It's raining so let's talk about Brazilian food

We've made it to Curitiba, it's a nice city, but it's raining. So let's talk about food. 

Since entering brazil I have been able to try all sorts of new foods-and they have all been absolutely delicious.

Today we walked around the Sunday markets in Curitiba, a city located in the state of Paraná. We took a short bus ride (5hours) from Florianopolis. We originally planned to stay one night and make our way to Ilha do Mel (translates to Honey Island) for the beaches but the weather is awful and we met some interesting people. One such person is a Brazilian named Rodrigo. He was a teacher, seems to know everything about Curitiba, and is happy to answer all of my questions about Brazil. He gave us an informal tour of the markets and city today. As it began to rain, we realized that it was the perfect day to sample some Brazilian street food. 

The beginning of the market and Rodrigo! Didn't even know I had a picture of him yet. 

We began our food tour with Pastel, a thin fried dough that can be filled with meat, cheese, vegetables or sweet things. It's a common Brazilian snack. It was delicious and I'll be eating it again. It was especially good because they made it to order. 

Making the Pastel to order at the stand. 

That's what happiness looks like. 

We continued with possibly the most delicious thing in the world: Pamonha. It's made using corn..with more corn...and I think more corn. Then it's boiled and comes either salty or sweet and served with butter. Brazilians like to put condensed milk on everything and this was no exception. If I could eat this everyday I would. 

Corn with corn with more corn. The little cups have a delicious corn pudding with cinnamon. The Pamonhas are under the net. 

So goodddhgrdbnfgjhb (also I'm wearing my Brazilian coin necklace. The Brazilians I've met all really like it and have never seen anything like it!) 

It started raining really hard at that point and I didn't get my hands on Coxinha, a tear shaped dough filled with spicy chicken that translates to 'Little chicken thigh' (Rodrigo couldn't explain the name). It's supposedly really good and popular. Might have to be dinner. Overall it's been a great food day and it's still really early.

I haven't only tried good food in Curitiba. Back in Florianopolis I was able to try Mate, an immensely popular drink in Argentina and South Brazil. It's made using Yerbe Mate, dried leaves that are rich in caffeine, and hot water. The Yerbe floats and forms a thick mossy looking top to the drink. People use a metal straw to drink it that has a filter on the bottom so they don't drink the leaves. It's incredibly popular and everyone on the streets drank it. You drink Mate out of a gourd shaped cup and people would walk around town carrying containers of hot water. I've never seen anything like it. 

When I tried Mate I thought it tasted like bitter grass (never again). Julio, a staff member at the hostel who shared his drink with me, explained that in Brazil you start drinking Mate at a young age. Parents want their sons to acquire a taste for it so if the son goes to visit a girlfriend's house, and the father of the girlfriend offers them Mate (to test them as men), they will be able to drink it with the father and gain approval to date the daughter. 

Another tasty dish that I was able to try in Florianopolis was breakfast cakes. Unfortunately I never caught specific names for each cake but they were all delicious. Breakfast is included at most hostels in Brazil and usually has bread, cheese, ham, and some fruit. There was a nice lady who worked at the hostel who would not only clean but would make us a cake every morning for breakfast. One day was a carrot sponge sugar cake and the next would be apple banana sugar whatnot cake. I have no idea what they were but there was cake offered this morning at breakfast in Curitiba. I'm enjoying this trend. 

Breakfast? Apple banana cake. 

While on the Barra do Lagua beach on our last full day in Florianopolis we noticed an amazing popular beach snack. Men walked around with small grilles, bags of oregano, and cheese on sticks. The men would coat the cheese in oregano and grille it to perfection. We had to try it and it's as good as it sounds. 

Man with cheese and grille. It seemed like a big summer job for teenagers. 

Fingers of a nice Brazilian man join me, Hannah, Lauren, Octavi, and Damia. The 2 boys were in our hostel and hail from Spain. We're all very proud of our cheese sticks. 

While it wasn't traditional Brazilian food, I was also able to eat a variety of other great meals in Florianopolis. As a hostel we would come together to make meals and, thank god, people were really good at cooking. We made chicken curry one night and Thai beef fried rice the next. Traveling is really showing me that I not only need to get over my embarrassment of speaking new languages but that I also need to learn to cook. Although the fish we made the other night wasn't that bad...eh. 

Giant pot of Thai beef fried rice. 

While I'm not drinking very much this trip, I was excited to try the traditional Brazilian alcoholic drink called Caipirinha. It's made using lime or other fruit, cachaça (sugar cane liquor), and more sugar. As you may have guessed- it's incredibly sweet. Not my favorite but sweet drinks seem to be very popular here. 

Drinking caipirinhas with Hannah and Lauren on the beach. 

There were multiple stands for making caipirinhas at the beach. You could chose what fruit you wanted. 

I hope I didn't make everyone too hungry!