Brazil is a culinary wonder with a wide variety food offerings depending on where you are visiting. The world of Brazilian foods is divided into four distinct styles: from the North, North-East, South-East and the South.
In the South-East, Rio de Janeiro is known for their seafood. Also well known is ‘feijão com arroz’ or rice and beans. In São Paulo, the large Italian heritage expresses itself in pasta and pizza, while sushi is making a presents even in non-Japanese restaurants.
Below São Paulo, it the region referred to as South, churrasco (a Brazilian barbecue) is probably one of the best known Brazilian meals outside of Brazil.
In the North, Maniçoba is a distinctive dish served. It takes at least a week to make. One author describes it as such:
“…as the leaf of maniva (of the cassava plant), after ground, should be boiled for at least four days with the intent to remove the hydrocyanic acid that contains. After that is added charqui, fat, tripe, calf’s foot jelly, ear, foot and salted pork ribs, sausages, sausages and bunkers, basically the same ingredients of a feijoada completa. It is served with white rice, flour water and hot peppers to taste.”
In the North-East, the abundance of large cattle ranches and availability of fruit — mango, papaya, guava, orange, passion fruit, pineapple, and sweetsop – adds to the culinary uniqueness of the region. Vatapá (vat-a-pah) is a meal made from bread, shrimp, coconut milk, peanuts and palm oil all ground and mixed together (check out picture above).
Here’s an interesting recipe for Vatapa Soup on the net.
Brazil is a county of many choices, sounds and flavors and all to be savoured! Here is a link to more funBrazilian Recipes!
Whenever members of my family travel , we like to immerse ourselves into certain aspects of their culture. Since my daughters will be going to a convention in Rio de Janeiro, we thought it would be fun to look at some of the local fare. Charles Darwin ( I’ll cover that in another post) wrote in his ‘Journal’ about the two types of meals he found in parts of South America: roast meat or boiled meat and sometimes a little pumpkin. 😉 In the south of Brazil, they love barbecue or “Churrasco”. These were my kind of guys!
'Churrasco' or Brazilian Barbecue
Today, however, we will be talking about Brazil’s National drink… the ‘Caipirinha’ made with ‘Cachaça’ or Brazilian sugar cane rum. There are three types of rum you can buy from Brazil: 1) rum made purely for export 2) what they refer to as ‘industrial’ or from large operations and 3) the ‘artisian’. Personally, I like the sound of a smaller batch rum made and distilled in copper kettles, so the ‘artisian’ is what I was searching. I settled on “Cabana”.
Interestingly enough the name ‘Caipirinha’ means ‘from the country’ and some say it closely resembles our concept of ‘hillbilly’.
Here is their basic recipe:
2 oz. — Cachaça
2 teaspoons — crystal sugar
ice
lime
Process: take a few slices of lime and cover with the sugar and mash together, add ice, then the rum and stir! It is a simple yet nice drink… make one and it might become your favorite as well!
Nothing like having a hot and creamy cup of coffee and dipping a homemade biscotti in it! I have tried and experimented with lots of variations, but I like my original Macademia nut recipe best. I’ve tweaked the recipe here and there and often add a few extra things from time to time… like a little potato flour… but it is all good.
the right business cards make all the difference
This week Laura and I took a little time to enjoy Los Angeles at ‘El Cholo’s’ and also managed to help our daughters with a few of their travel plans. We were able to run their visa paperwork for them. This year they will be going to the Reputation Institute’s Convention in Rio de Janeiro. The folks at the Brazilian Consulatewere very efficient and the women working there were – let’s just say– attractive. I asked my daughters to bring me a t-shirt! 😉 With so many people ‘hunkering down’ in this tough economy, it is refreshing to see young people trying to make more of their life and build for their future. This is a lesson we all can learn.
Someone asked what I was doing lately… having a little fun on life’s journey. I hope you do too.
I really love inexperienced managers because they feel that any problem can be solved either of two ways: 1) hide, evade or just say it isn’t so (even if everyone knows what is going on) or 2) use a bigger stick to try to make it go away. By the way, managerial experience isn’t measure by years of service, it is measured by outcomes and the loyalty and respect of all stakeholders.
Yesterday, I pointed out a letter by two of the many many vice presidents of Cal Poly that appeared in the hard copy but not the on-line copy of the newspaper. Today, a related front-page article appeared in the “Virtual Mustang,” but not in the regular online format that allows comments. If an article is important enough to be on page one, shouldn’t it be presented in a form that allows the community to post responses?
