One more music and food trip!

Today I'm leaving for this:

Purification is Matteo's band and they're a vegan edge band. They'll play six shows in South America and I'll be playing the bass for them. It will be 11 days playing, meeting friends, eating vegan food, having fun and spreading the word about veganism. If you wanna check the band, go to their Facebook page!

Our first stop will be Sao Paulo and I can't wait to go to Vegacy, a vegan restaurant there that I really love!

After the tour I'll be heading my hometown to spend some days with my family. Can't wait.

Have to say I don't know how I'll be able to manager the posts here, but I have a few guest posts prepared and scheduled to keep the blog alive while I'm in South America.

See you all soon!

Healthy fair and vegetarian/vegan food

At our second weekend in Belo Horizonte we did some amazing things. On the Saturday we went to an awesome place called Inhotim. It's a very beautiful place that houses a botanic garden and some art galleries. Everybody that visit Belo Horizonte should take one day to go there (it's in another city, but very close to BH). I went there with Matteo and my family and we had a great time.

On the Sunday morning, my brother's wife called me, telling me about a healthy fair (3o. Festival Andando de Bem Com a Vida) that was happening in one of the most beautiful squares of my city, Praça da Liberdade. She said there were stands about Yoga, Pilates and organic food, so we decided to go there. It was the last day, but it was good. All the food stands were selling vegetarian or vegan options and I tried a lot of food. The tofu pizza was my favorite one, but I also enjoyed the snacks. It's really good to see this kind of event going on in my city, helping to spread the word about vegetarianism and veganism. And going there we also heard about a restaurant with vegan/vegetarian options that we went a few days later (and I will post about it in the next few days).


I'm back in Dublin since Tuesday and mom (and a friend) came with us. It's being amazing and we're going to Italy. It will be perfect to spend my 35th birthday with her and in Rome (L).

Mexican (vegan) food in Belo Horizonte

I'm not cooking these days, but I'm having a lot of meals at my parents house and eating a lot of Brazilian typical food.

Lunch time at my parents house

It's not that hard to find different kinds of food in Brazil (French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Mexican, etc). And we are going to some restaurants. There are just a few vegetarian restaurants in Belo Horizonte, none of them vegan, but we can find vegan options in regular places. It's not the ideal for me, but I'm OK with that. One of my favorite regular restaurants is the Mexican place Chilis Cocina Mexicana.


It's easy to "veganize" some of the menu options and this time we had some nachos as a start and burritos. The burritos here are different of the ones I usually eat in Ireland. They don't have rice in the filling, just a cream of beans (like mashed beans) and I prefer it in this way. I love beans and everything made with them. And the burritos come with some guacamole in the top too, what is perfect. And because we don't eat the meat, the cheese or the sour cream, we got pico-de-gallo (fresh uncooked condiment made from chopped tomato, onion, and sometimes chiles). It was delicious and the staff was very friendly too, attending all the changes we asked without questioning.


Chilis Cocina Mexicana
Ponteio Lar Shopping
Loja R2
Belo Horizonte - MG - Brasil

PS. 1: I created a Facebook for the blog, join me there!
PS. 2: I'm finally preparing the first giveaway of the blog and it will be announced next week :)

Brazilian vegan products

Since we have arrived in my city, Belo Horizonte, I've been buying a lot of vegan products. Some of those I tried when I lived here, others are new ones. It's great to see how vegetarianism and veganism are becoming more known in Brazil. It's a slow process but it's working. Yesterday I went to a health fair and all the food there was vegetarian or vegan (I will blog about in the next days).

Here there is a small list of some of the stuff I bought:

1. Biscuits/cookies: I love them and Brazil has some good options. My favorite one is not exactly a biscuit but I love it: Goiabinha. It has "goiabada" (one kind of sweet done with sugar and guava) inside and it's really delicious.



2. Naturis soja: soya chocolate pudding.


3. Guarana with açaí: Guaraná Antartica is a national soda made with the fruit guaraná. It's really good and I miss it (Matteo bought a big bottle of Guaraná Antartica in Dublin, at the Brazilian store, but it was out of gas and it was too much expensive, so we just gave up on trying to have it there). And now there is this new option, with açaí (if you're not Brazilian, you know the fruit as "acai" but it is written with the "ç" and it sounds like "assai" - something like that). It's amazing. I could drink it everyday.



