Rio de Janeiro pt.1 — the hottest city, literally
Visiting Rio, the most touristy city right before the carnival
2024/02/02–2024/02/09.
Rio was the first stop where I truly felt like I was in Brazil. Manaus, the city of the Amazonian forest, felt almost like a place of its own world. To demonstrate how far Manaus actually is from Rio and Sao Paulo, it took me 5 hours on a plane to SP, and then another hour from SP to Rio. A full day of traveling led me to the highly regarded city of Rio de Janeiro.
Transferring through the GRU airport in Sao Paulo — it felt like I was back in big cities with shops and international chains again, even if it was just the airport.
After much exhaustion, I arrived in Rio in the late afternoon. It’s said that as a tourist, you should seek to stay in Copacabana, Ipanema, or Lebron for your safety. However, the accommodations were so expensive in these areas compared to most other cities that I had traveled to. I also paid around 30 USD and ended up on the rooftop of a local family, in one of those rooms that they obviously added on themselves. In my city, we call it “頂樓違建” which roughly translates to “top floor illegal construction”. I was not sure whether it would be legal or not in Brazil, but I did have to walk through two flights of VERY narrow stairs to get to my room.
The guy working at the guesthouse was friendly enough. He invited me to walk down the beachfront with him and the building owner, who lived downstairs to me. He introduced me to some of the places for food nearby as we walked down the busy sidewalk of Copacabana. I took the chance to ask him about how to stay safe in Rio.
The endless buffets
With the February heat in Rio being north of 33 degrees and extremely humid every day (we were 2 blocks from the beach), I literally could not bring myself to do anything. The one thing I did not skip though was Rio’s culinary offerings. Immediately, I went to a “Rodizio” place (aka Brazilian barbecue buffet) of the guesthouse’s recommendation and spent almost 30 dollars. My immediate thought was that Braza Churrascaria in Hong Kong was so authentic because the experience was identical. I honestly found the Hong Kong one to taste better because the salt level was more suited to my liking.
I realized that the Brazilian Churrasco places in Brazil although authentic, tended to make their food a little saltier and the meat a little more cooked than usual. I had to say “MUITO mal passado” (VERY medium rare) for them to give me a piece of meat that was a bit red. It seemed to be the norm for them to eat their steak a little bit more cooked than the rest of the world (as in, what they consider to be medium, medium rare, and medium well seem to diverge from most other countries).
With that realization, I decided to just go for a cheaper place and try the huge variety of food options the country has to offer. Also following the guesthouse’s recommendation, I found a place by the waterfront avenue that costs only 15 dollars for a buffet of random stuff. It turned out to be my favorite place in Rio.
At this cheaper buffet place (not a churrascaria), I found this jam of medium rare beef by accident. The whole iron plate in the photo above was heated, so the staff put the meat there intending for us to take it whenever it’s ready. I knew it was medium rare by accident because the 2nd time when I came around, they overcooked (my opinion) the meat before they put it on during the entire 2 hours I was there, spanning multiple refills.
Anyway — I had a great time eating there irrespective. It was cheap, and I would wait until midday to stuff myself up, eating only one meal a day. It was a good time.
Some of the other things I ate
I don't know if I emphasized this enough — but the heat in Rio was so intense that I left 5 days earlier than planned, completely skipping the real Carnival in this city and going to Sao Paulo instead. As a result, I also ended up choosing most of my eating spots based on where there was aircon. [So many local places in Rio were open-air — I don’t know how people can handle that.]
One of the spots I found was a chicken place. I went in not because it looked appealing, but because it had proper seatings and air conditioning.
Went back another day for chicken with my favorite combo: Farofa, rice, and beans. Oh, and the guarana was a must in every meal as well.
One time, I visited a really local place and ordered a plate of lunch set for less than 4 dollars. It was quite nice overall, but I always left out the french fries because I’m a big fan of rice and am not really into potatoes. It’s the Asian in me that never leaves no matter how much I travel.
I took a photo of the drinks menu because it didn’t make sense to me. I ordered a can of Guarana, 330ml for 6 reais, but one can also get a bottle of 2L for 12 reais. I thought the logic was not there and found it very amusing. Also, if you opt for 2 separate bottles of 200ml instead of the can, you can also get more for the same price. Did they not do the math in advance?
Another time I went to a local pay-by-weight place, and ended up getting a beautiful plate of food. It was quite nice but I can’t remember where it was.
Acai is a fruit from Brazil, particularly from the Amazons. What surprised me a little bit was that even in Brazil, this type of berry (and its products) are still more expensive than the rest of the regular fruits like bananas etc. I just assumed it would be dirt cheap because it was locally from Brazil. I was wrong.
I came across a local bar/restaurant as I walked around Lebron, where it said 10 reais (2 dollars) for a medium-sized acai. I went in and ordered that, along with something that resembled my favorite Colombian item: chicharron, which is fried pork belly to golden perfection.
It turned out to be very different. This one was more like a crunchy, salty snack to accompany beers. I enjoyed the first few bites, but after half a plate it got repetitive and felt too greasy. It was a slow day, and the kind lady running the place handed over the TV control to me, and asked me to play whatever I liked.
I also came across something I found super interesting. It’s the famous Nissin brand cup noodles but with Brazilian flavors. The most bizarre of them to me was this Feijoada noodle. I never tried it but now I wish I had.
