Today was our culinary backstreets tour and neither of us was willing to miss it despite our colds. We took a cab to the bar I had found on Monday for our 1:30 meeting with Juarez Becoza, our guide. Juarez is a journalist who writes mostly about the bar and restaurant scene. He also guides some tours through some of the favelas, the low-income areas perched on the hills and mountains surrounding the richer parts of the cities. This food tour visited three gastropubs. Alan usually tries to avoid any alcohol when he has a cold, but an exception was made for this tour. We started at Adega Perola, a small bar about 7 blocks off of Copacabana. There we had chopp, which is any of the local draft beers, and a large plate of squid, octopus, marinated garlic, radish slices, goat cheese, olives, peppers, and Portuguese canned tuna along with some very good French bread.

Then we walked a few blocks to another bar, Pavão Azul which had more of a mixed Portuguese/Brazilian menu. Another chopp and this time some fried treats. Patinesca, which is bacalhão (rehydrated dried salt cod) with egg white and deep fried. You bite the end off of it and then drizzle on olive oil which had chiles in it, let it soak in, and eat it. The other was a Feijoada, which is a mixture of black beans, kale, and rice again deep fried. Also we had a plate of shrimp rice, which is traditional Portuguese food.

Our last stop was far away and so we took a cab to get there. This was more of a Brazilian food bar, nearly empty at 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, but apparently completely packed in the evenings and well into the night. Here we were introduced to the liquor of Brazil. Cachaça is fermented sugar cane syrup, which is aged in a cask. The cask can be oak or one of the native Brazilian woods, which adds a distinctive flavor to the somewhat raw liquor. This is not rum. It reminded me more of grappa. We sampled 4 varieties but were not tempted to run out and purchase any. This was paired with grilled chicken pieces which were very good, but we were by this time very full. We also sampled two Brazilian desserts.

We then caught a cab back to the hotel and packed and went to bed.