Postcard from Brazil

I just got back from a week-long work trip to Búzios, Brazil, my first trip to South America. While the majority of time was spent working, it did give me a flavor of this wonderful country. 

Sunset

Travel time was quite lengthy. Rio de Janeiro is a 10 hour (overnight) flight from Atlanta, and Buzios is about a 4 hour drive from Rio. (On the way back I flew Rio- Sao Paulo- Atlanta. Sao Paulo is probably the glitziest airport I've ever seen, like a high-end mall with some departure gates thrown in.) I can't sleep on planes at all, so if this post sounds loopy, it is because I am quite sleep-deprived.

Buzios is an upscale coastal resort town, apparently made famous by the French actress Brigette Bardot. She is credited with transforming this sleepy fishing village into an internationally renowned vacation destination.

I stayed at the Hotel Atlantico, where you can walk down the steps directly onto the beachfront, dotted with restaurants and boutique shops. It is off-season there now (being winter in the Southern hemisphere), which just meant it was less crowded with absolutely perfect temperatures- in the late 60s to early 70s (F) the whole time.

More sunset

Photo taken by one of my colleagues

A memorable part of this trip was a morning spent hiking. We walked along the beach (orla Bardot), then scrambled on the cliff, walked up trails and down on the other side to Praia Tartaruga (turtle beach). The hike was led by a local marine biologist who specializes in species that live in the intertidal zones. He showed us several creatures that I would have totally overlooked if not for his expert eye. 

On the hike

Most coastal cacti

I was fascinated by the native cacti in the coastal cliffs. Apparently the cacti flourish here because it is quite a dry climate.

There are a few stray dogs in town, but better described as "community dogs" because it seems locals take care of them, local businesses feed them and let them sleep indoors. They look healthy and well-fed. Two dogs accompanied us throughout our hike, delighting the group. They are clever and know how to find fresh water collected in some of the bowl-like cacti. 

After the hike, the rest of the group stayed to enjoy the beach, but I was tired and walked back to the hotel with the guide to rest and prepare for a workshop I was teaching later in the day. I was rewarded by a sighting of cute little (and they are truly tiny) capuchin monkeys who, far from being afraid, scampered out of the trees to stare curiously at me. 

Can you spot two capuchin monkeys?

Our "guide dog" cleverly finding
fresh drinking water

Black vultures were everywhere

Buffet plate

Brazilian food is meat and seafood-heavy, and vegetarian food was not always easy to find. One good option was the "por quilo" buffets where a wide variety of food is set out, and you fill a plate and pay by weight. There was one such buffet in Buzios, and another at the rest stop between Buzios and Rio, and I was grateful for these. Although the majority of buffet dishes were off limits for me, I could fill a plate with brown rice, black beans, fresh and cooked veggies, and sometimes extras like cassava fries (aipim frito) and garlic bread, like in the pic here. I would always get a limonada (lemonade) with the meal, and it was always excellent and somehow better than any lemonade I've had before.

The hotel served a breakfast buffet every morning. I enjoyed good coffee, fresh fruit (amazing pineapple and mango), oatmeal with toppings like cinnamon and chia seeds, scrambled eggs. There were a variety of breads set out, and loads of desserts- imagine whole cakes and puddings for breakfast. The one snack available everywhere are pao de quiejo, small bread bites baked from dough of cassava flour with egg and cheese.

Pao de quiejo

[This is a snack that I get to eat often at home in Georgia, because one of my best friends is Brazilian and she will often bring some over when we get together for a meal. A lady from Atlanta makes and sells these frozen (ready to bake). My friend orders it via text and the lady sells them out of her car trunk in a Target parking lot ha ha!]

There was one other person in our group who was vegan, and she and I exchanged notes on the veg-friendly options we found. On the very last night, we fortuitously found that a restaurant right next to our hotel served vegan versions of a couple of Brazilian dishes- and we got to enjoy vegan ceviche and vegan moqueca, traditionally a coconut-based seafood stew.

