Friday, July 31, 2009

Parque Nacional da Tijuca



















After we had eaten breakfast, it was time to begin our tourist-filled day of visiting some of the larger tourist attractions in Rio de Janeiro. First, we began with the Cristo Redentor (Christ Redeemer) statue located at the top of Concorvado, one of the many hills within Rio. To get to the top of Concorvado, you have to take a train through the Parque Nacional da Tijuca.

Café da Manhã no Hotel Augusto's





On Sunday, I made sure to take a picture of the breakfast spread at the hotel. I was completely amazed with the variety of fruits available and the different juices.

Throughout the week, I tried had all kinds of things for breakfast: papaya, watermelon, caju, passion fruit, caqui juice, eggs, pão de queijo (chesse bread), mixtos (ham and cheese mini-sandwiches), bananas, yogurt, crepes, goiaba jelly....

Copacabana de Manhã




The next morning, I managed to catch the view of the sunrise from the balcony of the hotel. A lot of buildings, but it’s pretty in its own urban way.

Copacabana de noite




After we got back to our hotel, I smoked a cigarette before calling it a night, standing on the balcony and watching the passing cars down below.

Feijoada!






At the end of the day, Megan and I caught up with some of the other professors/graduate students from KU to have dinner. Given that it was Saturday, what better day to try feijoada! We ended up walking toward the upscale neighborhood, Leblon, and decided to give the restaurant Galeto do Leblon a whirl.

Feijoada is a very traditional dish in Brazil that constitutes an entire meal. A properly prepared feijoada includes black beans slowly cooked with a variety of meats, in our case dried tongue and pork offcuts, and seasoned with garlic, salt, onion, and oil. The stew is then served with white rice, finey shredded kale, fried farofa (manioc flour), and orange slices.

Feijoada finds its roots in Portuguese cooking, which is renowned for incorporating a wide variety of meats and vegetables; fried farofa (inherited from the indigenous) as well as kale are both favorite among the Portuguese. The African influence in the feijoada comes into play with the spices and the tradition of using pork offcuts, which was the only part of the pig that was given to the slaves.

Pontífica Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro












The Pontífica Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro hosted the LASA conference this year. After I gave my talk, I spent the rest of the day attending panels at the conference.