CAFES AND RESTAURANTS
The situation with cafes and snack bars is simplest in Venezuela. With the almost legalized black market dollar rate, you can save so much that you can easily afford a lunch consisting of meat or fish, rice, salad, and freshly squeezed juice for 100–150 bolivars (50–75 rubles). Therefore, it is cheaper to eat out than to cook yourself. There are many cafes, but they all operate on their own – rather mysterious – schedule.
In Brazil, you can't stretch your budget that way. Almost the only budget option (besides cooking yourself) is to eat at markets. Often there is a separate row of small stalls offering prepared food. Some even have chairs or stools, so you don't have to eat on the go. We saw the greatest variety of such stalls in Belém.
Our main discovery while sailing the Amazon was the vendors at the stops. Like our grandmothers on railway platforms, they run up to the arriving steamer and offer simple but tasty food. Often these are children, very young, and it is very hard to resist buying even a melted ice cream from them.
In the lower reaches, trading is done on the move: small boats temporarily moor alongside one side or the other and offer local fruits for mere pennies.
The most common way of 'serving' food in cafes here is self-service followed by weighing the plate. Payment is per kilogram, and this figure is universal for all food on your plate, from weightless salad to heavy meat. Another, much rarer option is 'eat as much as you can for n reais.' Sometimes it's profitable (in Manaus n was 10 reais), sometimes not (in the Maringá area this variable rose to 21). Drinks are sold separately in both cases.
In Guyana, there are practically no authentic cafes. But you can find cuisines from other parts of the world: Indian, Mexican, Chinese… On the way from Georgetown to Lethem, you sometimes encounter quite unexpected 'exotica': a boiled egg, baked whole into a ball of mashed potatoes.
MAIN DISHES
Among the main dishes, besides the usual rice, beans, and various types of meat (and fried bananas, which we'll talk about later), you can also find local highlights. If for Venezuela soup most likely means a large piece of meat and a fatty broth around it, for the Amazon it will be a kind of fish soup. During Christmas holidays, if you're lucky, you can try Brazilian bobo – a yellow sauce-like mass with seafood.
The most unexpected and one of the most pleasant discoveries in the Amazon is their porridge. If you see a cart with a large pot of oatmeal at the pier or market, try it boldly. Porridge here can be made from corn, tapioca, banana (not very sweet), rice, or oatmeal.
In Venezuela, a good half of the establishments specialize in empanadas or local cachapa pancakes. The variety of fillings usually ends with cheese, meat, cheese with ham, chicken, cheese and... cheese. Besides that, both there and in Brazil, there is a special type of cheese bun – pan de queso / pao de quejo.
Bread is mostly good and mostly white. Dark and whole-grain varieties were found only here and there, but we didn't specifically search for them.
Ice cream in South America ranges from terribly chemical to perfect. Argentina leads, not without reason its ice cream is considered one of the best in the world. Besides standard flavors, it's worth trying ice cream with local fruit flavors (especially in the Amazon!), corn, and Argentine mate-flavored ice cream. A healthy alternative to cold sweets was found at the market in Belém. Here you can buy refreshing avocado puree or guarana de Amazonia – a puree-like mixture of guarana, avocado, peanuts, oatmeal, ice, and many other mysterious ingredients.
WHAT TO COOK YOURSELF
Among grains and cereals, the most common are corn, oatmeal, and rice. Pasta and instant noodles are everywhere. Soy, despite its significant role in the local economy, is almost entirely exported and never reaches the shelves. Legumes are widely available: several types of beans, green lentils, chickpeas. In a typical Brazilian plate, there will always be fish (meat), beans, and rice. In Venezuela and Argentina, finding them is also not a problem.
South American meat is well-known far beyond the region, it is abundant and of various types. The Amazon and the coast are rich in fish and seafood, and everything is exceptionally tasty and of excellent quality.
Cheeses here are not so great (and where do they get it for the buns?). Decent ones are expensive, and cheap ones are not very good. The only exception is Belém's hard mozzarella.
BEVERAGES
North of Brazil, it is quite difficult to get a decent cup of tea. Venezuela offers only chamomile and linden – and ubiquitous coffee. With coffee, it's interesting: Brazilians by default put a lot of sugar in it – finding plain black unsweetened coffee is difficult. However, in Brazilian eateries, there are often thermoses with free coffee, and in case of extreme need, you can drink it without buying anything.
Returning to the question of tea: already in the Amazon, it reappears in a large assortment, and on the approach to Argentina, people with calabashes in their hands drinking mate are everywhere. In Uruguay, it is impossible to imagine a person without a thermos. Mate is drunk everywhere: on the streets, at home, morning and evening, while waiting for the bus, and just like that. Argentina, however, is not far behind: near shops you often find hot water dispensers.
Now about milk. In Venezuela, there was none at all, although locals say it's a temporary crisis (at the same time, they were almost completely lacking toilet paper and gas). In Brazil, from its northern reaches to the southernmost, fields stretch to the horizon with herds of cows – one would think dairy products should be abundant here. But no, milk in stores is only long-lasting, and there is almost no fermented milk. In northeastern Argentina, the same story. One of the few exceptions is the Venezuelan drink chicha, which tastes like sweet yogurt and contains milk, rice, and a large amount of sugar.