Vegan moqueca

Vegan ceviche

Other times, I managed to find that one veg option in restaurants. Once it was a spaghetti with plenty of vegetables. It hit the spot on a rainy evening. 

Can never go wrong with pasta and veg

Oh too cheesy vegetarian risotto

Another time it was this vegetarian risotto- but it was super cheesy. I do eat a bit of cheese but don't like strong, funky cheeses and this definitely had aged parmesan or something- this was a meal I did not enjoy. I should really look for vegan options rather than vegetarian to avoid cheese altogether. 

Below is what I ate at the opening reception- it was a pretty fancy restaurant with a couple of vegan options- I had the sweet potato puree served with an eggplant cutlet topped with sauteed veg. It was delicious, and someone else at the table got a bowl of black beans with their meal that they didn't care for, so I got to eat that for some added hearty protein. 

Eggplant cutlet with veg and sweet potato puree

I looked for a vegetarian restaurant in Buzios and found one named Samsara- the first floor was a hippie store selling incense and idols and tie-dye...and the second floor was a tiny restaurant with just one employee- a sweet young woman. I got a lunch called "basic vegan" and it was anything but basic. It came with two platters- one with lentils, brown rice and two types of hummus. The other with a chickpea patty surrounded by roasted potatoes, steamed sweet potatoes, salad and cabbage. As with most food I encountered in Brazil, it is not spiced, and was seasoned only with a little salt. This meal was so satisfying with the plethora of veggies, and I had enough leftovers to eat for dinner.

"Basic vegan" plate(s)

The coffee breaks at the conference had lots of wonderful cookies, many different varieties, often typical Brazilian ones with a filling of jam or guava paste or chocolate. And those wonderful elephant ears made of puff pastry. 

Cookies

Brazil is, of course, a Portuguese speaking country, and I got by with a translation app, lots of smiles and gestures, a heartfelt "obrigada", and the occasional colleague who could translate for me. People were kind and friendly and quite patient with me. If you can speak Spanish, you can get by; they are similar enough languages. 

I've never been to Brazil before, but something about the locale and people feels familiar. For instance, driving through Rio reminded me very much of Mumbai.

Rio on a rainy afternoon

Art in Atlanta airport

Not counting India (which is amazing for vegetarians and also pretty great for vegans), I found England to be surprisingly veg friendly. The Czech republic was the hardest for me. I think I lived on beer and fries for a couple weeks there.

If you're vegetarian or vegan, what have been the most and least veg-friendly travel locales you've been in?

Upma Just The Way I Like It, and Refrigerator Pickles

June is here and it has been oddly cool. Summer will heat up for sure, but for now, we are enjoying the temperate weather and the bluest of skies. Backyard gardens (of folks who garden, that is) are flourishing thanks to the recent rains. 

Running buddy K has a glut of cucumbers from her veg patch and is handing them out to all and sundry, and I was the grateful recipient of several homegrown pickling cucumbers. My kids love snacking on pickles, so I gathered up a bunch of jars and made some quick refrigerator pickles. 

I wrote a post 4 summers ago about making easy pickles at home. At that time, I used this recipe. This time, I used a similar recipe. The kids barely had the patience to let the cukes pickle overnight and polished them off in a day or two. If you're a fan of American-style pickles, I highly recommend giving this a try! 

* * *

It is Saturday here, and we were at a friend's place for brunch this morning. I took some freshly-made upma. I struggle to explain upma to my friends- it is something of a savory porridge, a spicy semolina pudding, grits- adjacent...they love eating it, that's for sure.

I have a long-standing love for this humble breakfast dish. Back in 2008, I wrote a long post about it, comparing and contrasting the Southern Indian upma with the Maharashtrian version. A couple years later, I wrote a post about making it in the rice cooker. (The rice cooker is still going strong 16 years later!)

These days, I make upma, like I make most things, in the Instant Pot. When I started, I used this recipe as a reference for cooking times. When you eat upma in the home of a friend or relative, or in canteens and eateries, you notice the variations in seasoning and texture- it is definitely one of those dishes that is very easy to make but kind of hard to really nail and perfect. 

