cakes, prose, woes -- the photos, food & thoughts of a french-speaking seattle-native in brazil

In the end, you're just happy you were there—with your eyes open—and lived to see it. -AB
In the end, you're just happy you were there—with your eyes open—and lived to see it.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

One Year.

THE ONE YEAR BRAZILIVERSARY



It's official. Today is the day of my first Braziliversary (term coined by Lindsey of Adventures of a Gringa in Brazil). One year without leaving the country; officially the longest consecutive term spent outside of the USofA. Is Brazil finally my home then? Am i a Paulista? If i'm not i pretend i am anyway. Paulista is a state of mind anyway. you'll agree when you travel state to state in this country, like mini countries thrown inside of one large gunny sack. They say (unaccredited web writers and day-job psychologists) that the first year of marriage is the most difficult. Well forget that, it's the first year of expatriatage that is. It's the marriage that saved the later! Obviously since that is the reason we are here. Either way, one year. So what is the verdict? Acclimated to the climate? Accomplish all my goals? Warm up to the wonderful humans known as Brasileiros/as? Do i do as the Romans and sigh, scratch my head and submit? Do i wear a thong on the beach yet? I've somehow accomplished quite a few things, though it did take a while. My timeline was burned to ashes and my patience exploded around the holidays, but like everything in Brazil, the paperwork took a long time to complete. Yes i have an opinion on Brazil and yes i have an opinion on Brazilians, and no i will not wear a Brazilian bikini. Doesn't America celebrate cultural diversity with a crack melting pot theory? American bikini is my culture,so let me be you xenophobic Brazilians!


After much, or rather little self debate with a trifle facebook poll thrown in over whether to make a cake or pão de queijo for the big day (today) i sided with the cheese as we're already scheduled to produce a cake tomorrow. Why pão de queijo? I've already posted it here at Salty, about three years ago when none of you readers were with us (other than parents and B&J) so i'm posting it again. Hey, you say, don't you also have the same recipe in a certain online compilation cookbook that no one bothered to buy? why yes, yes i do. Accompanied by a dramatic story about Brazil? yes! clever you. Moving on, i have a very personal connection to pão de queijo. yes, i am connected to a cheese bread. a soft, gooey puffy cheese bread. so naturally they are an appropriate first Braziliversary treat even though we make them every week. The first time i made them was while i lived in Paris, i posted them simply to surprise and prove to a Brazilian friend of mine that yes i was listening to the 2:00am skype conversation on biscuits and Brazilian pastries...time zones. First physical proof of my cross-continent stalking (what?) abilities. Long story short, the first time i arrived in Sao Paulo, that friend picked me up from the airport and gave me a small packet of pães de queijo. Delirious from the 19 hour plane ride i let them go cold. yes i was scolded for it. Then, the first time said friend came to the US, i made homemade pão de queijo to hand him at the airport. Then when i cam back to Brazil....you get the picture. oh ps my friend and i got married, our love of cheese breads was too great a bond to be separately.


Another reason to post is that i am quite put off by all the "recipes" for pão de queijo i come across in foodgawker. Random recipes (by Americans, Australians, Koreans, whohaveyou) that don't even mention that they are Brazilian, and worse, recipes with wheat or corn flour mixed in, and some made into a liquidous soup in a blender, gah! what blasphemy is this? these people should be ashamed of themselves. But hey, you might say, you are no Mineira, you should shut your mouth. touché. but my buns have already been Mineiro-approved so drop your nose. Yet one more reason to post about pdq is that my father discovered them at a churrascaria in Seattle and had lovely dreams about them. Unfortunately, the ones he had were not the best. The best in the world are the ones at the Rodaviaria (central bus station) in Indaiatuba. true story. my homemade recipe comes in close after. But if you truly want the best pão de queijo, you suckas have to come to Brazil.

