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;-)

Coffee in Porto Alegre

As a coffee addict, I can only say that I was disappointed from the coffee i found in Porto Alegre. Unfortunately, I still find it difficult to drink the brown liquid that is called coffee in Brazil. It is definitely not an espresso but I admit that as a dose of caffeine it does the work. The second problem is that a fresh good quality milk is a rare merchandise in Brazil, what makes getting a decent cup of cappuccino an almost impossible task.

However, after a while in Porto Alegre, I succeed to find some solutions:
Drinking coffee at home - to have good coffee at home, I bought nice Italian SAECO machine that together with Brazilian Melitta coffee beans (can be purchased at any big supermarket) and Santa Malta Tipo A fresh milk (can be purchased in selected Zaffari and Bourbon shops) - provide great cappuccino and fantastic espresso.
Having coffee out - for me there is only one coffee chain that is worth visiting in Porto Alegre - Press Cafe. This is maybe the only cafe in Porto Alegre that is using Santa Malta fresh milk and that it's "baristas" really know the job. The sweets next to the coffee are splendid as well. as other decent cafes we count Z-Cafe and Cafe do Porto.

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.