My favorite kind of upma is soft and porridge-like and buttery, where they serve it in mounds/scoops and it just melts in the mouth. The first thing that results in this texture is the high ratio of water to rava. And the other secret is the liberal use of butter or ghee! 👀

This morning, I managed to get the upma tasting just the way I like it, and wanted to note the recipe here for future reference. 

The recipe makes 6-8 servings, enough for a nice brunch with friends. The important thing is doing the set up, the mise en place, so that everything is ready to go. It sounds like a long recipe with many ingredients, but they are ingredients that are very standard in an Indian kitchen, and it all comes together very quickly.

Upma

• Set up the following
• "Onion and stuff" in one bowl
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1-2 tbsp. minced fresh ginger (or frozen, thawed)
• 1-2 sprigs curry leaves (I chop these up)
• 10-12 cashews, chopped (1/4 cup peanuts will also work)
• Veggies in another bowl
• I use about 2 cups total of any combo of chopped green beans, carrot, green peas, red peppers, etc.
• 1/4 cup tomato puree or a chopped fresh tomato
• 1.5 cups upma rava
• 4.5 to 5 cups water, on the stove top, heating to near-boiling point
• Heat 1 tsp. oil + 1 tbsp. ghee in the instant pot on saute mode
• Temper with 1 tsp. mustard seeds, when they pop, add 
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. urad dal
• 1 tsp. chana dal
• hefty pinch of asafoetida
• Add the "onions and stuff" and salt to taste, and stir for a couple of minutes
• Add the veggies and 1 tsp. rasam powder, and stir for a couple of minutes
• Add the upma rava and stir for a couple of minutes
• Add the nearly-boiling water, stir and pressure cook on HIGH for 2 minutes (the valve may not even come up- that is OK)
• Release pressure, and cover the instant pot for 5 minutes. This allows water to absorb.
• Add minced fresh cilantro and lemon juice and stir. Stir in a bit (or lots) of extra butter or ghee if you are feeling decadent. 
• Serve by itself, or with some crunchy sev/ chivda/ mixture!

The Joy of Cooking

I started this post a month ago, and it is one of those I just can't seem to get done and out the door. May tends to be one of those whirlwind months. This weekend is a brief lull- another school year is in the books. My oldest has survived middle school, as have we. All the year-end recitals are done, teacher thank-yous handed out, report cards are in, and summer is underway. 

Several times in the last few weeks, I caught myself thinking- I'm so grateful that I like to cook. It is one of the most enjoyable life-skills, and one of the most useful hobbies. It ends up being my default and most-appreciated contribution to the world around me, the one thing I do that enriches my life in countless ways. 

* * *

For one thing, cooking is my love language and food is my default gift for most occasions. Most people I know complain of owning too much stuff, so a consumable gift is best. 

Our (adult) nephew was visiting recently. He's never here during the holidays, so I made him a "holidays in spring" cookie box so he could taste some of our favorite cookies. 

Cookie box

Last month, my Aussie colleague moved back to her home country after finishing up her training. I thought of getting her a small going-away gift, but she is a minimalist, has exacting taste, and had no extra room for "stuff". So my parting gift to her was a box of homemade lunch on her last day. She was absolutely stressed out, as one would be, cleaning out her apartment and tying up all the loose ends before an international move. She loved having a readymade hot lunch- vegetable and paneer korma, and jeera rice- to fill her belly before she ran off to the airport for a 36 hour journey. 

A few days later, I assembled another gift lunch. This time it was a bereavement gift for my friend and former coworker who lost a close family member. I thought a meaningful gift would be to spend some time with her, let her talk about whatever was on her mind, and eat lunch together. This time it again was tried and true recipes that I know to be crowd-pleasing- chana masala and jeera rice. A simple salad on the side, and cilantro lassi packed in mason jars completed the meal. Curry and rice always hits the spot. It isn't as traditional as flowers for a bereaved friend, but I could see it made her happy. 