4. Batata palha temperada: this is a kind of potato chips in strips, very crisp and tasty. This one has also onion and parsley and it's perfect with a lot of sandwiches. I really miss it.

5. Shampoo and conditioner Ecologie: this company is very good and does not test on animals. I choosed the products made with pomegranate and wheat protein and they're really awesome.


I'll have more products to post in the next days.

PS. It's winter here and I'm enjoying amazing sunny days with 20°C. Today it's colder, so it's 13°C.

Meu Brasil brasileiro

With some friends at Vegacy - São Paulo

I'm in Brazil to see my family and my friends. The last time that me and Matteo came here was June 2009. One year without coming is a lot to me. But I'm doing the best I can. It's great to be home, to be with people that love me and miss me.

Vegan breakfest in the hotel: bread + strawberry and goiaba jelly

The flights from Dublin to Belo Horizonte, my city, stop in São Paulo, so we decided to stay one day there to see some friends (some of my best friends live there), get tattooed and eat. The best thing is that our tattooer (Teté) is also the owner of the vegan restaurant Vegacy, that we love, and both are in the same street. Couldn't be better. We had an amazing lunch there, went to the studio and came back in the evening to meet some people. I finally finished my arm that I start 4 years ago and now I have the ocean in my skin (L). Everything was perfect. I wish I could stay more days there cause I couldn't see everybody, but we don't have too much time and had to come to Belo Horizonte.

Itubaína: can't believe it was the first time that we drank it, too good.

Vegan lunch

In the end of the night we went to a pizzeria with Teté and his girlfriend and ate two awesome pizzas. Expensive, but very tasty.

There is good vegan food and products in Brazil and I'll try to post here as much as I can in the next few days, I'm taking pictures of everything.

All about... 2009!

Before starting this post, I decided to read the one I wrote about 2008. It's really good to look back after some time. Remembering things with some distance (in this case, of time) is really good. And I can say that one sentence that I wrote back in January 2nd was 100% true: "I know things will be fine in 2009".

And the word I chose to describe 2009 is "building". I really spent my year building my new life: home, friendship, love, family. It was the year to learn how to keep some relationships with the distance, to make others, close, to deal with my family in the other side of the ocean, to have a new house (two, in fact, because we moved to a bigger apartment last October), to keep things and let others go, to live in Dublin, to love Dublin, to keep my marriage amazing and full of love, to start new things, to close some doors and open new windows.

As you can notice, it was a full and busy year. I could see all the seasons coming and going and have memories for them all. It's really nice when you come from a place that is always hot and always look like summer. I don't know if I would be able to write about everything that was important to me in 2009, but I want to write about some things.

In February, after coming back from our first travel to Berlin to see my lovely friend Clarissa, I decided to start baking vegan cupcakes and cakes. Some people should think that I always did that, but I never thought about it before going to the cupcake shop in Berlin. I like to bake, I was used to bake some cakes (and birthday cakes for friends) but had never done it as a "job" or a "business" before. But the crisis was all around Dublin and I couldn't get a job in my professional area, journalism, so I decided to try. I talked a lot to the owner of Cupcake Berlin and she gave me the most important tips to begin and I started to bake. First for the new friends here, then for selling in the hardcore gigs and, finally, for selling in the Govinda's restaurant and for some orders. And I had a busy year baking my vegan cakes! And everybody loves them ;-) In general, I cooked more too. Being at home made me cook more and it is a good experience that I want to keep.

Matteo and I moved all the HUP (our independent hardcore label) stuff to Dublin, released the Irish band Famine, helped to bring Bane to play Ireland in April ans released their 2 new EPs in Europe and South America; we released the Italian bands To Kill, Locked In and helped the first release of Go Back Home; we went to basically all gigs that happened in the city and to other festivals in Europe during the summer; we made the last Have Heart South America tour and I had the chance to travel with them, Shipwreck and Rise and Fall for a week and see Have Heart last shows in Europe and say goodbye to my favorite band of the new generation. All this was really amazing because I can't live without the hardcore and the straight edge in my life. We saw bands that I never imagine to see, we met amazing people, we had tons of fun.


