A Touch of Brazil

I'm back from my trip to Santa Cruz and it was A-mazing! It was beyond fun seeing all of my friends from college, and I am already obsessing over our next reunion...which I think will take place somewhere in the mountains of Ojai. Stay tuned.

The morning before we left, we decided to eat breakfast at a Santa Cruz hotspot "Cafe Brasil". It is a tiny little restaurant painted yellow and green, with (some) Brazilian waitresses and a menu full of "Brazilian" foods. It was one of my favorite restaurants when I moved to Santa Cruz, long before speaking Portuguese or traveling to Rio.

The wait to get in was long (almost two hours!) but I was hungover, and you know what that means: AÇAÍ!!!! I know I claimed to have quit açaí but I was on vacation, it was just once, blah blah blah.

This is a picture I snapped of an Amerileira Açaí. It's yummy, don't get me wrong...but it's like eating taco bell after living in the Mexico for a year.

The breakfast foods are not like anything I have ever seen in Brazil, but maybe it's just not a regional dish. The Avocado a Cavalo is one of the most popular dishes with two poached eggs over a baguette with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. The Orfeu Negro is the same but smothered in black beans.

I left a little note in Portuguese for the waitress (I couldn't pass up the opportunity to show off a little) and tipped her an additional 2 reais (that I had sitting in my wallet). All in all, a great trip that perfectly blended the visiting of old friends with a touch of my beloved Brazil!

Cadê meu Açaí?

I arrived in Brazil with the American perception of Açaí as the cure-all berry. After eating it every day for about a year, I started to recognize it for what it really was, a sugar-filled crack pipe that left me with 4 extra kilos and a root canal that cost me my life savings.

I was able to kick the habit upon arriving in the US, and the withdrawals weren’t too bad, but I did fear for the day I would return to Brazil. Would I wind up sleeping in the streets, selling strands of my precious blonde hair for Açaí money?

I am proud to say that I have only relapsed once since arriving here 5 months ago, and I could almost hear my teeth weeping. But why is it that I NEEDED Açaí on a daily basis the first time I was in Brazil, but I have almost no desire to eat it now? What was different about my daily life last year and now?

Hangovers.

I always used to drink Açaí to cure my hangovers.

I should have known. I always create a placebo hangover cure. In the United States it was bagels because they “soak up the alcohol”. When I couldn’t get a bagel it was listening to shitty old Blink 182 songs because they “make me want to vomit for a whole other reason”. In Brazil it was Açaí because I’m a stupid American that thinks it “cures all”.

So alcohol is the gateway drug that led me into my downward spiral of sugar addiction and cavities. Don’t let it happen to you…drink responsibly.

Se for beber, não coma Açaí.