Beer territory - Ribeirão Preto

Ribeirão Preto - SP interior agricultural capital and the territory of chopp

My husband is originally from the city of Ribeirão Preto which is about 300 kms (190 miles) from São Paulo capital. It's a fairly wealthy city of 600,000+ inhabitants, with much of the money coming from agriculture - principally sugar cane and coffee. The outskirts are quite beautiful with rolling green hills, and of course a river runs through it (the city's name means "Black Creek") and is largely ignored and polluted, as all city rivers are in this country. It has been called the Brazilian California--but only if we are talking about Livermore and the Central Valley, okay? My nickname for the city is "Inferno" --summer temperatures don't get much out of the 35 celsius (95 Fahrenheit) range. 

All the heat may be why Ribeirão Preto became the Territory of Chopp. Chopp is draft beer (some of those who met my yellow labrador Chopp know he was named for the color of the beer).  This is pronounced "Show-pee" by the way. Doesn't look great phonetically but man, you'll need to know this word if you live here. If you google Território de Chopp (draft beer territory), the results come up with Ribeirão Preto. The most famous of all chopp places is Pinguim (Penguin) which began life as an independent brewer in Ribeirão Preto, and was later bought by Antartica (AmBev, InBev, whatever). 

When I first "met" Pinguim back in 1996, it was only in its downtown location in the historic center of Ribeirão Preto, and was a little scruffy. The waiters were older than time itself, dressed in black aprons, and very quick on the refills. In fact, your glass never fully empties before a new one appears in front of you. In order to stop the madness, you put your cardboard coaster on top of the mouth of the glass--a fact that my boyfriend-now-husband neglected to mention so I think I might have had around 10 beers. Who knows? When a new one appears in front of you, you drink it. It's what you do.

Part of the mystique of chopp is how the beer is pulled. It has to have a certain amount of foam head, and it has to be exactly the right temperature. Chopp is not to be drunk "estupidamente gelado" (silly cold) like other beers. In fact you have to drink it relatively quickly because otherwise it goes over into Brit-land...warm...yech.

In 1977, Pinguim opened Pinguim II across the street and next to the gorgeous Teatro Municipal. This is now the flagship (photo below) and the original has become a shop.  Pinguim II has been renovated and is definitely gorgeous. The waiters seem to have undergone renovation too as they seem quite a bit younger (or is it me getting older? Hmmm...). The sandwiches of steak and pork and cheese cut into bite-sized pieces have not changed. They are delicious. There are also two more locations of Pinguim in Ribeirão Preto, both in shopping centers, and one has opened in Belo Horizonte in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais. I haven't been to Belo, but the two shopping center Pinguims lack the grace of the original. I say a prayer every night to the beer god asking for a Pinguim to open in São Paulo but no luck.

Pinguim. Just looking at it makes me hungry and thirsty.

Ah, for those of you who do not like lighter beers (my husband), they also have dark chopp, or if you are in the know, you can get a "pingado" or light and dark mixed chopp. I think some marketing guys have gotten a hold of some extra funds because I just saw their new menu of beers and it includes one called "sexual"-- dear Antartica, just say no to the Harvard MBAs who came up with that one. I am a traditionalist: it's chopp claro for me. I also have learned when to stop drinking and wield my coaster like a pro. 

 If all of this makes you want to get to know the Territory of Chopp , make sure you visit in July or August when temperatures drop into the reasonable numbers (it's winter in the southern hemisphere). The inferno gets going in December--you will not be able to drink enough chopp to replace what you are sweating out. At least that's my theory.

Saúde! ("health" or cheers!)

An exercise in futility - CONSEG - São Paulo

Cartoon credit: www.marcbilgrey.com

I was going to write about beer today. I have lots to say about beer. But something happened between yesterday and today and that was another CONSEG meeting. Some of you may remember my first CONSEG meeting back in June which was, frankly, a silly affair of passing the baton to the new board. You can read it here: Yes We Can! Neighborhood Security.  I missed the July meeting since I was in the USA. I was pretty excited to go to this meeting because between June and now, this city was rocked by protests about everything from bus fares to violence. We should have lots to talk about.

Stepping back a bit, maybe you have forgotten what a CONSEG is. Why would you remember? Because you re-read my blogs all the time, right? Okay, from the Conseg site, this is the definition of the CONSEG's mission: "CONSEGs are groups of people from the same neighborhood or district who meet to talk about, analyze, plan and follow-through on community security issues, develop educational campaigns and strengthen bonds of understanding and cooperation between various local leaders." Community security meets neighborhood watch.

