bars....and more....

The selection of bars here in Rio really has one for everyone. There are the chain type bars Devassa and Belmonte and Espalunca and many more independant places in between. We went to a new one the other night called G bar lounge restaurant. While it seems trendy it is actually a very nice well thought out bar in layout. There was no rule on who could come in or not which was good as apparently there were many wellknown people in there....not us!!

Other places we have visited restaurant wise are Le Ble Noir, Capriccosa, ZaZa, Bar Mineiro, Atlantico all which I will review separately. To it is hard to find up to date reviews of bars and restaurants in cities like this.

Rio clubs....

We did manage to make it to a club this weekend!!! It was called Galleria, a fun gay mainly club. It had good european pop mixes and welcome airconditioning. They had a novel way of paying to us where they mark a card you recieve at the entrance with all you drink and they you pay at the end. Handy though as you dont need to pay cash then. Good amount of clean toilets and friendly people inside. Not too expensive either. Its in Ipanema one block from the beach....cant remember the street name though. We were going to go to a place called 69 on rua Prudente de Moraes but the queue was soooo long and it didnt open before midnight. We had been waiting in the bar downstairs from it to go in but who wants to queue........not me. The crowd looked quite young anyway. We were happy with our choice.

oui oui, rio

This place has a really nice atmosphere. It is a sister restaurant to Miam Miam also in a beautiful Botafogo house. It is a little like tapas with small dishes for 20 to 30 reais. We tried almost all of them i think as we were six people and had 2 dishes each that we shared. The best for everyone was the filet with lemongrass. We also really liked the moqueca, the prawns with palm heart, the polvo, the trio d'arroz and the ribs with pumpkin. We did try the cheese, the cod, the pancake wraps and the baked potato too which were very good but not as good as the first list!! Highly recommended place. Not too many staff as a lot of restaurants seem to have but still good service. They had an international selection of wines too. Funnily they refridgerate the red wine! Like the sake in the Mok bar/ restaurant we went to on Sunday.

brasil..brasill...brasillll

Finally made it to brasil!! It is good to come in low season, and thankfully with British Airways.......it must be a very difficult time for the families of the Air France flight and my heart goes out to them.

We also managed to rent an apartment after a long trawl through various websites, with www.rioapartments.com . So far so great! I hate to say it but they do have some of the european efficiency that could help Brasil a little. There is so much potential here but also much relaxed attitude!

We found a great new restaurant at our friends suggestion called OUI OUI. Though its not actually French food exactly but i will do a separate review.

back to blog...........

Finally some time to get back to blogging. Still clearing the garden and ivy. Need to find some good gardening websites for tips on ivy control! I will just try to grow clippings of plants I already have for now, rosemary.......................! Another easy one is mint if you can get a good starter plant it will grow everywhere and looks nicer than weeds. Only if you are going for the wild garden effect though. Sage also grows well in the UK if you can get a good starter plant. Also these types stay each year and are great if you dont have too much time for maintenance.

Recycling

If you havent already, really do check out your local freecycle. I almost got some redcurrent bushes for the garden. Its is so popular it is actually hard to be the first to reply to someone's post. So if you are offering something it will almost definitely be gone really fast!! I just wish they would collect my garden clippings more often. Toooo much ivy everywhere.................

Recipes: best brown bread...!

This is actually brown soda bread Irish style. But if you are looking for a filling slice of bread thats easy to make, no kneading or fussing around.....this is it.
For one loaf tin

0.5 litres of milk full fat
25 ml olive oil
25 ml redwine vinegar
500g coarse brown flour
10g of bread soda
salt an sugar approx 10g each

Mix all the dry ingredients first. Then mix in the water and oil and the vinegar last. It is a wet mixture. Grease your tin or line with baking paper. Cook for an hour at 180 degrees celsius!! easy........leave it to cool after wrapped in a cloth. Cook a little longer out of the tin after an hour if needed. It is nice to use buttermilk instead of milk and vinegar if you can find it. Use the coarsest flour you can find. Also you can add wheat bran to taste.