Recipe
ingredients: 2 cups (about 250g) polvilho (cassava flour), 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup oil, 1 tsp salt, 1 egg, cheese. try for roughly 25g cheese. you can use a mixture of any variety, even farm cheese.
method:
Bring water, milk, oil and salt to a boil. Let cool slightly.
Add the flour and stir, it will be hot and it will be ugly.
Add the cheese (about 1/2 cup cheese, Parmesan, Provolone, mozzarella, whatever you have) and combine as best you can.
Add the egg and kneed with your hands (if not too hot) until a smooth dough is formed.
Coat hands in olive oil and roll the whole dough ball in your hands. Roll small dough balls and place either in a cupcake tin or on a parchment lined tray.
Bake for about 30 minutes at 325. Do not let the bottoms burn. The insides should be gooey but not taste like raw dough.

*if you are in the US, don't buy tapioca starch. it is not the same. it won't taste the same and the texture will be much different. look for a South American imports store or a Brazilian store (there is a shop in the U district in Seattle that sells polvilho) and look for cassava flour.
*once you're a cheese bread making master, addvariety to your buns with chopped herbs, shredded chicken, diced salami, fresh cracked pepper and even apples.


The language. So after one year with zero lesson i somehow find myself able to classify myself as a Portuguese speaker. Sure i sound like an uneducated immigrant, but i am understood and once i have a caipirinha there is no shutting me up. The Portuguese just rambles out like a falling bowl of jello. Usually there are about eight percent French words accidentally added, but who is counting. I can't write worth beans (or rice, ha!) and i am reminded of that daily, particularly when facebook "chatting" with the ten year old cousin who lives down the street. It's da, you said de, that doesn't make sense. Thank you sensei, i will try harder next time. Brazilians "type laugh" by repeating the letter "K," that has never made sense to me. K doesn't even technically exist in the Portuguese alphabet. Anyway, i know it will take many more years before i am through with the offensive mistakes, and perhaps a class on how to write. But that's ok. i leernedd how to speaky yous guys, i speaky!




Here is to a fast, furious and fabulous first year! It only gets better from here on out. There is so much of Brazil to see. While driving from SP to Belo Horizonte a few weeks ago (7 hour drive) i realized how utterly beautiful this country (well, at least Minas Gerais) is to drive through. If driving on Fernão Dias wasn't a constant truck-dash to escape imminent death, it would be quite relaxing. We'll be traveling to the north in a few weeks and i've come to realize that i have already physically experienced more variety of Brazil than i have of the US. Traveling through Brazil is like crossing ten European borders, there is so much diversity and change from one region to another that i really don't think that i will ever run out of new and exciting destinations in Brazil to experience. Digressing, for now---Rainbow caipirinhas tonight!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your Brazilaversary. As an American I completely agree with pretty much everything you said in your essay, and also absolutely love Brazil and Brazilians in all their complicated, fascinating and frustrating ways.

Here's to another great year!

laney said...

i think you nailed it. your pictures are getting even more beautiful... is that even possible? i am so trying that pão de queijo recipe. congratulations again!

shelle said...

Great post! I'm really going to try the pão de queijo recipe now...I was asked a million times if I liked Brazil when I was in the US. It's always such a complicated question, and I appreciate what you have to say. Happy anniversary!

Elena B. said...

Happy Braziliversary! What a wonderful post! I loved what you had to say about Brazil and what you like and dislike. It's hard to beleive that some people would get so worked up about criticism of their country when it's simply your opinion, but I think it's great that you take the good and the not so good and just go with it. Your photos are amazing as always! I love reading your blog, you're always so thoughtful and an amazing writer, so keep on going!

Nani said...

Great post, as always! I love it how you not only give your opinion on the good stuff but also on the bad. I am Brazilian myself and I HATE many of the same things you criticize. Brazil has so much to offer, like you said, so much culture and history, yet they focus on the superfluous stuff, specially women. I hate how we turn on the TV and there is "mulher melao, mulher melancia". It's unfortunate that many women in Brazil only care about appearance.
But thank Goodness, not all Brazilian women are like that. Some will actually go above and beyond to add value to themselves, many study hard, have Bachelor's, Master's Degrees... they travel, they have open mind...

I am proud to be one of those!

Don't worry about those who criticize your opinion. Those people haven't seen or lived half the stuff (and in half the places) you ever lived. You have all the right to! After all, this is YOUR blog.

Happy Brazil Anniversary!

By the way, I LOVE CHEESE BREAD. I miss it so much!

Polyana said...

parabéns mallory! it's not anyone who's able to make it through an entire year, so kudos for that :-P

shaz said...

