Adventures in Brazilian food!

Rio de Janeiro has some of the most wonderful food in the world!!  Fresh fruit markets abound where you can buy fruits you've never heard of in the US!  And it's all fresh and delicious.  Ever heard of Guaraná?  Jaca?  Açaí (acai), or maracujá?  

Fruita

Guaraná is one of the most wonderful drinks ever!  Guaraná is a fruit that naturally grows in Brasil, and several beverage companies have turned it into the most delicious soda on earth!  I highly suggest you try it if you ever get the chance.  It goes great with a churrasco!!!

Guarana

Speaking of churrasco, a churrasco is absolutely the most wonderful food idea in the history of the world!  Portuguese for "barbeque", the Brasilians create this masterpiece using delicious Argentine beef (much, much better than anything you get in the US) roasted on a spit over an open flame.  As the outer layers are cooked to perfection, they remove the carne (beef) and slice off the pieces onto your plate.  Various cuts of beef, salchicha (sausage), porco (pork), frango (chicken), and frutas (fruit) are served. 

Churrasco

Feijão preto (black beans), arroz (rice), couve a minerva (collared greens), farofa (no direct translation, but it's made from manioc flour), e carne moida (ground beef), and of course batata frita (french fries) make up a traditional meal.  And seriously, who doesn't eat french fries with their meal?  It's actually very good!

Traditional Meal

When you're in the mood for a snack, the local padaria's (bakery's) have delicious salgado's (literally translated this means "salties") and pasteis (breaded snacks).  They're delicious with a little pimenta (hot sauce).

Salgado and Pastei

 And the pão de queijo (cheese bread) is amazing!

Pao de queijo

A hot dog from a street vendor is always good.  Yes, they eat their hot dogs with corn, peas, and small french fries..... the fries are actually pretty good although I don't really care for the corn and peas :-).

Hot Dog

And for desert, some pudim (pudding) which is much like flan.  So good.

Pudim

Check out http://www.maria-brazil.org/ for more tasty recipes.  I've tried many Brasilian recipies and hers are the best!

Adventures in Texas

So, I've moved to Texas and I'm loving it so far!  Like most of you non-Texans, I was always a little leery about Texas before moving here.  I had heard stories about Texans and  was pretty sure that I'd be hit up at least once a day by some hillbilly with a shot gun in his hands pointing out that Texas was once it's own country and that we should "secede".  But it hasn't happened so far :-).

I have come across giant statues of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin in seemingly remote sections of highway though....and I'm talking like 75 foot tall statues....  Why?  You got me there....

Stephen F Austin

Life has been pretty pleasant here.  One of the coolest/most interesting things about Texas is the "don't mess with Texas" attitude. If you've ever known a Texan then I'm sure you've heard the saying!  I mean seriously, these are people that proudly display the Texas flag in every grocery store, restaurant, and convenience store!  Who else shows pride in their state this way??
 

And where else can you eat a Tomahawk steak???  I had one of these a few weeks ago at The Taste of Texas (http://tasteoftexas.com/) restaurant and it was amazing!

I'll update the blog as the adventure continues, but I'm loving it so far!

Have you ever woken up and thought "I want to look ridiculous today"?

Have you ever woken up and thought "I want to look ridiculous today"?  Apparently Tom Brady (Quarterback of the New England Patriots) did recently.  Do you think he knows how bad he looks?  The blond mohawk is hillarious by itself, but the red pants make this truly classic :-).  And by the way, Gisele isn't hot.

Tom Brady

Matt Damon: The definition of hypocricy.....

So, I'm not really a political guy.  I used to listen to the political shows, but I eventually realized that politicians are corrupt and don't care about you or me even a little bit.  They all talk a big game, claim to be looking out for the best interests of the people they "serve", but in the end it's all just a ploy to make themselves rich and powerful.

Having said that, I couldn't help but read an article this week about Matt Damon (actor, star of many Hollywood films).  As I'm sure most people have heard by now, Donald Sterling (owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA franchise) made some questionable comments that caused him to be labeled as racist, even though his girlfriend (miss Stiviano) who started the whole debacle now says that he's not a racist.  Check out the story here:  Donald Sterling

Sterling and Stiviano

So what does Matt Damon have to do with Donald Sterling?  Matt see's himself as a champion and voice for the poor in America.   Do some research on Matt Damon and you'll see what I'm talking about.... By the way, did you see the movie Elysium?

Max Da Costa

The plot of the movie is that in the future a giant halo-ring has been constructed in space to house the uber rich.  The ring is full of ultra-mansions, beautiful landscapes, and of course medical equipment which cures any and all ailments.

Elysium Ring

Matt plays Max Da Costa, a blue collar employee at a production facility on Earth which uses high level radiation in part of it's manufacturing process.  Matt accidentally gets stuck in the radiation equipment, and of course ends up with radiation sickness.  In order to be cured, he hijacks a spaceship and travels to Elysium in search of a the cure-all medical equipment that only exists there for use by the uber rich.

The underlying theme of the movie is that the uber rich have access to many, many luxuries that the rest of us can't imagine (including cure-all medical equipment).  The film is basically a condemnation of the opulent lifestyles lived by the rich and privileged. 


So, imagine my surprise when I read the following article: Matt Damon Clippers .  Could the Matt Damon in this article (who apparently has enough money to buy the Clippers) possibly be the same Matt Damon who so forcefully decries the injustices of the lifestyles of the rich and privileged in Elysium?  Could it be that Matt Damon is considering buying the Clippers whose estimated value is $297 million?  Talk about lifestyles of the uber rich!  If he's so concerned about he plight of the poor, maybe he should consider helping people out instead of buying a professional basketball franchise. Hypocrite through and through.  Maybe Matt should become a politician....

