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BRAZILIAN NIGHTLIFE,
SHOPPING, food and drinks
Image: Carnival in Brazil; Embratur
BRAZILIAN
NIGHTLIFE
Brazil isn’t only natural wonders as the Amazon, the Iguassu Falls, or the magnificent unspoiled beaches of the Northeast. Brazil is also excellent exotic food, good shopping opportunities or entertainment and animated nightlife, all at reasonable or low prices.
For nightlife and fun one of the best options is, undoubtedly, Rio de Janeiro. But there are other options. Near Rio, if you want a more selective and conventional animation, with lots of restaurants, good food and excellent bars or discos, places such as Buzios and Angra are excellent options.
And so is Sao Paulo. Though mainly a business capital, Sao Paulo may easily satisfy the most exigent demands on entertainment and fun.
And the same may be applied to great destinies like Fortaleza, Sao Salvador da Bahia or Recife. Their nightlife hasn’t the glamour, the intensity and the diversity of Rio’s, but has charms of their own.
For more information, see:
Brazil Vacation
Entertainment and night life in Rio de Janeiro
Entertainment and night life in Sao Paulo
Entertainment and night life in Bahia
Entertainment and night life in Recife
Entertainment and night life in Fortaleza
BRAZILIAN FOOD
Brazilian food is essentially a set of regional dishes. There is a Bahian cuisine, an Amazon cuisine, a Southern cuisine, but not exactly what we could call a true national cuisine. The closest to national dishes are the feijoada, and the churrasco.
Feijoada dish
The feijoada consists of black beans simmered with a wide variety of meats; the dish is completed with a treated bean sauce, kale, white rice, sliced oranges and floor of manioc root, or part of these ingredients. In Rio, feijoada is an obligatory dish on Saturday nights.
Churrasco dish
The churrasco is a barbecue, with selected meats. The most accredited are the south ones, or made of meats from the south. Rodisios are famous: they are churrascos involving different varieties of meats (pig, chicken, beef, sausage).
Peixe à brasileiro
Also very common all along the brazilian coast is the Peixe à Brazileiro («Fish in Brazilian way»), a fish stew served with prião (a dough based on manioc root), or simply grilled fish, or other seafood dishes – including excellent fishes as badejo and crabs, lobsters and shrimp.
The most exotic food
Anyway, the most exotic dishes and the most specific tastes have to be searched elsewhere – at Bahia, in the Northeast, or at the Amazon.
For more information about the several Brazilian cuisines, see::
Eating in Rio de Janeiro
Eating in Sao Paulo
Eating in Bahia
Eating in Recife
Eating in Fortaleza
Eating in the Amazon
For books about Brazilian cuisine, see:
Books about Brazilian cuisine
BRAZILIAN DRINKS
Hot climate invites one to drink, and cold beer is an excellent choice. Beer – the Brazilian one is very good, and cheap – is perhaps the most consumed drink in Brazil, though not in all the country.
Agua de coco
At the Northeast the beer is largely replaced by agua de coco (coconut juice, drunk directly from a perforation on the top of the fruit). There are street vendors offering it everywhere.
Fruit juices
Fruit juices are very popular. There are snack bars specialized in juices (they sell dozens of types, and mixtures, all of them prepared when ordered). Hotels and restaurants have normally at least three or four qualities of juices. They are a real treat, particularly in zones as the northeast and the Amazon, where the variety of tropical fruits – some of them absent from the great global markets - make the juices simply spectacular.
Guarana
Guaraná ia also a peculiar Brazilian drink, the favourite of children, often compared with ginseng in its tonic properties. Guaraná is a soft drink whose particularity comes from an Amazonian fruit: the guaraná, precisely.
Cachaça
Cachaça, a strong variety of rum, distilled from sugar cane, is considered a Brazilian national drink. It stands at the top of alcoholic beverage. Cachaça is also very used in batidos, a concoction of cachaça and fruit juice. Batido de coco (cachaça and coconut juice) and batido de maracujá (cachaça and passion fruit) are the favourites.
For more information about cachaça, see:
Cachaça Rum, Leblon
Caipirinha
Also very popular and also considered a national drink is caipirinha: in its simplest preparation, a concoction of crushed lime and sugar, with plenty of ice, sometimes with a bit of cachaça or vodka.
Wines
Wines aren’t very common in Brazil, except in the South states, where there are excellent wines, some of them imported from neighbouring countries (Argentina, Uruguay…).
SHOPPING IN BRAZIL
Here are some suggestions, if you want to buy some products as gifts (or for yourself).
Jewellery
Brazil is a great producer of gold and diamonds. And almost two thirds of the world’s coloured gemstones are produced in Brazil. So, if you are interested in rubies, emeralds, sapphires, opals, amethysts, aquamarines, topazes, or gold jewellery or diamonds, consider buying them in Brazil. The prices are very inviting, and leading world jewellers as H. Stern or Roditi operate all over Brazil (at airports, and some hotels…)
Leather goods
Another good shopping option is leather articles – shoes, bags, belts, and so on -, mainly in Brazil south. The quality is high and the price inviting.
Kangas and T-shirts
T-shirts are sold everywhere, with colourful designs, at low prices. They are a good option for a cheap article to offer or to use. More brazilian yet, are the tiny bikinis or, better yet, the feminine kanga – a big coloured cotton piece that can be wrapped around the body in many ways.
Cotton hammocks
Cotton hammocks are a typical brazilian product, sold everywhere at low prices. There is a true national Brazilian hammock mass-production (they replace the common bed, for many Brazilians, in the North).
Paintings
In the bigger cities, you will encounter – in galleries, but also in craft fairs - a high offer of nice paintings, mainly with primitive or naïve themes.
Consider also:
Ceramics, in the Northeast and North.
Indian handicrafts, in Northern Amazon.
Religious articles: in Salvador and all over Bahia.
Information about shopping in several Brazilian regions
Brazil Vacation
Shopping in Rio de Janeiro
Shopping in Sao Paulo
Shopping in Bahia
Shopping in Fortaleza
Shopping in Recife
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