Happy anniversary Mallory! One of my best friends is(was) a Paulista :). Maybe I'll surprise her by baking some fresh pdq.

Rita Gomes. said...

Mal!!!!!! youre a fighter :) is not easy to be an expat in a country like these (specially if youre a girl!). As you know I agree totally with you regarding to women's treatment in brazil.. for people here I'm a super feminist, but actually I'm just a balanced person in "developed" countries..

Yesterday I had an argument with new mums and two mums to be and in fairness is much, much more about pain than sexual worries the reason women here have c-sections. Epidural is not given in public hospitals and still very new in private ones. Everyone in my family who had natural birth (including my mother) decided to have a cesarean for the next babies.. All of them have a traumatic history.. and worse, most of them suffer a lot in the recovery of normal birth and (maybe coincidentally) all of them who had cesarean didnt suffer after.

And one who is addict to discovery home and health was asking me whats the point in having natural birth, like americans and europeans, if they dont breastfeed the kids (that is proven to be be much more important for the child than the way he/she was born).
I couldn't really answer.. Almost every brasilian woman breastfeed till the baby is 6 months.. and in ireland and america the poor tiny newborn has a bottle rsrssr..

I wonder if is not exactly the same history, that they are afraid their breast will be flacid.. one irish woman I know has said that her boobies are made for sex not for her children (??) what do you think?
...

Sorry again for the weekend.. hope to see you soon :) beijos!!!!
and have anniversary!!

Toasted cheese and coffee said...

Mal, nicely stated... and if the ones I had in Bellevue were pale in comparison to the bus stations' then they are dangerous to someone like me. Miss you.

-Dad

The Gritty Poet said...

You had me at Bikini, then lost me after.

Have you heard of this?

www.internations.org

It is Facebook for expats.

Amanda Areias said...

First, I'm happy I found your blog!!
I'm a Brazilian living in the United States ans I totally agree with you.

It's such a great thing to read somebody talking about your own culture.
I'm saying that because, leaving in a different culture, I know exactly what you've been experienced.
Lets keep in touch!
I have a blog myself (www.givemeflour.com). Lets keep in touch!
Hugs Amanda

Anonymous said...

Hi, I've just gotten from FoodGawker to a blog and from that to yours (looking for a Hominy recipe).
About the topic on Brazilian women, I'm Brazilian, and a woman, and I have lived in Chicago for the past 3 years. (I'm still trying to think up a translation for that line of the song you posted because I don't think it's "ass" in the American sense of an ass person. I'll try to come back with something on it.)
But anyway... I just wanted to say that, although I don't fall under the category you mentioned, I hate it about my own country; however, I have seen the same happen over here, with the advantage that Americans don't have to turn on their TVs to see women's asses exposed on a Sunday afternoon (unless you're into Jersey Shore and such). I have seen so many women here care so much about their appearance and spend thousands of dollars (plastic surgery included, of course) on trying to make themselves look pretty that I don't think it's a cultural thing only, and yeah I'd say it's to look good for men. I do get your point though... and God, do I wish it was different, everywhere, for everyone.
Same for the neverending lines and tons of different places you have to go for you DL. I was so happy/pleased/impressed that it didn't take me any more than 1 hour to get my DL in Chicago.
But as you, I can also point out a million things in the US the bother me... as I can in Brazil.

Anyways, hoping it gets better for you and for us Brazilians :) and that you keep enjoying what's enjoyable. :)

Fiona said...

I am glad you are pushing through to articulate your thoughts so completely on your blog. It's your blog and your experience. (The criticism you have received has certainly helped you to clarify your thoughts even more.)
Keep being critical in spite of others' discomfort with it! You are thoughtful and articulate enough to put words to the tug of war of love-hate relationship of an ex-pat's experience, particularily an expat in Brazil.

Colleen said...

Hi Mallory...what beautiful photos, and really great writing. I enjoyed your small print opinion on Brazil. I have two small children here, one of whom was born here (at home--the idea of which terrified most people I told) and even though I could go on and on about the things I don't like about the culture and country, I rather feel that having kids is one of the things I like best about Brazil--because it's such a child-friendly culture. :)