Breakfast

Breakfast depended on where we were. In Fortaleza and Natal it was offered at the hotel, so of course we obliged. The hotel in Fortaleza was pretty big so they had a full on buffet with lots of choices: eggs, cold cuts, quiche-like dishes, sweet bread items and even cereal and milk to go with your excellent Brazilian coffee and odd juices. Most of the juices were odd. Made from some fruit that I had never heard of. They even had cashew juice one day (it’s about like you would imagine). One of the interesting things about the juices was that they were all unsweetened.  If you wanted sugar you just added it yourself, like in your coffee. It was a little alarming to be confronted by the reality of how much sugar I needed to add before the juice was the way I like it - but good to know, I suppose.

In Natal, at Noelle’s Pousada, breakfast was much more like a special day at home. While we were there it was just six Americans – us, and another couple in town for the US-Ghana match. Noelle asked what we wanted and that’s what we got: Eggs, jams, cold cuts and homemade banana bread. And a succession of juices, made from stuff I had never heard of, had never tried, will probably never see again and that I don’t think I will miss. Still, those juices were not the strangest one I had. That happened at our favorite breakfast place in Rio.

In Rio we were not in a hotel, so no breakfast. We had to hunt. Hunting was not hard. On the corner in front of our apartment was a juice bar that served fresh-baked pastries.  My favorite was the ham and cheese.  You can never go wrong with ham and cheese, cooked into a bread.  And then of course they had juices. They must have had 30 choices.

Our Juice Bar

The first day I played it safe and went with the laranja (naranja-orange, thanks high school Spanish - I guessed right!) The second day I came more prepared. I looked up and downloaded a list of fruits translated into Portuguese. I decided to try the pineapple (abacaxi) I said it, and I thought I pointed to it on the menu board. The waiter repeated. I said “Sim!”. Were good to go. Small or large? I love pineapple, let’s go large. A few minutes later my juice came - kind of a green sludge. It was not abacaxi it was abacate (avocado). I am not sure what the difference in pronunciation would be.  Portuguese does not seem to be pronounced exactly as it is written and I guess when I put my finger on the board he thought I wanted the one above (abacate) the one I put my finger on (abacaxi).  So I had an avocado smoothie for breakfast. Not the worst thing I ever had.  Still, the next time, I was much more careful.