Packed lunch for two

This is the joy of standardized and streamlined recipes. You know how to make your keeper recipes quickly, almost without thinking, and you know they will always turn out. This is how I make jeera rice in the rice cooker. 

Jeera rice

• Soak 1 cup basmati rice for 20 minutes. Pour it into a mesh strainer to drain and rinse it if needed.
• Place the rinsed and drained rice in the rice cooker along with 
• 1 and 1/3 cup water
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 1-2 black cardamom pods
• Cook in the rice cooker. 
• When done, fluff it gently and add a drizzle of ghee if desired. 

* * *

Cooking comes in handy on some of our vacations. Much as I would like to take a full cooking break on vacations, sometimes that just isn't practical. When we vacationed in NYC, sure, it was great to stay in a hotel and eat out for every meal. When we go on driving vacations closer to home, often the destination is a state park or a smaller town without great eat-out options, and vacation cooking is inevitable. 

The kids had a week off from school for spring break in April. Close friends of ours (the parents of my son's best friend) invited us to their mother's beach house on Tybee Island, a barrier island very close to Savannah on Georgia's coast. We had a fun 4-day trip with them. There were 11 of us in all- grandma (the home owner), two couples, two teen boys, our teen girl, two 9 yr old boys, and the family dog! 

Before the vacation, my friend and I sat down and drew up a rough meal plan so we could share cooking duties. We designated ourselves the vacation cooks since we both enjoy it. 

Over the years, I have collected a few favorite vacation meals and strategies, like my standard arrival meal. I make and freeze a main dish and bring it along in a cooler. That way we can settle in and dinner only needs warming up. That week I made and froze chana masala, and we carried it in a cooler on the 4 hour car ride. The other thing I packed in the cooler was a box of paneer and veggies in tandoori marinade. I took along my instant pot and made a fresh pot of basmati rice. We pan-fried the paneer and veggies just before eating, and warmed the chickpea curry. With some cucumbers and baby carrots, it was a full meal and a good start to the vacation as everyone unpacked and settled into the beach house.

The kids woke up the next morning to baskets overflowing with candy and toys- how generous of the Easter bunny (or his assistant, grandma). She also kept the kids busy for hours dyeing eggs. 

My friend and I collaborated on the Easter meal. It was great fun to cook together in the little galley kitchen. I made caramelized onion and spinach quiche and roasted potatoes. My friend made a few other dishes and dessert. She is an excellent baker. Lately she has been baking from Christina Tosi’s book All About Cake. For the festive lunch, she made the raspberry bundt cake with a tangy pink grapefruit glaze. What a simple yet beautiful cake! 

fancy raspberry cake

What made the vacation fun was that everyone contributed whole-heartedly in their way, doing what they do best. My contribution (and preference) was to do half of the cooking. The things I don't much like doing, such as driving around and wrangling kids, I was happy to leave to the other adults. 

quiche

At some point when you've been cooking for decades, you can cook many things without a recipe, which comes in handy. The quiche I made was the "impossible" type where you just add a bit of flour to form a crust. It is one of those adaptable recipes and I was able to use whatever we had in the fridge to make it. Later in the vacation, when we had a surplus of boiled eggs (see dyeing activities above), I quickly peeled them and made some deviled eggs for snacking on during board game night. Again, assorted condiments from the fridge door came in handy, and I found some paprika in the spice drawer, for that final touch on deviled eggs. 

Taco soup

Another tried-and-true vacation meal: taco soup. This big pot fed everyone a hearty lunch. (My friend made quesadillas on the side.) It had black beans that I cooked in the instant pot, many vegetables, some other canned beans and corn, soy curls, and taco seasoning from a packet. 

* * * 

Tofu salad

With the weather getting warmer, I'm making a lot of hearty veg-based bowls. This week's favorite was an Asian-inspired salad with a chili crisp dressing and some pan-fried tofu. I've posted a version of this before here. This time, the chili crisp dressing was made in a few seconds in the blender- chili crisp, peanut butter, soyaki sauce, ginger, rice wine vinegar. 

