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After not much sleep again Lilian and I were up early to go visit some of the Saturday markets. I have decided to go to a football match at Maracana (the biggest football stadium in the world) as there is a derby this weekend and the game will apparently be very atmospheric between Fluminence va Flamengo. I am not at all a football fan but want to go as Brazilians are famous for being very passionate about football and the fact the World Cup of Football is happening here in one months time. At around 9am we headed out for a walk along the beautiful coastline into the city - there were all kinds of things happening at the beach from exercise classes to yoga, beach volleyball and slacklining. I like when I visit large cities to see the parks and beaches on the weekends as the health conscious are always out in force exercising bright and early. We walked a few kilometers before making it to the little Organic market; the market had a lot of homegrown fruits and vegetables but more interestingly was all the breads, spreads, cakes and foods made using natural products, gluten free products and health products. We then visited a few supermarkets where I had the opportunity to ask Lilian a bunch of questions about foods that I have never seen before and get ideas for cooking new things. We came across another market where they were selling fruits, vegetables, sweets, meats and everything else in between - I tried some very delicious Gurana jam and some very interesting sweet caramel coated cocada desert. The streets were lined with shops and people selling all kinds of things and I couldn't help but buy some of the delicious looking fruit. Lilian was going to make lunch today; a bean and dried meat stew type thing. Lilian started on lunch whilst I did my daily exercises, I made some hot chocolates using pure cocoa from Peru and some of Brazils famous coconut milk - the result was a thick and smooth hot coco. Luckily we had the coco to tie us over as lunch took quite a bit longer then Lilian expected as it was her first time cooking the dish. At about 4pm it was ready and we were quite hungry by this point - it was very tasty but far too salty as the dried meats are supposed to be soaked in water for a few days to remove all the salts and we had instead only soaked for an hour or so. The weather was still bad outside but I decided to go for another walk around the neighborhood and grab a few more things for dinner. When I arrived back Lilian was just about to make some more Acai so I joined her and must say I am absolutely hooked on this sweet smoothie dish that the Brazilians seem to eat at all hours of the day. In the evening I got creative with some soy meat I had brought in Paraguay and made an Indian curry with coconut milk. I also made guacamole so it turned into a Mexican style Burrito night with Indian soy mince curry and guocamole - Lilian loved it which made me really happy as there is no better way for me to give back to all these wonderful people that allow me into their homes and life's then through my cooking. We conversed in Spanish, broken English and got very lost in translation whilst enjoying the meal.
OBSERVATIONS:
- Different style of city compared to São Paulo
- dried meats very salty and very popular here
- free activities on waterfront on weekends
- very active city
- people very fashion, body conscious and incredibly consumerist
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