As for the substance, I have placed both pages of today’s article on-line for your review. See if it doesn’t raise a few questions in your mind.
Page 1of Mustang Daily’s ‘Ombuds services article’ (Don’t call it ombudsman as that’s not ‘PC’)
1) In the article, Ombuds Patricia Ponce’s role is described as “working with students before referring the issue to another department or individual.” The example of a student admitting to slashing another student’s tires was used to illustrate a matter that would be referred. But what else is going to be “referred?” Offensive speech? “Sexually suggestive fruit eating” (actually banished by another university)? Putting up a flyer other students don’t like (which was Steve Hinkle’s“crime”)? What possible punishments await the person whose actions are “referred?”
2) Even though referrals will be made, the article states that “no individual records” or “paper trail” would be kept. How then, would an accused person protect himself/herself when David Conn goes looking for an applicable “free speech or campus policy?” Don’t we have a basic right to confront our accusers? It seems like the Cal Poly Ombuds program is combining confidentiality and accusations in a dangerous way.
FIRE has repeatedly informed the campus that the way to move their current yellow light rating to a green is to explicitly state that students will not be punished for protected speech, even if it is uncivil and offensive. Having an ombuds is fine, as long as the focus is on helping the offended student deal with his/her feelings, but Cal Poly will once again find itself in court if it tries to punish the offenders.
Before addressing the official responses to Brendan Pringle’s recent opinion piece on “inclusive excellence” in the Mustang Daily, I’d like to make a personal note to Cal Poly administrators David Conn and Cornel Morton: I would suggest approaching this and any subject in your public comments by arguing the merits of your side of the case, not attacking the student-author in question, as many view this as unnecessarily intimidating, threatening and unprofessional…. Or as they say, ‘pick on someone your own size.’ After all, universities are all about teaching critical thinking, and the collective power of two Vice Presidents coming down in a very personal way against one student seems unfair.
Getting back to the issues, I wonder how many Cal Poly faculty are aware that the program of ‘Inclusive Excellence’ – as applied by other universities following the same AACU approach – views “selectivity” on the part of elite universities as “bad,” and ignores the SAT scores and grade point averages of certain applicants in order to grant admission. I am sure most faculty do not want to offer remedial education, nor do they wish to flunk unprepared students.
Here’s how Cornell Morton and David Conn spun the Inclusive Excellence discussion in a letter that I could not find on-line and only in the student newspaper hard copy! ( I thought you two would be proud of such a piece?)
Let’s parse one of the bits of illogic used by others in defending this program in the Mustang Daily:
1) …on whether their high schools are wealthy enough to offer AP courses
2) or the advantage of having parents who can afford to pay for SAT coaching.”
These statements border on the absurd. First, many universities ask high schools to send transcripts with the higher grade point averages from AP classes already factored out. Besides, high GPAs are not a problem at culturally disadvantaged schools—quite the opposite. The student with a 4.0 at a poor school might not be as well prepared for college as a student with a 3.0 from a good school. The whole purpose of using a standardized test like the SAT is to control for just that situation. Secondly, SAT coaching does not jump a student’s score from 700 to 1600 and is a much overrated factor, if a factor at all, except to all who are trying to get every last point.
The SAT and the SAT2 (Achievement Tests), like any classroom exams, have been much maligned by those who believe that they are a barrier to entry to whatever they want to do. Sometimes, you have to pass the test to pass the course. The problem, for those who want to ignore their results, is that these tests are excellent predictors for college performance, which is all they were ever supposed to do. The achievement tests (SAT2) measure many basic skills, like competence in math, science, and English, without which any student would have an impossible time of securing a degree in a quality major.
Here are two links that support the value of the SAT and SAT2 in college admission:
I do not suppose that we should be developing majors of lower academic caliber for the new arrivals? Doesn’t Cal Poly have enough of those already?
The California Master Plan of higher education was developed to grant admission based on a multi-tiered system: the best and the brightest would have an opportunity to attend a U.C., the next tier was the C.S.U., and for those who still needed to sharpen their skills before trying for the brass ring, there was the community college. Consequently, opening up Cal Poly to accept students who should learn the elementary skills of reading, math and science by first attending a community college is ill-advised.
Cornel and David, we’re all for fair play and diversity, but your comments about “a retreat from a merit system” are too vague. Please give us your explicit promise that you will not deviate from use of GPA and SAT data to meet your goals.
