Saturday Ecological Market

We visited today the feira ecológica near the Redenção park in Bom Fim neighborhood. This organic market is open every Saturday from 7:30 till 13:00. It's better to arrive as early as possible to find the largest variety of merchandise and less crowd.

The market offers fresh vegetable and fruit, honey, wholewheat bread, fresh herbs, home made jams, flowers, goat milk products and more. Many stands offer tasting samples and the atmosphere is very calm and friendly. Only by seeing, smelling and tasting this healthy food we felt in a better shape(-:

We saw some herbs and fruit we've never seen before like this Hibiscus fruit that is very citric in taste and is used to make tea or jam.

We left the market with a full basket and a tickling inspiration to cook healthy food.

A visit to Cafe do Mercado

This week we had the honor to visit Cafe do Mercado roasting facility. Christiano welcomed us with a tour in the place and explained the process the brazilian coffee beans go through, from the raw beans, roasting to packaging. We were fascinated by the machines, aromas and noise(-:
When we thought the tour was over, Christiano invited us to watch their baristas practicing for the Brazilian baristas contest to be held on March 7th. We entered a small training room where we met the barista Miriam Masui and some coffee experts from abroad who came to assess her and give their comments. We saw professionals in action and got to taste a fine cup of espresso with good crema, strong aroma and beautiful taste. As for the cappuccino, I still prefer it made with fresh milk rather than the UHT one.

Thank you Christiano for your great hospitality. The next coffee is on me;-)

Machry Armazém & Bistrô

My friend MS showed me this charming bakery/deli/bazar store in Tristeza neighborhood in Zona Sul (the southern suburb of Porto Alegre). The two Machry sisters run the place. The front part of the store is a deli, where they sell homemade breads, cakes, pastries, fresh and frozen, all made of 100% natural ingredients. They also sell dairy products, sauces and kitchenware. As you go deeper in the store, it turns into a bistro, where you can eat by a table, from a selection of food served in an inexpensive buffet. The food is original, light and delicious. Don't forget to leave some room for one of the irresistible homemade cakes. Ohh... they're just too good! We usually try more than one kind.At the front there are tables to sit and enjoy the small garden and open air. The store is decorated with different craft works that add an artistic touch to the place, and are for sale too.
Address: Rua Dr. Armando Barbedo, 257, Tristeza Tel. 3266.9301
Opening hours: Mon.-Sat. 10:00-19:00, Sun. 12:00-19:00. Packed on weekends.

Home made soft cheese

Sometimes I really miss having a low fat and tasty soft cheese. The only soft cheese I could find here was Philadelphia or Alluete which are very fat. So I make my own cheese by taking 6-8 containers of Parmalat Iogurte Natural 200ml. (see picture). The blue one has around 4% fat and the green is fat free. I mix them with a little bit of salt and put all in a cloth diaper (the old fashion diapers). I tie the cloth above the sink and let the water drain for couple of hours and...voila! The time depends on the desired consistency. 4 hours would give softer cheese and 10 hours would give a firmer one. The cheese can stay for a long period of time in a close container in the fridge and is also good for baking purposes.

Feta Cheese

A good feta cheese can be found in different delis and also in Nacional stores. It has 4 months validity and is made in Brazil by Lacaune company. Made of goat milk.
Click on the photo below to enlarge image.

Beer - Brazilian and Imported

There is a nice variety of local beers available at any supermarket in Porto Alegre. Imported beers are available too, but may be very expensive (for example - a 500 ml can of Irish/English beer may cost 10 to 15 R$). Some of the international beers are produced in Brazil, what make them available with local prices (Heineken, Miller, Budweiser). I found that the local beers can actually be very good and I, as a "dark-beer" addict, could even find few nice dark and bitter Brazilian beers.

The Brazilians prefer lighter beers (Brahma Extra is my preferred beer in this category). Simple popular beer (Brahma, Bohemia, Polar, Skol...) price may vary from 1.20R$ to 1.70R$ for a "long neck" (335 ml bottle). What I consider as the best dark beer for this price range is Xingu. It can be found also as a draft beer ("chopp") in some of the pubs and even served in Gol flights.

My favorite Brazilian Brewery is definitely Eisenbahn (they have an English website!!!). It costs a bit more than the common local beers (2.50 - 3.00R$) but in my opinion - it worth every cent of it. Eisenbahn has a nice variety of more than 10 different beers and i will mention the most interesting ones:
Dunkel - Dark Lager, with roasted and chocolate malt character. Medium bitterness. Rich and complex.
Pilsen - Light color beer - Pilsen style. Clean and dry, brewed only with natural ingredients.
Weizenbier - South German style wheat beer, unfiltered, with banana and cloves aroma and flavor.
Strong Golden Ale - "killer beer". Golden colored with high alcohol content (8.5%). This powerful beer presents hops flavor, besides spices. The yeast for this high fermentation beer is imported from Belgium
Pale Ale - A Belgian style pale ale, medium bodied but very complex, with hints of cloves and some citrus. Amber colored with medium bitterness.

BTW - the Eisenbahn brewery is located in Blumenau (SC) and they offer brewery tours. I'm still looking for the opportunity (and the partners) for this visit....

Supermarkets

The 2 biggest supermarket chains in Porto Alegre are "Zaffari" and "Nacional".
Zaffari has bigger shops that are called "Bourbon" and Nacional has "Big". Nacional was recently purchased by Walmart. On this Nacional site, it is possible to buy groceries on-line.
Both supermarkets are good and each specializes in different areas.
We think that Nacional is better for imported foods, while Zaffari has a bigger verity of foods in general. The best Zaffari store that usually has everything fresh is the one on rua Plinio Brasil Milano. The best Nacional store is on rua Lucas de Oliveira.
Important: Only Nacional accepts credit cards. Zaffari only accepts debit card or cash (of course...)

Whipped Cream

Finding a cream to whip was not an easy task. The "creme de leite" that is so popular in all supermarkets can't form a nice whipped cream for a cake. Recently, we found one that gives a reasonable result. It is produced by RAR and has 45 days shelf life. It can be found at La Gourmandise, Rua Carlos Trein Filho, 1100, Bela Vista, 3333-8450. 10:00-20:30 (Mon. - Sat.). Apart from cream, La Gourmandise offers a nice verity of kitchen ware and imported food products. Click on the photo for a large image.

Fresh Milk

We really like to drink milk, but a tasty fresh milk is so hard to find in Porto Alegre.

We tried a lot of types and the best one we found so far is "Leite Santa Malta". It comes either in a plastic bottle or bag and you can find it in the Zaffari supermarkets. It has 6 days shelf life and it has 3% fat.

In general it is important to know that fresh milk in Brasil is divided to "Tipo A" (Type A), "Tipo B" (Type B) and "Tipo C" (Type C), where Type A is the cleanest, bacteria wise. So make sure you always get a type A milk. Click on the photo for a lerge image.