I started to make some friends around and I could keep the best friends I have in my life, even with the distance. Friendship is really important to me and it's not easy to have true friends around. I think I'm building some new friendships here and I'm sure I'll always have the Brazilian friends in my life, doesn't matter where I am. I saw these friends - and my family - in June in Brazil and it made me happy enough for the rest of the year. I celebrated my birthday in July with my new Irish friends and I think they have no idea about how important it was for me. I spent some amazing days with Matteo's family. It's so great having them around. Barcelona in September was unforgettable! Christmas and New Year were perfect. The first in Dublin and couldn't be better.


I still don't have a job that I'd like, but I'm writing for a magazine from London, I have a column in a Brazilian website to talk about veganism and other things I believe, I have 5 of my vegan recipes published in a German book, I have an article in a new German magazine (and I hope I'll have more), I worked with my ex-boss again in a project and it's always great to keep this relationship with him and the place I worked for almost 4 years in Belo Horizonte.

I really can't complain about 2009. I still have a lot to do to make my life better here but I'm sure I built the bases, solid ones. 2010 will be a better year. It is already being. I have new goals to be achieved and I'm positive about them.


Finally, I just like to say THANK YOU to everybody that was part of my life in 2009 and I hope you're still here.

Vegan Mofo III - Day 13 - Inspiration

One of the best things ever is seeing that what you do can inspire people. I am not talking just about big acts but about small things you do. Yesterday I was happy to see that one of my best friends, from Brazil, baked her first vegan cupcakes inspired of all the baking I am doing here in Dublin.

I sent her the recipe in Portuguese with some tips about the replacement for the stuff she wouldn't find in Brazil and she blogged about her first time here!


I don't know if this sounds silly, but I am really glad when I read all these love messages that arrive to me and when I see my friends trying to make delicious vegan food around the world :)

And for those who don't know, my inspiration to start baking the Sweet vegan cupcakes was Cupcake Berlin! If you're going to Berlin, you must go there!

Hey, we got that PMA *

I'm super late to write about it, but I don't care, this place deserves a post. In my last visit to Brazil, we went there during the 3 days we were in São Paulo and we'd do the same if we stayed 30 days. This amazing place is a vegan restaurant called Vegacy. Of course São Paulo has other vegetarian options, but I'll write just about it today (even because it's the best one).

Last June Vegacy completed 4 years. The restaurant is an idea of my friend and tattooer Tete (Fernando Franceschi), a vegan straight edge guy that has a tattoo studio called PMA and decided that was time to offer a vegan place to everybody in São Paulo. During the first 3 years, Vegacy was located in a small and nice gallery in one of the most famous streets of São Paulo (Rua Augusta). This gallery used to have some restaurants and a common area for people to eat. Vegacy always had an “all you can eat” system. The food is amazing, the people who work (and had worked) are the coolest people ever and it's a vegan place. There is nothing better than going out to eat without having to ask about what you can or can't eat. And because Tete and everybody that helps keep the restaurant going on are involved in hardcore, they always helped us with the international tours we did with Hurry Up!, making special prices and many times feeding our bands for free the days we were in town.

Tete at Vegacy "new home"

In June of 2008, while we were there with the US band Bane, a surprise came for the guys: the gallery was sold and they had just a few days to close the restaurant. It was a big shock for everybody. But, those guys know how to keep the “positive mental attitude” (PMA) and they started to think about a new place. They wanted a place in the same area because they had built a great number of loyal customers (vegan and vegetarian people and also people that worked around and liked the food – and the price). The good news came after some months: they found a place in the same street, even better, in the same block. But they had a lot of work to do, reforming the entire place. Vegacy was closed for some time and in the beginning of 2009 they reopened at the new place.


I'm always in touch with the guys there and I knew the place was great before even going, but I was so curious! Some of my friends were saying a lot of good things too and I was happy to know that Vegacy was back, “stronger than ever”. In a Monday of June, after the Have Heart show on Sunday, we all (me, Matteo and the band) went to the new Vegacy.

My first impression was “wow it's big and so beautiful!” and I could see with my eyes that all effort that my friends had put in it was worth it. The new Vegacy is the best place to eat in São Paulo. It's big, comfortable, beautiful. Everybody that works there is nice and you can stay there for hours, just chilling after eating. They kept the “all you can eat” system and the food is always good, with a big variation too (they have 10 hot dishes and a big table with 10 different salads and also 2 options of juice of the day – that is included in the price). The place has 2 floors and the food is served on the second one (but you can choose eating in the first one too). And they have amazing dessert options, including vegan cupcakes!