Clippers

I took my ambien about ten minutes ago and i'm feelin g pretty woozy so I thought it might be funny for me to write a blog right now.  I won't remember it so it will be a surprise to me tomorrow.  What should I write?  I feel pretty relaxed and I'm prtty sure i coul d bend over backwards right now and touch the ground with my hands.   I can see a girl doing it and it doesn't seem to hard.

That reminds me of the Wild West Festival they hadevery year when I was growing up.  THey go all sorts of vendors, acts, shows, etc together anput on a week long festival on the university compus.  They always had lots of fun and food.  No one got hurt bu .

i feel like i'm sitting at work and falling asleep dujring a boring conference call.  I saw t;hat Taysom hill got married.  Good for him.  He seems likd a nice gjy and he's a decent qu;arterback.  BYU should have fired Bronco years ago.  He keeps losing and then fires his staff at the end of the yearl  You can only do that som many times before people figure out the head coach is the problem. 

I saw redfish for the first time today.  They're pretty bug.My eyes won't opn.I can't move my legs.  I'm so funny.I'm exercising a lot and trying to get a six pack.  its getting there.Ok.........k sleepy.ffffffsal;k.

Adventures in...... ambien camping?

Ok, it's time to break out one of my greatest ambien adventures.  I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to stop laughing at this one.  I don't think it's a secret that ambien brings out the "unreserved" side of
people :-).  If you've seen any of the ambien video's posted on YouTube, you know what I'm talking about.  And for anyone who doubts that these videos are real, think again.  Ambien puts you in an almost hypnotic state where you think you're awake and functioning normally, but are really asleep.  It's weird to say the least.

This adventure began like any other night.  I was getting tired, the kids were in bed, I get up early for work and needed to sleep, so I took an ambien.

I'm not really sure what happened in the following 8 hours, but waking up the next morning was a bit of an odd experience.  I was feeling a little chilly so I reached around for a blanket.  My head was on a pillow and I was laying on something soft so I was a little surprised, to say the least, when my hand encountered "non-bedding" material.  I knew for sure that I had gone to be in my nice soft king size bed, and unless my wife had installed some carpet in the bed during the night, I wasn't in my bed.

Confused, but still mostly asleep I attempted to open my eyes.  Having taken my contacts out the night before didn't help as I tried to process the blurry image that were slowly beginning to appear.  I could see a large object in the distance, and I saw lots of "green".....

At that point my brain was waking up and began to realize that I wasn't in bed.  In fact, I wasn't even in my house!  I suddenly understood what I had been feeling - it was grass!

I opened my other eye and quickly discovered that I was in my BACK YARD!!!  Apparently I had decided that it would be nice to go "camping" so I grabbed a cushion from the couch, a blanket, and marched into the back yard to sleep under the stars!

 

 The Backyard

Thank goodness it was only 6 in the morning because the next thing I realized was that I was only wearing my underwear!!!!

Cold, a little embarrassed, and laughing I wrapped myself in the blanket and headed indoors.  I can say with complete certainty that I'll never forget the ambien adventure that took me camping :-).  Good thing the sprinklers didn't come on.....

Fast and Furious adventures in Rio de Janeiro?

Any fans of the Fast and the Furious movie series?  I loved seeing Rio on the big screen in Fast 5!

Brian and Dom in Fast 5

Although I love Rio like a second home, it has a dark, dark side that the World Cup and Olympic organizers don't like to publicize.  Take a look at this story Violent protests in Rio.  Most of the Carioca's (Rio's citizens) have very, very little and after understanding their situation, it's not hard to understand why violence like this often erupts.


Some areas of Rio are amazing!

Praia de Copacabana (Copacabana Beach)

Others aren't so amazing.

Favela (shanty town) in Rio

You can't even begin to imagine the poverty in the favelas (shanty towns).  They literally have nothing.  Well, most of the people in the favelas have nothing; the drug lords who live there are wealthy beyond belief.  And they're happy to share just enough to keep people alive and loyal to them.  Anyone who turns against the drug lords will likely find themselves dead very quickly.

"Why don't they turn to the police?" you might ask.  The poor souls in Rio who dare to join the police force are paid very little money, and there's a good chance that they will die at the hands of any drug lords they dare oppose.  The Government is corrupt beyond belief and subsequently can't/won't afford to pay the police a higher salary, so where do the cops go to get money to support their families?  You got it, the drug lords.  And in return the police leave the drug lords alone.  The people living in the favelas are stuck in a giant downward spiral.  I'm not saying it's right, but I think I would feel like smashing and burning things in the road if I was stuck in that life.

I'm a big fan of The Fast and the Furious movies, but Fast Five (the fifth installment that take place in Rio) almost had me laughing.  Remember the Brazilian cop (Elena) that Dom falls in love with?  She's supposedly an honest cop and guess where they show her living.  Yep, the favelas.  There is zero chance of that happening.  Sorry to disappoint any fans of the franchise :-).

As the World Cup and Olympics are approaching, Brazil has stepped up its efforts to clean up the mean streets of Rio and has done a decent job.  But it literally took the military to accomplish any semblance of order in Rio.  They have literally been at war with the drug cartels in the favelas for a few years and at one point they actually had a tank rolling down the streets of the favelas!

Anyway, it's a sad situation.  But hopefully now you understand a little more about the Cariocas and why some of them struggle so much.