Black bean bowl

Another good dinner- some leftover black beans thinned to a soup, served with leftover tofu cubes, shredded salad greens, red peppers, carrot, avocado, a few crushed chips. Making the best of what was in the fridge, and it was hearty and wonderful. 

Cooking skills are adaptable to whatever fits the needs of the minute- you can use them to make special meals and desserts and treats, and also to make simple and nourishing everyday meals special. 

By a lucky chance, someone on the neighborhood email list serve was giving away a stack of Fork Over Knives magazines and I gratefully picked them up from her porch. This publication (now defunct, I think) specialized in whole food plant-based cooking, which fits what we are trying to eat more of these days. I'm flipping through these mags for some fresh ideas.

* * *

Reading and watching--

• My college friend Natasha Sharma has recently published two novels and also writes wonderful essays on a variety of topics. I'll link a small selection here.
• A scathing essay on inconvenient women: "A dead woman is finally manageable."
• Abnormal people: A hilarious essay about those freakish people who seem unaffected by life's little frictions.
• The last page of her notebook: A funny, nostalgic, and, for me, spot-on look back at school days and doodling on the last page of the notebook.
• Talk to Uncle: A poignant account of her mother's battle with frontotemporal dementia, a devastating form of early-onset dementia.
• This poem on Bluesky 
  
• A very short and very funny story- My Financial Career by Stephen Leacock
• Watched this 1959 episode from the TV show The Twilight Zone:  Time enough at last. A bank teller is desperately looking for more time to read. Then he gets it- sort of! 

Tell me your favorite moments and meals of this month! 

23 Hours in Atlanta, Art Walk, Undhiyu

V and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this month. We've blasé about anniversaries, but this one felt noteworthy. Since our kids have been born, we've never gone away together for even a single night, even though we frequently take turns traveling for work. 

For the anniversary weekend, we went away, leaving each child with a friend, for a WHOLE 23 hours, 90 WHOLE minutes away to the big city. As minor as this getaway was, it was the respite I needed and it filled my cup. 

It was a picture-perfect Saturday, warm with stunning blue skies and a bit of a breeze. Very "Goldilocks" in terms of temperature. We started the afternoon with a guided street art tour in the artsy Cabbagetown neighborhood. Guided tours are great because they open your eyes and highlight things that you may pass by without ever noticing.

Such as this mural on a nearly 100-year old grocery store (owned by the same family this whole time). The "ouch" on the bottom of the mural was apparently painted on after a high speed police chase ended up with a crash right into the building! 

Our guide started us off with a little lesson on the differences between public art, street art, and graffiti. It was mentioned that street art often has social commentary and is a dialog between the community and the artist. Here are just a few of the murals that I enjoyed on the tour- 

Come Together is one of the "stacks square mural project". It reminded me of a quilt, and the figure's clothing reminded me of block printed fabric:

This wonderful piece with hair and hair accessories shows you that just about anything can be a wonderful subject of artwork: 

"How your love makes me feel" with the exploding flower- so sweet and it really does capture that explosive feeling. Watch it being painted :)

Many of the murals are part of the "Forward, Warrior" mural project in which invited artists paint murals during a multi-day street festival. 

When I first saw this mural, "don't set that crown on the ground", to me it was an exhortation to hold on to one's power and self-respect- we are all queens in our own way. I have no idea if that is what the artist wanted to convey. I guess we all get to interpret art with our own lens. Watch it being painted!

This one was just sweet- pointing out to each passerby that each of us brings something to this planet. At a time when so many feel isolated and alienated and struggle to find a place in the world, it is a good message to put out there. 

This one with a girl and her dog immediately caught my eye and reminded me of the happy years with my own dogs. I loved the running dog in the borders (a not so secret animation- how cute!). The artist Linda McNeil writes about the inspiration for this mural on her instagram post. 

This mural has a human heart overflowing with greenery and natural beauty. 

This one was one of my favorites- with just three colors and beautiful lines, the artist (the artist seven) captures such a sense of motion and energy. 