And when I thought that nothing could be better, it could: they're open until 9 pm and have sandwiches, snacks, desserts and juices. Of course we went there at night to try the sandwiches. We got a lentils burger and a chickpeas burger and they're are so delicious! And of course we ate some snacks (and took some to eat at the hotel too).


What I can say to end this long post is: if you go to São Paulo, you MUST go to Vegacy! It's a vegan paradise in the big city.

And more people agree with me:

"A trip to Sao Paulo is not complete to me if I don't go to Vegacy. It has a rich menu, including snacks, sandwiches and desserts. Besides having a great location, close to several other points that I love in the city, the atmosphere is very nice and you can spend some time there chatting and seeing friends."
Fabiano Aguiar, Belo Horizonte, MG)

"Vegacy has some additional good points for being a 100% vegetarian/vegan restaurant and because of its location. I love the variety of the menu, that always includes roasted food or sufles and also some Italian dishes. Talking about dessert, my tip is to have the cupcake, made by the restaurant, which, to me, is the best of São Paulo. Another cool thing is that from Wednesday to Saturday they serve “a la carte” options and also pizza. My favourite pizza is the one with tofu and broccoli, the best vegan pizza I ever ate. The restaurant is also different from the others in the city because all of its cook staff is vegetarian, something very difficult to find here in São Paulo."
(Athos, São Paulo, São Paulo)

"The first, and only time, that I ate at Vegacy was when I was on tour with my band. We just arrived in São Paulo and we needed to get lunch before going to the venue of the show and the suggestion was Vegacy, which, by the way, has a great location. I have heard very great things about their food and was excited with the idea to prove it and to know the place. We were very well attended and the food exceeded all my expectations, it's really delicious! Vegacy was in a kind of gallery, which offered a nice and airy environment. Next time I go back to São Paulo, Vegacy will be a stop for sure."
(Roberto "beto" Martyres, Curitiba, Paraná)

“First of all, I want to congratulate Vegacy for the excellent atmosphere and the great menu. Besides the place being pretty nice, the food is spectacular, with a lot of different flavors, where the pleasure increases bite after bite, and any kind of over-eating-guilt disappears, the health thanks and all for a good price. The service, the drinks, the staff attention, kindness and concern with everybody make this place wonderful. Today it is difficult to find places with all these qualities together! Thanks, Vegacy. I'll be back soon!”
Mariana Ramos, Brasilia, DF)

"As far as Vegacy. I know for a fack that we all enjoyed our meal when we ate at the new location. I personally enjoyed the traditional feel that came along with the restaurants all around atmosphere. Have Heart is not a 100% vegan or even vegetarian band and we all thought the food was delicious. It should also be noted that the service was amazing and quite friendly. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a decent meal!"
Ryan Briggs - Have Heart bass player - Boston - US)

Let me know what you think about Vegacy too, let your comment!!




Vegacy
Rua Augusta, 2061
Monday to Saturday
11am – 9h30pm


(* Bad Brains – Attitude)

"Brasil, meu Brasil brasileiro"

Since the end of May I'm in Brazil. I'm spending some great days in my hometown, Belo Horizonte, with my family and friends! I'm going to a lot of awesome places and I hope I can update here soon with news and pics ;-)

For now, just one thing: it's so good that I can eat beans again! Love them and love the Brazilian snack "pastel" (need to get a recipe to post here!)

I'll be back!

Italian food and Brazilian guarana

Last weekend we ate a lot of Italian food: pasta, pizza and lasagna. Couldn't be better! And to make it more perfect, Matteo bought us Guaraná Antártica.


For those who don't know “guarana is a climbing plant in the maple family, native to the Amazon basin and especially common in Brazil. Guarana features large leaves and clusters of flowers, and is best known for its fruit, which is about the size of a coffee berry. As a dietary supplement, guarana is an effective energy booster – it contains about twice the caffeine found in coffee beans.” (thanks Wikipedia, again).

