Blog Updates

I know, dear readers, that many of you are sitting at the edge of your seat, wondering how some of our ongoing dramas have turned out. Well, let me not keep you in suspense. Here are a few blog updates:

Teaching Through Chocolate Chip Cookies (posted November 3, 2011)

Mark and I had really gotten psyched about our involvement with the after-school program known as COEDUC. The kids seemed to be excited too. But just as we were finalizing our schedule, drawing up "lesson plans" and deciding what dishes we would be preparing in the cooking classes, the owner of the property that COEDUC was renting decided to close the place down. The good people in charge of COEDUC have yet to find a new home. And we’re just biding our time.


Girl’s Night Out (posted November 10, 2011)

My weekly Girl’s Nights Out with Cristina are still going strong. But people have really cottoned on to us, so we’re doing our damnedest to keep our days and times and locations secret, and to stay under the radar . . . go ahead, see if you can pick us out in this picture.




Stupid Purchases (posted January 5, 2012)

I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to know that we found a way to get rid of the rusted, pitted and useless clothes dryer Mark and I bought during our first month in Brazil. We did the obvious and donated it to the washing machine repairman, who happily carted it away to dismantle for parts.







Gran Ciné Bardot (posted January 30, 2012)

After three years of loyal membership, Mark and I have abandoned the Videoteca of the Gran Ciné Bardot, at least for now. I won’t say we’d seen all of the 4,000 or so DVDs available, but we did feel a bit as if we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. And nowadays we’re able to stream incredible movies on YouTube. Which leads me to . . .

Watchin’ Movies (posted May 7, 2012)

We’ve now seen 1,735 movies here in Brazil, up from the 1,460 we’d seen at the time the blogpost was published. And thanks to YouTube’s archives we’ve added Egyptian, Armenian, Serbo-Croatian and Kenyan to the mix of nationalities.



A Smart City (posted September 3, 2012)

with blades . . .

. . . and now without

Remember when I reported that Búzios had been chosen to be the first Smart City in Latin America? I was skeptical then and I’m skeptical now. For one, we’ve been losing electricity a lot lately, and all it seems to take is a gust of wind. And a few months ago the large blades on the ultra-modern wind turbine in front of the Smart City showroom came crashing down. The company in charge of all this intelligence has yet to replace the blades. I’m happy to report, though, that nobody was hurt.



On Being Number Two (posted January 7, 2013)

In keeping with its habit of coming in second to the United States in almost every category, Brazil is now second only to the U.S. in number of fans on Dog TV’s Facebook page.







Moqueca de Peixe (posted April 1, 2013)

Our fabulous new clay pot for cooking moquecas exploded while we were preparing our moqueca number four. Everything was bubbling away nicely, and I was (thankfully) on the other side of the kitchen when I heard something that sounded like BB guns going off. Mark and our guest of that evening came running. I was okay, but the oven was now covered in bits and pieces of fish and green pepper and onion and tomato, not to mention shards of clay. Sometime much later that evening we all had a nice pizza down the street.



Paradise Lost
(posted April 22, 2013)

There’s been positive forward movement on this front. Citing an inability to break contracts already signed and paid for, our neighbor continued renting his house for large, loud parties. At the fourth such rental in a month, the renters did us the great favor of setting off fireworks throughout the night. This finally got neighbors who had not previously wanted to get involved very involved indeed. And this time it was neighbors other than us who called the police, who filed formal criminal complaints, and who called the owner in Europe. It appears that reason has prevailed, and there will be no more party rentals.

Moqueca de Peixe

The classic Brazilian stew known as moqueca has a lot in common with other countries’ signature dishes, such as France’s bouillabaisse and North Africa’s couscous, in that there are at least 347 different ways to prepare it. You can make a Bahian moqueca (with dendê, or palm oil, and coconut milk), or you can make a Capixaba moqueca (without the dendê and coconut milk, but with a red coloring called urucum); you can use any kind of fish or seafood you want, or use meat, chicken or eggs, or even bananas instead. No matter who you talk to in Brazil, that person will insist that their recipe is the best recipe. But it’s not all argument, because most moqueca cooks do agree that you must cook the stew in a clay casserole and serve it from the same dish. Most cooks also agree on the various add-ins: onion, tomato, bell peppers, chili peppers and cilantro.

Over the years Mark and I have devoured our fair share of moquecas, both in restaurants and private homes. With the arrogance of the newcomer we believe we can tell a good moqueca from a bad one, and we never hesitate to share our opinions with the rest of the moqueca mavens. But make our own? No, not with those complex flavors. It’s only within the last month that we took the plunge and bought a clay moqueca pot at a roadside stand on the ride in to Rio (for a whopping $7.50!) Once back home, we researched recipes, donned our aprons and voilà! It turns out to be incredibly easy. (Note: since I find dendê impossible to digest, I tend towards the Capixaba version. Feel free to add dendê, and good luck to you if it’s your first time.)

Our first moqueca was made with shark (cação), which seems to be the classic Búzios version, but the one pictured here is being made with dourado. Besides the fish steaks, which you should marinate a while in lime juice, garlic and salt, slice or dice up onion, tomato, green pepper (optional) and cilantro, some malagueta peppers, urucum, and coconut milk (not usually used in a Capixaba version, but who’s looking?)

Put some oil in the bottom of the pot, mix in some urucum, and then start layering in this order: onion, tomato, pepper, cilantro. Then place a layer of fish steaks, and do another layer of onion, tomato, pepper and cilantro. Throw in some malagueta peppers at this point, too.

Start layering  . . .

Fish layer

Final layer, close her up

Cover and boil for about 15-20 minutes, adding a little water if necessary. Then add the bottle of coconut milk, and keep cooking for another 10 minutes or so. Test the fish for doneness.

Bring the whole pot to the table and serve it over rice while your guests drool. It’s easy, delicious, nutritious, a great dinner party dish.











(Note: In Brazil, Moqueca de Peixe is also served with farofa (a toasted manioc flour mixture) and pirão (a very thick, gravy-like side dish made from fish heads). I’ve always had some trouble with pirão since it, too, is made with dendê, so I leave it out. I apologize to my Brazilian friends, but you all know there are plenty of foreigners with this particular disability.)