Michael S. Novilla enjoys the Eat Rio Food Tour with Tom Le Mesurier.
On Tuesday August 8, 2017, at around 9:15 am, I’m freshly awoken with 1st coffee in hand. The phone rings, and I’m being pressed to make a quick decision on the fly, all based upon the compelling advice of persuasive local Rio tour guide Lauren Quinn. On the phone, she’s telling me I gotta take Tom’s Foodie Tour while here in Rio. And it’s offered today at 10 am. So I scrambled to get ready, then Ubered to the meeting spot, running uncharacteristically about 20 minutes late. Typically I dig into reviews galore before spending my hard earned $$, but this time I just took, what will prove to be, excellent advice, and just did it.
And where did we go today? Here is a summary of the things we had on today’s Eat Rio Food Tour:
Street market: Caldo de Cana com limão (freshly squeezed sugarcane juice with lime), Abacaxi (pineapple), Melancia (watermelon), Sapoti (the caramel flavoured fruit that looked like a potato!), Caju (the cashew fruit), Atemoya (the custard apple hybrid), Sementes de cacau (cocoa seeds), Bananihas (teeny tiny bananas), Manga Palmer (sweet mango with no strings), Beiju de tapioca com queijo e oregano (tapioca pancakes topped with cheese and oregano).
Portuguese Restaurant: Bolinhos de bacalhau (salt cod and potato croquettes), Theresopolis Gold (locally brewed pilsner beer);
Belmonte: Caipirinha de limão/maracujá/manga (caipirinhas made with lime/passionfruit/mango).
Juice bar: Suco de amora (Blackberry juice), Suco de Acerola (the sour orange coloured juice with the high vitamin C content), Suco de Graviola (juice of the guanabana/soursop fruit), Pão de queijo (chewy, cheesy tapioca breads).
Amazonian Restaurant: Tacacá (the strange soup with the salty shrimps and the Jambu leaves that made your tongue tingle!), Açaí (the deep purple berry purée topped with crunchy tapioca and/or granola).
While we were outside waiting to enter Amazonian restaurant, these crazy and SUPER ANNOYING “Egg Guys” were screaming into a highly powered microphone, about buying their eggs. OMG it was BEYOND AGGRAVATING. We couldn’t hear, let alone think straight. We kept hoping they’d drive off, but after several LONG minutes they hadn’t, so I had to get a quick photo. To remind me of this most EGGsssalant nightmare. They wouldn’t last too long in Brooklyn nor most places in the USA; they’d have been hard boiled or made into omelets long ago!
In the square (Praca Sao Salvador): Suco de cupuaçu (juice of the cupuacu fruit), Cupuaçú (the fruit I cracked open with a hammer), Cachaça de Jambú (the strange spirit that made your tongue tingle!).
Northeastern Restaurant: Pasteis (deep-fried pastry parcels filled with cured beef), Queijo Coalho com melado (slabs of cheese from Northeastern Brazil served with sweet cane syrup), Carne seca com abobora e feijão de corda e manteiga da garrafa (air-dried, salted beef with pumpkin and beans, served with ‘butter from the bottle’), Moqueca de camarão (stew of shrimps, made with coconut milk, peppers and palm oil), Escondidnho de carne seca (creamy cassava puree with cured beef, topped with grilled cheese), Cerveja Terezopolis (locally brewed beer), Vinho Tinto Santa Helena (Cabernet Sauvignon from the Santa Helena), bombom de cupuaçú (sweet cupuaçú fruit and Brazil nuts covered in doce de leite and chocolate), Cafezinho (coffee to finish).
What a deliciously entertaining afternoon enjoying Tom’s Eat Rio Food Tour! Thanks again to my new superstar amigo, fellow Entrepreneur and wonderful human Tom Le Mesurier, for a most fabulous day of eating, laughing, learning and adventuring! Cheers!! PS Keep in mind these photos are taken by me, Michael S Novilla, with a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, no editing. These are photos from reality, not out of photoshop.
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