Guaraná Antártica is the most famous Brazilian soda made of guarana (of course). And it's available at a Brazilian small shop here in Dublin for a scary price. After almost one year without drinking it, it was worth it (but next time I'll drink it in Brazil, for sure!). If you have the chance to try this soda, do it, it's really delicious ;o)


PS. I'm not cooking a lot of stuff because I'm really busy with the cupcakes (check out Sweet Myspace) and that's awesome! These are the cupcakes that are at Govinda's (Aungier Street) today and tomorrow:

All about... (our) hot dog

As I promised here I am to write a little bit about the Brazilian hot dog. Yes, we have a different way to make it and I love it!

Basically, there are 3 differences:

1. The name is translated to Portuguese, so we call it “cachorro quente”. This is funny.

2. We cook the sausage with tomato sauce. You can choose use sliced vegan sausages or not (I prefer the first option). Cook a tomato sauce with onion, garlic and some herbs and add the sausages. Let cook for a few minutes. One good tip is to add corn too.

3. The final touch: make mashed potatoes. Cook the potatoes (in this case, I used 3 small potatoes), crush with a potato masher or with a fork. Return the potatoes to the pan, add salt, vegetable margarine and soy milk (or more margarine) and mix to combine.

The best bread is the hot dog one, but some times we don't find it, so (like yesterday) we make the sandwich with baguette. You can also add mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard.


I can garantee that this terrible picture I took can't show how amazing the cachorro quente Brazilian hot dog is, so you must try it!

Best Brazilian combination

There are just a few things that I miss from Brazil. And it includes some kind of food. Today (a really cold Sunday) we decided to cook the best Brazilian combination ever: rice and beans! It's not the original way too cook the beans and I added some sausages, but it was awesome! And to complete the meal, some fried olive tofu. An easy way to make our day happier ;o)

All about... 2008

I was thinking if it would be a good idea to write about 2008. I can't say it was a great year to me. But I can't say it was bad too. So I decided to write some lines. If I had to choose one word to define my year, it would be “messy”. 2008 was the year of changes. I changed my life. And we started 2008 knowing about that. And I thought I was prepared. But looking back, I know I wasn't and it was not that easy. But I am happy with my choice, so I know things will be fine in 2009.

Because we knew we would leave Brazil, we decided to spend all the time we could close to the people we love – family and friends. And our best way to do that is being together, having fun together, and eating together. In this way, we celebrated as much as we could. We made parties at all friends' birthdays until July (when we came to Europe) and we tried all the vegan food we could. We knew those moments wouldn't last forever and we enjoyed them. It wasn't that easy try to leave everything done to move while going out as much as we could with our friends. But I couldn't do different. This made a huge difference to me. I said “goodbye” to all of my favorite Brazilian vegan food and to my best Brazilian friends. I spent my time with my family and laughed together. We celebrated Matteo's birthday in April and mine, in July, some days before we traveled. Even when I wasn't in a mood to go out or celebrate, we decided to do it because it was worth it. And the last time I saw my friends in 2008 was at the premiere of “Batman - The Dark Knight”, with popcorn and lots of fun.


And now, looking back, it's so easy to think about all these days and smile. Each vegan food has a specific memory. Garlic bread at New Year. Donuts at Digao's birthday. Chocolate cake at Matteo's birthday. Raquel's awesome snacks all those Friday nights. Pizza and burgers with friends at lunch. Mom cooking great soups some weekends. And the list goes on... Full of happiness.

Then July came, it was time to say goodbye to everybody and to everything. We were so excited with the new life that was difficult to be sad. We spent two months in Italy with Matteo's family and going to some hardcore shows and festivals around Europe. We deserved some vacation. Being in Italy is always good and we eat a lot there too because, as you all can notice reading this blog, my sister-in-law is an amazing vegan cook. There, I decided to create this blog. Not just to talk about food. To talk about things I care about and that bring me some happiness. These include vegan food, vegan lifestyle and a cruelty free life.

Since October we're living in Dublin and things are still messy around here. But we're happy to be here and we started to build a new life that already has great memories. And to share this new life with people that care about me and about a better world, a vegetarian/vegan world, I kept this blog alive.

In 2008 I had completed 11 years being vegan. And I still care about it. More than I cared when I decided to be vegan. And it's really good to know that I care so much when most of the people I know just gave up. I feel happy being vegan. And even in a year confused like my 2008, this is always a sure thing in my life.

