Portuguese Language Blog

If there’s one place one needs to visit in Brazil, no matter what city you go to, it’s the local feira, or farmer’s market. Every neighborhood or small town has at least one (please let me know if I’m wrong!)  and you can buy all sorts of things you need for the week without having to go to the supermarket.

The feira near my house on Saturdays has all sorts of fruits (and the feirantes, those selling the goods, let you taste the fruit before buying it!), vegetables, meats, fish, spices, and even flowers to decorate my apartment and random kitchen utensils!

I don’t know about many other states or cities, but at least in São Paulo, every feira has at least one booth with pasteis and another usually right in front of it that sells caldo de cana (sugar cane juice) and água de coco (coconut water).

Pastel da Dona Maria - Voted the Best Pastel in São Paulo!

This past Saturday, my friend and I went to the feira and decided to have pasteis and caldo de cana for lunch.  Um pastel is a deep fried pastry stuffed with all sorts of meats, cheese, fish, and vegetables.  There are even sweet pasteis with banana, chocolate, or doce de leite. The ones here run at R$3 each and are quite filling! My personal favorites? Pastel de palmito (heart of palm pastel), and pastel de chocolate com banana (chocolate and banana pastel).

<3 my pastel de palmito

After filling myself up with pasteis and caldo de cana, I started wondering if I could make pastel de feira at home… so I looked up a recipe for us and found this easy one on Tudo Gostoso em português! And then I found another on in English already on It’s all about food!

Have you ever had or made pastel? 

Carnaval is in five weeks!  In exactly one month, I hope to be dancing in the streets of Olinda, Pernambuco for their traditional Carnaval festivities, and I can’t wait to share it with you all! Do any of you have plans for Carnaval this year?

For my next posts until Carnaval, I’ll be posting different songs from different Carnaval celebrations in Brazil.  Each region tends to have different styles of music or ways to celebrate, but one thing is universal: to dance and be happy!

One of the most famous blocos in Salavador’s Carnaval parades is Chiclete com Banana’s, and having seen them live before, I can understand why.  This song is supposed to be their signature hit for 2011′s Carnaval in Salvador which is why I couldn’t find a live version and there’s a creepy picture of the singer on the video.

Não me Lembro de ti, mas já sinto saudade
Guardei meu coração, estou curado desse amor
Já me lembro de ti, já nem sinto saudade
Guardei meu coração, estou curado desse amor

Quem sabe um dia você vai me entender
Meus olhos secos como pedras pelo chão
Conchas vazias vem rolando com o mar
Trazendo o frio em forma de solidão
Ai quem me dera esse amor tão estrangeiro
Tão cobiçado pela fúria do prazer
Já tenho a Rosa entre todas margaridas
Já quis você pra nunca esquecer

Refrão: Chorarei amor quando preciso for,
Morrerei de saudade junto com a felicidade
que o vento levou,
Ô Amor…

Quem sabe um dia você vai me entender
Meus olhos secos como pedras pelo chão
Conchas vazias vem rolando com o mar
Trazendo o frio em forma de solidão
Ai quem me dera esse amor tão estrangeiro
Tão cobiçado pela fúria do prazer
Já tenho a Rosa entre todas margaridas
Só quis você pra nunca esquecer

Refrão…

But if you want to see what they’re like live – here’s another one they’ll definitely be playing in Salvador this year!

Você quer Chiclete no Carnaval?!

Since it’s Monday morning, let’s talk coffee, shall we?

For those of you who are big coffee drinkers, the best advice I can give you for when you get to Brazil and walk into a corner padaria is… take what you can get. Depending on where you are, there are very limited choices in what you can order.  In some places, the coffee’s really strong and they serve sugar separately.  In others, the coffee’s super weak and filled with sugar… and a little of everything in between.  Each state and region has its different way of drinking coffee, so in respect for the region you’re in – if you’re not making coffee at home… just drink it!

That being said… if you have options, in general, you can get by with the following vocabulary:

cafézinho/expresso/café curto – This is usually a cup of coffee in an expresso cup.  It may or may not be an expresso.  If an expresso is what you really want, to be on the safe side, order a cafézinho expresso, or just um expresso.

média/café com leite – Different places will say different things.  In most places, a café com leite, will be a tea cup sized coffee with more milk than coffee.   It also may or may not come with sugar, so if you prefer it without, make sure to ask for um café com leite sem açúcar! In some places, you can just order a média, and they’ll bring you the same thing.

café duplo/pingado – This is like a big média! And the same rules apply.  Also, if you order a pingado and the person stares at you like you’re crazy, go for a café duplo, or vice versa

capuccino – In some places this is the same thing as a cappuccino you’d find in the US, but some coffee shops (in SP at least) will add chocolate to their capuccinos! (I highly recommend the one from Kopenhagen, mmm mmm yummy and worth the R$9!)

As for vocabulary, I think that’s it… Depending on where you go – if it’s a small restaurant, forget the options of descafeinado (decaf), leite desnatado (skim milk) or leite de soja (soy milk).  That’s just frescuragem.

If you’re going for coffee, don’t forget to order a pão de queijo to dip in your café com leite. And if you’re ordering coffee with dessert, order a pudim de leite with it! Oh! And don’t be surprised if your coffee comes in a glass…

Happy cafézinho!