january-2012

TRAVEL BRAZIL
“ There’s no big city in the world that offers
such wonderful jungle-trekking ”
On the northern corner of Praça General Osório is
Amazônia Soul, a tiny restaurant that specialises in the culinary
delights of the jungle. Th ere is the tangy tacacá soup, fl oating
with globs of ‘tapioca glue,’ and vatapá (fi sh with coconut milk,
prawns and fl our), served with boiled jambo. Th is plant is
famous in Brazil for the bizarre way in which it renders the
mouth numb.
Aft er dinner, Gustavo, Amazônia Soul’s enthusiastic young
manager, might off er a small glass of jambo liqueur. “It’s only
mildly alcoholic,” he says, “but the eff ect is like an orgasm for
your tongue.”
Th e description seems like hyperbole, but when you can
fi nally talk again – eyes glazed and tongue quivering – it
becomes clear there is no better way to describe the experience.
Th e speciality of the house though is açaí, the Amazonian
‘super-fruit’ sought aft er by athletes and bodybuilders that is
usually served as a sweet, chilled puree. It is hard to believe that
something so delicious can be so healthy.
If Rio de Janeiro were a person, then Ipanema would be a
pair of strong, tanned legs and the hilltop quarter of Santa
Teresa, with its lush gardens, would take in the vital organs all
the way from the lungs to the brain.
Th is neighbourhood rises out of the hot-blooded Lapa
quarter (which, with its permanently swaying samba
soundtrack, might well be Rio’s hips).
Santa Teresa is the city’s bohemian and artistic centre and is
the best place to take in Rio’s art scene, whether in formal
galleries or through vibrant street-graffi ti.
On Saturdays, Cariocas from all over the city come here to
eat the delicious feijoada stew – a delicious explosion of pork
and beans. Others come simply to sip caipirinhas made with
cachaça (sugarcane spirit) mixed with limes and guava, mango
or pineapple.
Sobrenatural is a Santa Teresa institution, famed for its
seafood: you might not be tempted by the bizarrely named
punheta de bacalhau (roughly ‘masturbation of cod’), but grilled
surubim fi sh with coconut milk is unforgettable served with
‘Brazilian banana, Brazilian potato and Brazil nuts’.
Rio remains a jungle city, and nowhere is this more evident
than in Santa Teresa, where decadent old colonial mansions
stand as the fi rst barricades in a never-ending battle against
encroaching nature.
Parrots squawk in the treetops, ferns force their shoots
through the cracked walls, and bromeliads send down aerial
roots from the overhead tram cables.
In the garden of the lovely Cafecito Café, you can almost
hear the lush tropical vegetation growing. It’s like the jungle is
waiting to reclaim the cobbled alleys.
And immediately beyond Santa Teresa, the jungle does take
over. Rio is home to the world’s two biggest urban rainforests,
and the phrase ‘concrete jungle’ takes on a new meaning.
Holland Herald 55