This one is by the illustrator Brandon Campbell. I love his doodly pen and ink style sooo much. Check this out to see his method. This mural possibly reminds us that time is ticking?!

Speaking of murals and social commentary, this was a great mural that commemorates (on gravestones) all the great Atlanta restaurants that have closed. Rising rents are the death of small businesses and they are literally being painted over.

This one was moving- Infinite love by Nicole Kang Ahn. It is pictured as a traditional Korean vase, with a mother and child, dedicated to the artist's daughter Vera who was diagnosed with a serious medical issue. On the bottom right, hard to read in this photo, it says "For Vera, who I'd choose in this lifetime and a thousand more".

There was so much more we saw during this art walk, including the awesome graffiti in the Krog street tunnel. This tunnel has a whole archive and everything. Atlanta has so much personality. 

* * *

Yucca fries with queso,
and anniversary bubbly

We went on to dinner at a restaurant that we had loved 2 years ago- La Semilla, which serves modern plant-based Latin-inspired cuisine. Given a choice, I'll patronize an all-vegetarian/vegan restaurant any day. La Semilla was just as good as I remember it. 

My very favorite dish at this restaurant is the chochoyotes, corn dumplings in a corn sauce with corn chips. An utterly amazing celebration of corn. If you're ever in Atlanta, I highly recommend this dish. 

V got a mushroom steak and we shared a slice of strawberry tres leches. 

The incredible chochoyotes

Lion's mane mushroom steak

Strawberry tres leches cake

We stayed at a cute boutique hotel in midtown ATL, and it was lovely except that the street noise- drag racing, or something of the sort- made for a terrible night of sleep. How do people sleep through this? I'm spoiled by living in my quiet neighborhood tucked away in a corner of town. The only night owls around me are the actual owls that live in my backyard! 

 * **

Sunday morning, after a big breakfast, it was back to regular life, with a stop at the big Indian store to stock up on some pantry staples before heading home. I bought some of the vegetables for undhiyu- fresh field beans (vaal), tender eggplant, baby bananas, fresh fenugreek (methi). I've written about this wonderful vegetable dish before, and after waiting to make it all winter (it calls for a few specialty ingredients), I finally made it. 

Unlike the recipe I've linked to, this time, I did not bother to buy or make methi dumplings. Did not use a frozen undiyu veg mix either. I simply mixed the masala paste in a bowl and stuffed it into eggplant pieces and baby bananas. Then I heated a bit of oil in the instant pot and tempered it with ajwain seeds (the magic thing that gives undhiyu its distinctive flavor IMO). I sauteed the remaining masala with field beans, chopped fenugreek and green peas. Then added the stuffed veg, some water and cooked on low pressure for 4 minutes. It made for a wonderful, fresh, spring-like vegetable dish.

* * *

I just finished reading Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman. What a gem of a novel. It is a slim book that I savored over many days. This isn't a story, per se, and there is no plot to speak of. It is a collection of vignettes. The book (published in 1993) is set in 1905 when Einstein was working as a patent office clerk while creating his theory of relativity, which changed our conception of time. The vignettes in the book are Einstein's imagined dreams at this time.

In each dream, time behaves very differently than it does in our world, and we get to see its effects. In one world, time is a circle and the world repeats itself endlessly. All mistakes are repeated precisely in this life as in the life before. 

In another world, the passage of time brings increasing order. Clothes on the floor in the evening lie neatly on chairs in the morning. 

In yet another world, time is a visible dimension. One can look out into the distance and see births, marriages, deaths stretching into the future. One can crawl to the future or rush to future events.

One of my favorite chapters (I would liken them to thought experiments) was clearly based on the philosophy of free will vs. determinism- "...in this world, the future is fixed. In world of fixed future, life is an infinite corridor of rooms, one room lit at each moment, the next room dark but prepared. We walk from room to room, look into the room that is lit, the present moment, then walk on. We do not know the rooms ahead, but we know we cannot change them. We are spectators of our lives." Welp.