Cachaça Cachaça is to Brazil what tequila (or mezcal!) is to Mexico, what vodka is to Russia, what rum is to the Caribbean – that is to say, it is Brazil’s most common distilled alcohol. Also called pinga or aguardente depending on where you are, cachaça dates to at least the sixteenth century and is distilled … Read more
A Saturday in São Paulo
April 24th, 2014 | Posted by in A Day in the Life | Brazil | Celebrations | Food | Sports | The Places We've Been - (5 Comments)Last Saturday marked six years since the day of our wedding. Our plans for celebration were loose at best, being generally outlined as ‘have a great day’, ‘go do stuff in São Paulo’, and ‘eat and drink whatever we want’. Well, not to brag, but we totally nailed it. After taking the dogs out to … Read more
Back in the States, we are generally only exposed to two kinds of “natural” stimulating beverages, namely coffees and teas. Over the past six months we have had the pleasure of being introduced to a couple alternatives to these staples. To try (legally, at least) coca tea, one would unfortunately have to actually travel to … Read more
Sopa Calabaza Lentaje (Calabash Lentil Soup)
April 8th, 2014 | Posted by in Food | Uruguay - (5 Comments)It’s fall here in Uruguay, which is a strange thing for a North American couple – leaves turning yellow in April. As temperatures drop from the scorching days of our summer in Buenos Aires, and cool autumn breezes invite sweatshirts back to our regular attire, our meals have shifted too. We had great success with … Read more
Food and Dining in Buenos Aires
March 17th, 2014 | Posted by in Argentina | Food | The Places We've Been - (4 Comments)Oops. We haven’t written a blog post in 26 days. That might be a new record. Anyway… Disclaimer: Buenos Aires is a huge and cosmopolitan city. As such, what is written below is not in any way trying to pass itself off as a definitive guide to BA dining, only to give you an idea … Read more
Indefinite Adventure’s Food Porn Friday
January 24th, 2014 | Posted by in Food | Peru | The Places We've Been - (4 Comments)Over the last few months we’ve periodically included information from and hyperlinks to the guys at Indefinite Adventure who traveled South America in the opposite direction from us as part of their ongoing (and indefinite, obviously) adventure. Though we crossed paths with them in November, we unfortunately didn’t know it at the time and so … Read more
In La Paz
December 26th, 2013 | Posted by in Bolivia | Celebrations | Food | Lodging | Oh | The Places We've Been - (7 Comments)In La Paz… …residents live in the world’s highest de facto capital. At approximately 12,000 feet (the city sits in a bowl, so true altitudes range greatly from 10,500 to 13,500 feet), La Paz is Bolivia’s cultural or people’s capital while Sucre is the legal capital. The city itself has a population of 877,000, but … Read more
The simplest way to describe Peruvian chicha is to call it traditional corn beer. There are a number of varieties, including a strawberry version around Cusco called frutillada and many other fermented beverages that all fall in the chicha category, but for the sake of this post, we’re talking about the alcoholic beverage made from … Read more
Inca Kola is a source of Peruvian national pride and a Peruvian icon. It is intensely bright yellow, and tastes somewhere between bubble gum and cotton candy. Created in 1935 by José Robinson Lindley, Inca Kola has been Peru’s top selling soft drink since 1970, meaning that for nearly thirty years Peru was one of … Read more
Mate de Coca
November 27th, 2013 | Posted by in Ecuador | Food | Peru | The Places We've Been - (3 Comments)Mate de Coca (pronounced: mah-tay day coh-cah, translated: Coca Tea) is a very regular part of life in the Andes. For thousands of years the indigenous peoples of the region have chewed the leaves, which continue to play physical, economic, social, and spiritual roles in the local communities as they have since ancient times. Today … Read more