Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildlife

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We were originally going to stay at an airport hotel but Al had read that Cuiaba was a bit of a regional foodie destination and had chosen a restaurant called Mahalo for us to try Restaurante Mahalo. We’d tried to book direct on their website and then via an email to the hotel but didn’t get responses from either. Eventually I decided to ask our Pantanal tour company if they could help and Mara was able to confirm a booking at 7:30 on Friday night.

Of course we went in the wrong direction when we left the hotel and walked a couple of blocks away from where we should have been going, but we found Mahalo eventually.

It was a whole lot more than either of us expected. I’m guessing making a reservation just doesn’t mean anything. Ours seemed to have disappeared, as did those of a whole lot of other people who came in just behind us. Having no Portuguese didn’t help in sorting it out. There was only one English speaker in the restaurant and it was the delightful chef Ariani Malouf who came out to talk to us. No wonder people love the place. She was wonderful. A table was found and the gastronomic experience began.

First the interior – amazing objects of art. A HUGE round table just inside the entrance with a chandelier hanging over it.


Sheer curtains separating spaces. On the ceiling of the section we were sitting in sound absorbing baffles that looked like they were made out of dividers of a cardboard filing folder


We sat in Phillipe Stark Ghost chairs that I’m sure were real ones. Others sat in plain bentwood chairs. A bit further into the restaurant a wall of coughtail hats. It was a design feast for the eyes and by the sounds of things all Ariani’s work.

We chose the degustation menu – four courses, plus desert, of the chef’s choosing. Ariani was soon back at our table asking if there was anything we didn’t eat and we said we eat anything and everything. She asked if we trusted her and Al said "Of course, we've met the chef". And off she went. We chose a Brasilian sparkling wine – Cave Geisse Brut 2014 – and it was delicious.


So to the food. The waitress explained what everything was but it all meant nothing to us being in Portuguese Ariani also came out a couple of times to see how things were going and to explain a couple of the dishes.

It was definitely sold as four courses plus dessert but we got five plus and they were all fantastic!

1 soft set cheese like buffalo mozzarella with a sweetchilli (maybe), lettuce leaves, tomato, balsamic reduction (off the menu, thegoogle translation is – Buffalina with Italian bread crumble, wild rucula,tomato in two versions, red caramelized and yellow pepper to the aroma of basiland ciderira)


2 asparagus soup with a crispy plantain ‘cracker’

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

3 dolmades


4 local fish, plantain, olive tepanade, kind of a potato cake thing (Pintado (this could be the fish, it was delicious) grilled with crust of para accompanied with rosti of mandioc, nest of cruising (nice translation google) vegetables and butan of bana passes with capers – in our kitchen since 2006)


We’d finished our bubbles by the time we got to course five so we bought a half bottle of a delicious Argentinian malbec

5 lamb with pinenut risotto and mint reduction (lamb palette with risotto of cheese and almonds, ratatouille chutney of hortela – since 2007)


Remember the guy that bursts at the end of The Meaning of Life. Well this dessert was a whole lot more than an 'eensie teensie little waffer'...

Dessert platter of chocolate and raspberry brownie, soft centre dolce de leche pudding, cheese cake with peanut base, vanilla ice cream
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It was a fantastic evening and well worth the whatever it cost (lots).

Another early start in the morning so we checked with hotel reception that there would be a taxi available in the morning. "Of course sir". Yet more great hotel reception staff.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Saturday 10[SUP]th[/SUP] June, Cuiaba - Brasilia

A miserable night’s sleep. Way too much noise all night. Nightclub music. People shouting. Screeching cars. It was only when we pulled the curtains back that we realised that Al had opened a second window when we’d got back to the room and we'd only closed one...

Taxi took all of 10 minutes to the airport.

Another A320


We took off and arrived on time. A variation on the usual TAM snack of sweet cake and cheese and crackers. Not really sure why they bothered with this offering



What a beautiful airport terminal!! I suppose it should be as the gateway to the national capital and also as an introduction to some of the world’s great modernist architecture.

We’d booked a guide through Tours By Locals to take us on an architectural tour of Brasilia. Three weeks out our guide Alberto https://www.toursbylocals.com/find_guide&area=27 advised that he was unwell and wouldn’t be able to take us but that he’d arranged with a friend to take us in his place. We had paid USD250 for airport pick up, tour and hotel drop-off so we hoped his friend turned up.

Alberto had sent us his friend’s details but Roberto had failed to respond to my text message advising of yet another flight change. I wasn’t convinced that Roberto would be there but I was wrong and he was stood there with a sign with my name on it outside arrivals.

As soon as we were sat in the door of his car – a black Ford Fusion – it was like a speaking encyclopaedia of Brasilia had been switched on. It was funny and bizarre. Boy did Roberto know Brasilia. He should, he was born there and had spent his life there, pretty much exclusively as a guide.

The city was designed by Brasilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, urban planner Lucio Costa and landscape architect Burle Marx. We entered the residential area and drove down wide streets with ‘superblocks’ down either side, and everywhere, including down the centre of the wide street, huge trees. The superblocks are all six stories


and all are supported on pylons so that the landscape and gardens flow unbroken through the neighbourhoods.


