Train to Morretes

From Curitiba we took a train down the coastal mountains to the town of Morretes on the Nhundiaquara River. The train passes through one of the few remaining pristine stretches of the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest and offers–usually–stunning views as it descends almost a kilometer from the upland plane down to the coast. Unfortunately for us, the day we chose to travel was rainy and foggy, so the views were limited. We were compensated later by absolutely stunning views on the bus trips to and from Paraty; the mountains on the coast are astonishingly beautiful.

Morretes: hotel and river

Morretes produces bananas, sugar cane, oranges, and is one of the world’s largest ginger growers. What to do there on a rainy day? Eat barreado.

Barreado at the Hotel Nhundiaquara

Barreado is the local specialty, associated with Carnival, but available year-round in local restaurants. It’s beef slow-cooked in a sealed clay pot.

Barreado

We enjoyed ours in the Hotel Nhundiaquara, as we sat by the river and watched large hummingbirds flit around the patio.I asked our water, who I think was the owner, about the ingredients and he said it is beef rump seasoned with pureed onions, salt, pepper, bay leaf and a bit of cumin. It takes no wine, but stews in its own juices. The traditional accompaniments are rice, salad, manioc flour, a delicious small local banana that goes right in the stew and scrumptious banana and manioc fritters. There was another version available that also included shellfish, grilled fish and fish fritters, but we thought that would be overkill, and, indeed, we ate ourselves silly on the traditional preparation.

Barreado tradicional

We noticed that there was a lot of banana liquor floating around Morretes. We resolved to try some at the bus station, which seemed to offer quite a lot of possibilities for getting soused, apart from pinga da banana..

Booze at the Morretes Bus Stop

It was pleasant tasting, but none too smooth, and the effect on the stomach was less than salubrious. We got a small glassful for about 40 cents, so we assume we were not imbibing a beverage of the highest quality

Beef. It’s what was for dinner.

We ate this last night.

Roasted Beef Filet

Others helped us. I served it with beet greens and wild arugula wilted with onions, pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries; mashed Adirondack blue potatoes; and a red wine reduction sauce. We bought all the produce at the Cortelyou Road farmers market. Somebody brought an amazing caramelized toffee pudding (sorry, I don’t name names in this blog).

The beef affected some strangely.

Pushing It Through

Beef Trance

After today I will be blogging from Brazil.

Some stuff to start with!

This is what we had for lunch.

Zucchini fritata with peccorino romano and linquiça from the Alentejo (Portugal); cucumber and dill salad, steamed Chinese pork soup dumplings. Iced coffee.