was in. We couldn't get in there to get closer. {sad face}
We had a lot of fun running laps together in the park. We also unintentionally were "twinsies" this day with our green shirts. Me in my Nike Brasil Athletics shirt, L in his RnR San Jose shirt.
And of course, for the blog- I needed another photo of me running in the park.
BTW I love my run Janji shorts...
The lake was also very calm and provided a superb reflection of the Obelisk.
We finished the run by having breakfast at a french bakery names
Santa Etienne we found near our hotel. This is where I found my favorite sandwich ever. Wheat bread, cheese from Minas Gerias (another state in Brasil), grilled banana and cinnamon. It was actually very similar to the dessert I had at Mocoto the day before. I love salty-sweet flavors, and when I saw this on the menu, I HAD to order it. After being in the USA for 2+weeks now, there honestly hasn't been a day where I have't thought of this breakfast sandwich.
Unfortunately I have not found any quiejo Minas in the USA otherwise I would make this everyday.
Post breakfast we went to arguably the best Coxinha restaurant in all of Sao Paulo,
Frango. Coxinhas are shredded chicken, with catipury cheese, and deep fried. There is NO bar food better than a coxinha, especially with a cold beer.
We went to Frango on our last trip as well, but had to return to eat the heavenly fried coxinhas.
COXINHAS. These things are little flavor bombs. The shredded chicken is perfectly seasoned, and the catipury cheese is very creamy- kind of like cream cheese, but without the nasty aftertaste.
Next up was fried polenta cubes with Parmesan.
Then we had the passirinho- fried chicken with lime and garlic. Absolutely freaking delicious with cold beer.
For this delicious lunch we had amazing company of one of L's good friends. I cannot say enough how welcoming all of L's friends were to me. It makes everything better, the food, the vacation, to be surrounded by the love of these folks.
After Frango, we went to Bar do Luiz. Which happened to be across the street from where L went to school.
Another day, another Chopp.
Bar do Luiz has outdoor seating, and indoor seating- it has a vibrant atmosphere and relaxed vibe.
We enjoyed many more delicious fried things, cold beer, and got to spend more quality time with some of our friends who we got to spend time with during Lollapalloza this year. Post Lolla Chicago, we found out we had made it onto the
Brasilian Lollapalloza website. Total Craziness.
We took the subway back to the hotel from Bar do Luiz. The subway cars are almost 2x the size of the ones in Chicago and much much cleaner. These suckers get packed during rush hour.
Day 4 we went back to the Parque Ibirapuera. I seriously love this place.
We took a photo in front of this cool log bench. Ibirapuera in Tupi Indian language means "rotten wood."
The Monumento as Bandieras was on our way back to the hotel, and I noticed the cross walk signs were made to look like the famous monument.
Post run, we had to go back to St. Etienne for breakfast, you know what I ordered...
Once we got cleaned up post run, we went to Mae and Pai's house and took the subway.
The subway was so clean, and not full of homeless people like in Chicago.
On the way to Mae and Pai's house, there is some beautiful graffiti under the subway.
Mae made us feijoada for lunch. It's a black bean based meat stew- we had sausage in it. Traditonally it is served with shredded kale or collard greens, rice, and farofa (bread crumb type stuff) Absolutely delicious!
Another selfie with my Brasilian family.
Post hearty lunch, we went to a local mall to walk off all the delicious food. Our first stop was an Ovalmatine milkshake from Bob's. The lady got our order wrong and gave us 2 instead of one to share, and I enjoyed every sip of this dessert, but then felt so ridiculously overstuffed.
We went to the
Track and Field store and this is where I had my first experience solely speaking in Portuguese. Previously, L would translate for me, I would rely on him, he was my crutch. This was different. He went to look at the men's section and the sales associate came to ask me questions. I had to speak. I had to use my words. And I did successfully. She would show me different items and I was able to effectively communicate if I liked the pieces or not. I ended up buying 2 skirts, (my future marathon skirt!), a sports bra, a really cool pair of tights and a tank top. I wasn't planning on buying touristy shit in Brasil, and had planned on buying a few solid pieces at this high end athletic wear company.
For dinner we went to the Delirium Cafe, Sao Paulo.
It had a completely different vibe than the cafe in Rio- which was cozy. This one had 2 separate large rooms, and was open air.
We had PASTEL! Filled with cheese and some filled with meat.
I tried some straight up cacacha between the Brasilian craft beers. The proper way is to sip good cacacha, not shoot it.
One of the interesting things about Brasil is the use of cards to track your spending at the restaurants. Even at the small bakery we went to, we had individual cards. This makes things so much easier when going out in large groups because everyone's individual tab is on their own card!
We met another set of fabulous friends who just celebrated their 10th anniversary.
Good times were spent and we finished off a celebratory bottle of Deus- a champagne like beer.
Another wonderful end to a perfect day.