A beautiful horizon or just Belo Horizonte

I was born in Belo Horizonte (in English it is “beautiful horizon”), a city of Brazil that has approximately 2 million people living there. When I say that to people here in Europe, everybody says it's a big city. Yes, it's big but not that big when we talk about Brazil. Anyway, it's the capital of our beautiful state, Minas Gerais. I like the city, but there's nothing so special there to me... And it's not that easy to be a vegan girl there too. Well, it's getting better, but still far way from perfect.

Vegetarianim/veganism is not that popular in Brazil yet. I say “popular” not meaning a fashion thing, an option that people find to be more healthy. It's just not easy to meet vegetarian/vegan people or find food or products to buy at supermarkets. I thing the worst thing is still going out to eat. There are just a few options and most of them just open during the day. The best thing to do at night is going to some friend's house and cook some stuff there (that's what we used to do almost every weekend!). And when we go out and try to ask about the ingredients it's a nightmare. People just don't understand why you want to know it or why you (these freak people) don't eat meat, cheese and eggs. I will not write today about the most common questions and comments we are used to listen to in this post (this deserves another post!) but I have to tell you the weirdest story about questioning the ingredients happened to us, me and my husband, last year when we decided to call the delivery service of a big pizzeria. We just asked about the ingredients because in Brazil they (many times) use eggs or milk. And we got this answer: “Sorry, we can't tell you the ingredients of our pizza because it's a secret recipe.” What? ? ? As far as I know there are not a lot of recipes of pizza. It's not the secret recipe of Mr. Krabs's popular Krabby Patty burgers (yes, I do watch SpongeBob SquarePants)! But the most used thing people do to us is to lie or just say what they think it could be in the food. They say that there's no milk or eggs or meat. So we had to start to say we're allergic to these products to make them tell the truth (or to be afraid of lie I suppose) and this is so sad.

But, as I said before, things are getting better. There's a fancy area in the town called Savassi and there we can find good places to eat. The first awesome initiative I saw there was in a fast-food place that sells Arabic food (falafel, sfiha, hummus, baba ghannouj, etc). We used to go there to eat falafel and sometimes the manager was there and talked to us. We (and other friends that use to go there) always asked for more vegetarian/vegan options and we tried to explain him how was the vegan diet. Well, one day we saw that the place was closed. We just got in panic. But it was just a refurbishment. When they reopened we were there and we had a great surprise: they did a new menu with more vegan options and they have written “vegetarian” and/or “vegan” right by certain products. Does it seems stupid and natural to you? I have to say that in Brazil most of the places don't do that. So it was like a victory to us, vegan people from Belo Horizonte.

Even about fast-food, the best option it's called Piper Rubra. They serve a great salad buffet and have also burgers (try the pumpkin with curry one, it's amazing), pizzas and falafel balls.

There's just one restaurant I really like. It's not the only vegetarian option, but it's the best for sure. It's a thai food restaurant, a pay by kilo self-service. Really, really awesome. I miss going there. This is probably one of the few places I miss in Belo Horizonte.

And to finish, a tip about a place to take açaí (remember my post about it here): Ponto do Açai. There you can try açaí with strawberries. Perfect!

That's all about my beautiful city for now!

You can find some places contact (in Portuguese) at Gato Negro website.

Pics credits:
Belo Horizonte view: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafafonte
Piper Rubra pizza: http://www.gato-negro.org

Açaí: love it or leave it

Every single person in Brazil knows what is açaí. Maybe the oldest people had never tried it, but the young people for sure eat it, or at least tried to eat it!

The açaí is the fruit of the palm known as açaizeiro. It is a plains species native of the Amazon region and it is a very important food in the diet of the inhabitants of the Amazon. In other regions of Brazil, like my city (Belo Horizonte) the açaí is prepared frozen, beating the pulp with guarana syrup creating a folder similar to an ice cream, occasionally adding fruit and cereals to it. It is delicious and it has lot of proteins and calories!

The first time I ate this açaí cream was in 1998, I think. Ten years ago!! It's not that easy to fall in love at the first sight for it. It tastes strange, unusual, exotic. But I really like it since the first time I have eaten it! But I know lot of people that don't like it and don't want to give a second chance to our amazon cream... Well, once more, we cannot argue about taste! But I always take all my friends from another country to taste açaí! The last time we talked about it with some friends from Boston, they said: “Ah, ACAI, we have it in US!”. Well, it's not acai, but I can't blame them. The letter 'ç' doesn't exist there, so this is the way they pronounce the name... So, our typical amazon fruit arrived to the US too. I know that exist some stores, mainly at surf points, that sell it. I hope US people like it!! Here in Europe I never saw it. If I am a failure as a journalist here or decide to change profession, I can think about opening a few shops that sell açaí! In hot places, of course... And I would pray to people love it, not leave it!