The ‘utility’ side of each building is screened with concrete blocks that is very Moorish/Arabic in both look and context


The large trees were all planted when Brasilia was established. I’m sure Roberto said five million were planted? Maybe it was 50.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

He didn’t even lock the car saying everything would be safe. We had a wander around the neighborhood and under one of the superblocks. He explained that he is living back in one after trying living in a house. He missed the facilities that each group of superblock neighborhood has – schools, shops, service station, doctors etc

We were taken to an amazing little chapel – Nuestra Senora de Fatima – where a very fancy wedding was taking place

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Then to a non-Niemeyer building – Santuario Dom Bosco.

For anyone who’s read our travels you know we’re not really into churches but this building was amazing. A huge Moorish box


with the most beautiful and very simple blue stained glass


A ceiling that looked like concrete but was actually paper


and a humungous central chandelier that looked like the lights that hang in the centre of a mosque


It was spectacular

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We then drove to the monumental axis that is in the centre of Brasilia. We started by going up the tv tower that has definitely seen better days but then that is very Brasilian


As Roberto explained, Brasilians don’t do ongoing maintenance. They let something pretty much crumble, or begin to fall apart, before they decide to repair something!


From the tower you see directly down the axis towards the ministry buildings, the cathedral, the congress and judicial buildings. It was a view we’ve both wanted to see for years. Al in fact since he was a little kid.




Football stadium built for 2014 World Cup

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

After a quick lunch at the hippie market


we went Niemeyer crazy.

We visited the army headquarters

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

the JK Memorial (the museum and tomb of President Juscelino Kubitschek)

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

the National Museum (another amazing white dome)

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

then the cathedral that you walked down into (I loved that)

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

before driving around the absolutely gorgeous Palacio Itamaraty (Ministry of External Relations – the Foreign Ministry)


the blades are incredibly delicate

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Then down past the Congress buildings






to the Praça dos Três Poderes

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

On either side are the beautiful judicial buildings







underneath a museum and on it some very cool sculptures.


this 'clothes peg' is actually a home for pigeons

 

[OZDUCK]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Thanks for some great photos of amazing buildings. Just a couple of questions if you don't mind:-

- do the buildings show much sign of "concrete cancer"? I would think that they were of an age when that might begin to be a big problem.

- do the internal designs seem workable for their intended function or are they more for show than use?

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Thanks for some great photos of amazing buildings. Just a couple of questions if you don't mind:-

- do the buildings show much sign of "concrete cancer"? I would think that they were of an age when that might begin to be a big problem.

- do the internal designs seem workable for their intended function or are they more for show than use?

Apart from the tv tower, the buildings that we saw seemed free of concrete rot although it could have been hidden under paint. The structures around the cathedral were the least loved with lots of peeling. We only went inside the cathedral and the museum and they worked very well from a functional point of view (from my perspective). We'd also been in his buildings in Sao Paulo and those spaces worked well too. As we drove around I did see a few more structures that weren't as loved as those in the axis.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We then headed out across the amazingly beautiful Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge, not designed by Niemeyer.




Finally we visited the Palácio da Alvorada, the Presidential Palace. Well we looked at it down the long driveway.


Many of Niemeyer’s buildings use a very delicate arch that ‘lifts’ the building off the ground. He was all about curves and geometry. Just beautiful.

We had a great day with Roberto. He bombarded us with way too much information to absorb but it was all so interesting. He was also very willing to discuss politics, his family and Brasil in general when we could get a few questions in.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We splurged in Brasilia and stayed at the Royal Tulip Hotel Royal Tulip Brasília Alvorada - Golden Tulip Hotels


It is right on the lake and was designed by another famous Brasilian architect - Ruy Ohtake. We’d seen one of his buildings in Sao Paulo. You would either love or hate this building




I loved it straight away and it grew on Al. What didn’t grow on us was the fact that it took us nearly an hour and a half to check in!!!! We got there at about 5 and it was 6.30 when we walked away from reception, standing there in the world’s slowest moving line. Happy Brasilian Valentine's Day apparently. neither of us was feeling much love...

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Lucky the room was beautiful




with the craziest stripey granite bathroom




and a great view across the pool to the lake

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We’d hope to sit out by the pool but it was nearly dark before we even got into our room.


We did eventually get down there and have a few drinks. Al had worked out it was much easier to order four of things as four had no masculine or feminine version. It was quattro no matter what. So after first ordering two caipirinhas we decided ordering four was easier for our second order.






Unless we had room service the only option for dinner was a buffet. Good selection and ok food but not the experience we’d hoped for.

 

[OZDUCK]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Apart from the tv tower, the buildings that we saw seemed free of concrete rot although it could have been hidden under paint. The structures around the cathedral were the least loved with lots of peeling. We only went inside the cathedral and the museum and they worked very well from a functional point of view (from my perspective). We'd also been in his buildings in Sao Paulo and those spaces worked well too. As we drove around I did see a few more structures that weren't as loved as those in the axis.

Thank you for the reply.