And here is what actually happened. 20 or so people showed up in the audience. Of these 20 people, I recognized at least 15 from the last meeting. So, there is longevity in attendance. Serious longevity. Of the 20 people, 90% were over the age of 60. And of the 20 people, 90% liked to hear their own voices. They mostly had no respect for the vice president's calls for order. But I am jumping ahead.

The long table on the stage at the front of the room was taken up by the president of the Conseg, a representative of CET (traffic cops) and SPTrans (ummm, traffic too? Let me look it up. Ah, here it is: the public transport system guys), a representative of the submayor (the sub-submayor), the civil police (and he was quite polite), the military police (we got the new bam-bam-bam captain and our usual lieutenant) and the civil guard.

As always, the meeting started with standing up and applauding the Brazilian flag. This is weird.  Then the civil police talked about the events of July in a most relaxed way. Mostly our crime statistics had stayed stable, which seems unlikely but how am I to argue with men with guns? Our neighborhood's biggest problem coming out of July is the existence of the "Black Block"  (yep, he said it in English, but with a Portuguese pronunciation which made it the Blackie Blockie, and no I did not giggle though I wished to). The Black Block was blamed on Germany, by the way, though I did not catch why this is. Origins of skinheads? I don't know. These are the troublemakers who infiltrated the Passe Livre group (the group that wanted lower bus fares and went about it with peaceful marches) and just want to break things. As he says, they are just here to wreck stuff. Then he proceeded to identify the bad guys as mostly students and middle class. And that there was "pézinho" or little foot in University of São Paulo. This provoked some hissing that I assume had to do with some alumni in the audience.

So here I am thinking that we are off and running on security issues. But instead we get diverted down a road of too much noise in the neighborhood, how the civil guard is dealing with homeless and illegal businesses and then the SPTrans guy talks about the new Mobility Plan for the city. He mentions that the city is close to total breakdown since the number of people in cars is equaling the number of people in public transport which provides an answer to a fancy equation and basically we are all dead meat. I can hardly wait for the World Cup, you?

At this point, four people leave the room and go to the anteroom to discuss football loudly. And at this point (1 hour into the meeting), I have come to the following two possible conclusions about the lack of attendance and relevance of this meeting:

1. The residents of the neighborhood do not give a sh** about security. How else to explain the lack of attendance and lack of discussion?
2. The residents of the neighborhood do give a sh•• about security but realize that the CONSEG is not able to do anything or get anywhere on this subject.

I really don't understand how tens of thousands of people take to the streets in July to say "we've had enough" and not one shows up to say politely to the commanders of the military police and civil police "what are you doing and how can I help you?" Okay, late in the meeting, a Senhor Benedito, aged 70ish and pretty mad, says there was a gringo recently assaulted in the neighborhood and word is getting out that Sao Paulo is dangerous and what are we going to do? This is the forum to get in front of the security forces. Where is everyone? Is it easier to walk down a street and protest than attend a monthly meeting at 7:30 pm? Please someone explain. I am guessing I am heading to conclusion 2: people care about security but don't think that CONSEG is the place to make changes.

The military police did answer Sr. Benedito. They are doing what they can. If they know a problem, they will help. The community must do their part and give feedback through police reports (B.O.s) about the crimes. They can only concentrate their forces where they know there are many problems. Also, the parents complaining about assaults around schools should be counseling their kids not to pull out their iphone and other expensive gear and wave it around.

He also mentioned that the justice system must be refined. One of the local policewomen was held up crossing through the local park by three minors with a knife. She pulled out her gun and badge and they were all arrested. Two hours later, these minors were released minus their knife, and the three cell phones they had stolen. There was no way to hold them.

At this point, when the meeting was getting interesting and about security, the president of CONSEG interrupted and said that we would be celebrating the 453 years of the Pinheiros neighborhood on 13 August at 7:30 pm in this same building. Anyone who wants details can let me know. Then he told everyone to stand up and applaud the flag. Meeting over.

Back to beer tomorrow. Should be more fruitful.

Little hiding places for yummies - Ribeirão Preto

This is going to be my first post of four on food in the interior of São Paulo. Much like in the US, there is a whole new level of "comfort food" (and drink...but that's tomorrow) in the interior of this country. This is the fried chicken of the Dutch Essenhaus in Michigan. This is the deep-fried butter of the Iowa State Fair. This is not to show your medical team about how you are doing on your diet.

