It seems like I write in here once every few years. At this point, I will not deny it; it’s been ages since the last entry! Will this change? Maybe. Maybe not.
But this time, I felt the need to write for a while about my experience and some delicious food I’ve tried recently.
Context: I’m in Sรฃo Paulo, Brazil. My company sent me for training/learning/meeting the team. To be honest, I don’t really know why they sent me as I didn’t have a specific task or agenda. But who cares? It’s an all-paid 1-week trip to another country! Who says no to that? Not me, definitely.
This is my first trip to South America, and also my first long-haul flight. Everything’s fine, as I mentioned, all-paid for, and I’m excited and ready to get to know this new country and culture.
One thing though… I don’t speak Portuguese beyond “obrigado” (thank you) and “tudo bem” (everything alright). How am I going to survive? I have one week to discover that.
My flight arrived on Saturday at 7 a.m. The initial shock is that the airport signs and ads are all in Portuguese, but being a tourist site, of course, it has English translations. Not that bad… yet.
When I got to customs, the officer never spoke to me or raised his sight to see me; he just took my passport, stamped it, and let me through.
Once I stepped outside the terminal and to the street, things started to get a bit more complicated; now I had to hail an Uber to get to my hotel. And for added security, I had this option for the driver to request a PIN number to verify my identity. Luckily, before the flight, I quickly reviewed how to pronounce numbers, and thankfully, they’re similar to Spanish; but then he proceeded to say something I can only assume it was the address to confirm it was correct, because of the whole sentence he said, I only caught one word, and it was the name of the street; so after a shy “sรญ”, I was on my way to the hotel.
After an hour of car travel and being amazed by everything surrounding me, I got to the hotel where somebody spoke Spanish, kind of broken, but Spanish. The problem is that it was 9 a.m. and my room was still not ready. And worse, after a 9-hour flight and a 1-hour drive, I was starving! But also scared because I honestly don’t know how to communicate.
But hunger is stronger than any other feeling.
After a quick Google Maps search, I decided to leave my luggage in storage and head to a small local place a couple of blocks away and try my luck… and local cuisine.
The place
It’s called “Novo Sabor 2 Lanchonete” (New Flavour 2 Cafeteria). Located in Av. Santo Amaro, 341 - Vila Nova Conceiรงรฃo, Sรฃo Paulo - SP, 04505-000
I was drawn to it by the pictures I saw online, and honestly, I was kind of disappointed when I saw the menu and nothing that I had seen online was in there. However, I was hungry and already there. I could not understand more than half of the menu, but still.
The dish
It took me over ten minutes to decide and constantly checking Google Translate and Google Lens, but at the end I found something I wanted to try: a “beirute com presunto, queijo e ovo” (beirute with jam, cheese and egg). And to drink, a traditional zuco de aรงai (aรงai juice).
What is a beirute? I discovered it in that moment.
As you can see in the picture, it is not a complicated dish. The beirute is a Brazilian sandwich hailing from Sรฃo Paulo and it’s influenced by Levantine cuisine. It is made with “pรฃo sรญrio” (Syrian bread or pita bread), and the filling always goes in between two pieces of the bread, not into the pocket.
Originally, it was stuffed with roast beef and vegetables, but nowadays it is prepared with various other fillings, like mine.
In this case, it has lots of ham, cheese, a fried egg, homemade mayonnaise, and a herb and spices mixture.
For breakfast, it tastes great, and it’s not complicated to either prepare or find to order.
The flavours that stood out for me were the mayo and the ham. At this point, I don’t know if Brazilian food tends to be more salty and spiced, but at least these two ingredients were. And not salty in a bad way, that I couldn’t enjoy them. No, I mean it in a way that it’s a flavour not as light or tending to be more sweet like Mexican mayo.
This contrast of flavours made me even more aware I was far away from home and ready to try more food!
Now, you can’t have breakfast without something to drink! And what better than a zuco de aรงai (aรงai juice)?
Pronounced ah-sigh-EE, they are berries that look a lot like grapes, and their flesh and skin are packed with plenty of vitamins and other nutrients. They’re in fact known as a superfood because of all its benefits.
Not a bad start for a whole week ahead of me.
After a nice, warm, and filling breakfast, I went back to my hotel and was able to finally check in, get a room, and sleep for a while before heading out for more food and adventures. But those are stories for a new entry!