The other amazing thing about having some açaí cream is that you have to hang out! Well, you can go to the shop, order a take away pot and come back home, but this is not cool! The best thing is to invite some friends, go to the shop, sit at a table on the sidewalk, talk and have some açaí. I prefer it with strawberries plus strawberry syrup! Not mixed, but on top. But you can choose to mix it with the fruit you want and have a new experience! This is really an awesome way to spend time with your best friends and I miss it all weekends here...

So, if you have the chance, try some açaí and tell me if you “love it or leave it”!

(Brazilian) cakes... and cook

One of the easiest food to find and to cook in a vegan version are cakes or pies! I have never missed cakes because I always cook them at home. In Brazil it's more common to have cakes and not pies – at least at home. I am not a great cook, I like to do some stuff, but not everyday. I have to be on the right mood to cook. But, most of the times I like to cook cakes. And most of the times, the ones that come in a box with all the ingredients and you just need to mix them up and bake the cake. My friends say that when they try to cook these ones, the final result is not good, but all cakes I did in my life are great! Well, at least my husband and all my friends love them. Because of that, I always cook all birthday cakes, including my own one.

My favorite flavor is chocolate. But I like the others too. I don't know if I had eaten one cake that I didn't like, probably yes, but I think I have a selective memory that just keeps good memories. Yesterday, I decided to cook a chocolate cake here in Italy. I bought one of these box ones and tried the same way I do in Brazil: ignore the eggs, put more butter and soy milk. It has always worked... until yesterday. I was in the kitchen, excited with my first Italian cake experience, but when I started to mix the stuff I realized that something wasn't good, it didn't look good. But I decided to finish it and bake it. After 30 minutes I took a look and it was terrible. Thin and raw. Ok, let's try 20 minutes more. Nothing changed. Another 15 minutes. And my mother in law trying to support me. At the end, I gave up, confirming that it was terrible. Not the taste, but the appearance. Oh my God, lucky me I don't work making cakes, I could have been fired today!We let it there, in the kitchen, until today when I tasted it and it was good!! So, we decided to eat it with ice cream. Not too bad, but I have to start to cook cakes here in the traditional way: mixing all the ingredients and not using the box cakes.

Before I start to cook the real cakes, I'm pretty sure I will just eat the Italian pies that my husband's sister cooks! They are awesome and they deserve an exclusive post ;-)

PS. Of course the cake in the picture is not the last one! I cooked this one for my husband's last birthday... In Brazil, as you know!

Rice and beans

Rice with beans is the best Brazilian combination to eat! It is good, it is easy to do and it is very nutritious too. When you are vegan, it is one of the best ways to combine nutrient ingredients and have an awesome meal: rice, beans, soy meat and potatoes, for example, is a good combination.

Separated from beans, I don’t like rice that much, but it is one of the most traditional parts of a daily Brazilian meal. We have our own way to cook rice: put first the oil, than garlic and onion and the rice (two cups, for example). Let it fry and then put enough water and let it boil for a while. Close the pot, lower the fire, and let the rice cook. When it’s well dried, it’s ready to serve. I really don’t know how people cook rice around the world (I would like to know!) because I just tried the Italian way and they use just that specific rice to make the risotto.

About the beans, I love them! There are lots of recipes and I just love all of them! But, to eat rice with beans, the right way to cook the beans it’s almost the same to cook the rice. You really have to cook them and not to buy canned beans at the supermarket! I won’t explain all the process, but you have to let them cook in a pressure pot for 20 minutes and after that you put the oil, garlic, onion and salt and let it cook again… The final result is awesome! The best beans ever!! I'm sorry about everyone that is used to eat them in a can, but it is not the same.

That’s it… One food I really miss in Europe is the Brazilian couple rice and beans!

PS. To all my Brazilian friends: yes, of course you know how to cook rice and beans but I thought that the world should know that too to try to understand it! ;-P