The above picture is an "escondidinho". This means a little hiding place. You can hide many things under a layer of mandioca (yucca), or if you prefer it could be potatoes or mandioquinha (errr, don't know how to translate that one. Neither does wikipedia--it is NOT in between a carrot and celery. Seriously now, people). By the way, mandioca has quite a few unpronounceable synonyms depending on which region you are in.  In the northeast (where this dish is originally from), mandioca is known as "macaxeira" and may also be known as "aipim." There are about four more synonyms in wikipedia, all of questionable faith.

Back to hiding things. The most famous "escondidinho" is "escondidinho de carne" and under the layer of yum is dried beef. Why does this all sound yucky in English? Not sure. But I will carry on. The "escondidinho" above is of bacalhau, or dried cod, and is not my favorite. In fact, you could hide bacalhau under a large brick and my sniffer would detect it and reject it. Bacalhau is not my thing. Here it is prettied up by some nice olives and potato slices. I stole an olive and passed it on...

Tomorrow, we shall discuss the Territory of Chopp.

Escondidinho de carne. Recipe and photo here: http://mdemulher.abril.com.br/blogs/anamaria-receitas/2012/02/18/escondidinho-de-carne-receitas-deliciosas/

What's a copyright? - Ribeirào Preto

Hmmm, what are the chances that this car wash is licensed to use Snoop's name? About as good as the Playboy Motel's (in Pirassununga), complete with bunny symbol...

I have much to say about Ribeirão Preto, the capital of São Paulo's agricultural interior. Tomorrow starts my caipira-landia week (caipira is a nice way to say redneck).

Where's the bin? - São Paulo

This lovely pink thing is the garbage can in my car. It is made of some unknown fabric and was a gift to me from my local carwash. I love the pocket bin. All the little flotsam and jetsam from my twin boys ends up in the pocket bin. All the junk mail left on my car: pocket bin.

My husband's cousin loves these things so much that when she lived in Spain she had her mom import a bunch on every visit. One of my favorite freebees, too.

Always happy, never swearing - São Paulo

Before I had kids, I was a casual swearer. Not the really bad swears and not peppered through my phrases, but I definitely let loose an "s" word or "f" word or "GD" when provoked. After meeting my husband, who has not sworn possibly in his entire life, and having kids, I have really tried to keep it in check. I did not want my four-year old to come out with an "f" word in front of a stranger.

Now the challenge has been São Paulo traffic. No, not the traffic, the individual drivers. The *holes. Oops, see it happens all the time. The worst day was when I was cut off and flipped off by a Mercedes driver for no apparent reason. My kids were in the back and I might have said that the driver of the other car had a small peepee. They might have heard me. Now they say that Mercedes drivers have small peepees. My apologies to any German car drivers.

My husband was not happy to hear the results of my tantrum. One of my sons was not happy to hear daddy unhappy with mommy. So he gave me a happy-face sticker and told me to put it on the dashboard. Any time I got mad at the traffic I was supposed to press the happy face sticker and just be happy.

I cannot say it works all the time, but things are definitely getting better. Except when I see those Mercedes...

Brazilian Automation and Boobs - São Paulo

Okay, I admit this photo is terrible. I am leaving the Walmart parking lot and I am fearful of being told (again) by a security guard that I am not allowed to take photos. Of course, once I am in my car I can safely say "bring it on, security dude" since I am bulletproof. Turns out my tires are not. But that's another story.

You can just barely tell there is a man there in front of the pick-up truck. By the way, I want a little pick-up truck. I have no reason for one, but I want one. Maybe when the kids get rowdy, I can stick them back there to enjoy Brazilian street life. Anyway. The man in red is getting the validated electronic tickets from each person and inserting them into the automated machine so the gate will lift.  I am very mystified as to how this is automation. The machine is working fine. So is the man. One does not need to be there.

Most parking lots in São Paulo are "secured" with a ticket issued that you have to validate in the store. Or, in the case of shopping malls, there is no way to validate the ticket, but you pay up to $10US to "enjoy" the benefit of spending all your money on imported goods and "besteiras" (beastlies, or unneeded things). Wait, I just fed "besteira" into google translate and got "boob." Please hire real translators if you want to do business here. Dang.

Bet you were wondering how I was going to get to that blog title. Wonder no more.