The tropics are about fruit, and fruit is about juice. Due to its cheapness, Venezuela turned out to be a juice paradise. Where else can you start the morning with a glass of freshly squeezed juice for 10-15 rubles? Guava, passion fruit, melon, and blackberry became our best friends. But in Brazil, alas, prices were nowhere near Venezuelan ones.
However, they also found an excellent replacement for juice on a hot day. The main treat here is chilled green coconut. Yes, exactly like in pictures of paradise beaches, with a straw stuck in it and a clear refreshing liquid. But don't rush to throw away the 'empty' coconut like the locals: ask to chop it in half and scoop out the jelly-like whitish flesh for dessert. The cost varies from 2 reals in the middle Amazon to 6 in the touristy south of the country.
The second alternative to juices is frozen fruit pulp sold in stores. Its advantage is that it is cheaper than ready-made juice (about 1.5 reals for a packet for a glass of water), and also that you can eat it simply as fruit ice if you like. The assortment will satisfy the most demanding: from orange and lemon to passion fruit, avocado, umbu, and soursop.
Water, of course, is also available. Moreover, in Brazil and Argentina, when traveling, you often don't have to worry about it: most buses and boats have either water boilers or small cups. In some parks and public places, there are drinking fountains, but whether to drink from them or not is a personal decision. An even more common drink than water is sweet soda, mainly cola. In the Amazon, guarana soda is found.
VEGETABLES AND FRIED BANANAS
In addition to the standard worldwide potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, and zucchini, there are also native ones. First of all, cassava. And what is not made from it here – side dishes, salads, traditional Brazilian farinha, which is eaten both as a separate dish and added to everything else, from ice cream to meat. On any Brazilian table, besides salt and pepper, there will be a jar of farinha.
Both in stores and markets, you can find jars of pickled palm heart – palmito. They taste... Well, like pickled vegetables, salty with a sour note.
Perhaps some types of bananas are also considered vegetables here. In South America, there are six varieties, and at least two of them are eaten only cooked. One variety of banana when baked becomes a bit mushy and has a familiar taste and texture, the second is more like a potato or some root, hard and unsweet, which can be grated and fried like chips.
Potatoes, of course, are also available, both regular and sweet potato. Another potato-like root, yam, when boiled resembles soggy bread crumb. It is usually served as an addition to a side dish in Venezuela.
Also here are the Amazonian non-sweet fruits pupunha and tucumã. The first is eaten only boiled and peeled, and is an orange acorn-shaped fruit about 2–3 cm in size.
The second is green, larger, and with a rosette on top. It needs to be peeled, then the orange hard flesh is shaved into thin strips. In the market, it is usually sold already cut.
Corn, of course, is found in all possible forms, from flour to pie filling. The Venezuelan Christmas dish hallacas is based on corn and meat and cooked in banana leaves, while its Brazilian counterpart pamonha is a sweet packet of milk and corn cooked in corn husks.
FRUITS – EXOTIC AND NOT SO
A paradise for fruit lovers is the Amazon. But if you want to limit your carbs, don't go there! Because it's very hard to resist: with such diversity, you look at mangoes as old friends.
Three sweet symbols of Amazonia – açaí, cupuaçu, and guarana. Açaí is a berry-like fruit of a palm, dark purple. The liquid, reminiscent of thick cocoa, is its juice. Drinking it without sugar is impossible (and even with sugar, it's an acquired taste).
But cupuaçu pleases everyone without exception. A relative of cocoa, this fruit under a hard brown shell holds the most delicate white flesh. Inside hide large seeds, but they are not eaten – most of the fruit's interior is useless for a gourmet.
Guarana is most often available as a powder or already in some dishes, so it's difficult to say something directly about its taste, but its effect is known to everyone: it invigorates many times stronger than caffeine.
The ranks of Brazilian fruits continue with soursop, umbu, jackfruit, and cashew. The jackfruit turned out to be an interesting fruit: a spiny brown vessel the size of a torpedo melon, upon opening, revealed yellow flesh with a very pleasant taste. The cashew fruit (the one whose little appendages are the nuts) did not live up to expectations: it was bitter.
There are also more traditional fruits. Several types of bananas, a couple of varieties of mangoes, avocados, oranges and limes, papaya (which in Brazil is called mamão), passion fruit (in Venezuela it's called parchita), and expensive apples. There are melons and watermelons, differing from ours only in size and shape. For example, in Manaus, most of these melons look more like oversized zucchini.
NUTS AND DRIED FRUITS
Nuts are doing well here: you can easily find peanuts (and not only salted ones), cashews, and Brazil nuts. With the latter, the main thing is not to miss and buy fresher ones. Almonds are not very common here, but in Argentina walnuts and pecans are sold. Prices are comparable to Moscow's everywhere.
Among dried fruits, prunes are found in Venezuela; further south, raisins and dried apricots are added. Approaching Argentina, dried vegetables – onions and tomatoes – appear.
Three important principles for choosing unfamiliar food
First – make sure that what you see is what you think it is. Fruit, not a vegetable; porridge, not flour; unsweetened, not sweet.
Second – if it is a raw product, find out whether it needs to be cooked. If you don't know the necessary words, use gestures: eat, peel, cook.
Third – if possible, try a small piece before buying. In a supermarket, of course, that won't work, but at a market it's fine, and you'll be sure whether you want it or not.
Надежда ГОРЧАКОВА.
Фото Александра Горчакова.