In honor of the journey Chris is taking south of the equator this month, I thought it appropriate to pay tribute to some unique things that make Brazil special…
The Brazilian Flag
Just cool. The colors, the style and the unique star-studded Southern Hemisphere sky. The sky depicts 27 white, five-pointed stars one for each state and the Federal District. the stars are arranged in the pattern of the night sky over Rio de Janeiro on November 15, 1889 (when the last Emperor of Brazil was deposed, and the republic proclaimed). The stars in view include the constellations Southern Cross, Scorpius, Canis Major and others. A banner across the sky reads, “ORDEM E PROGRESSO,” which means “order and progress” in Portuguese.
The “Brazilian Blur”, possibly the fastest basketball player (with apologies to Lebron James and Gilbert Arenas) on the planet. He’s serving as an offensive catalyst for the current NBA Phoenix Suns playoff run. In one memorable play against the Los Angeles Lakers, Barbosa drove 1 vs. 4 defenders beating each of them to the basket with pure speed prompting coach Mike D’Antoni to state “For about 10 minutes tonight, he was the fastest man on Earth.”
Forward-thinking fuel economy
Brazil expects to become self-sufficient in energy this year, meeting its growing demand for fuel by raising output both from petroleum and ethanol. The use of ethanol, from sugar cane, is so widespread that gas stations have two sets of pumps, marked A for alcohol and G for gasoline. (More on NPR)
‘Brazilian Donuts’
These hot, freshly-fried churros are served street-side with a fresh, hot carmel filling. (Confession: I discovered these on a cold February morning at Petticoat Lane Market in London. My friend Nathan, who spent a couple years in Brazil confirms these churro are readily available on the street and delicious.)
Real Football
Champions in 2 of the past 3 World Cups, probably the most successful football team in the world. It is often said that in football (soccer) “The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it.” No wonder Nike pays the CBF $12 Million/year to wear the swoosh.
Update: Mark points us to Ronaldinho!
Rodizio
A style of restaurant service in Brazilian restaurants. Pay a fixed price and the waiters bring food to each customer until the customers signify that they have had enough. Servers come to the table with knives and a skewer, on which are speared various kinds of meat, most commonly local cuts of beef, pork, or chicken. Awesome!
All this and I have never been to the country! Yet. Who can add to the list?
24 responses to “Brazilian Style”
Aw, now you’ve gone and made me remember (and miss) the Rodizio Grill restaurants in Denver.
Mmmmm, hungry now…
Wow, this is cool. I haven’t read the whole thing yet just the Rodizio stuff. I have actually experienced this and so can you.
There is a restaurant in Phoenix called Rio Sabor Brazil and they do the whole knives, skewer and various kinds of meat.
http://www.riosabor.com
It was way too much food for me however was fun to eat and definately worth a trip (a bit on the pricey side at about $30 a pop).
Here’s another thing that’s awesome about Brazil: The gorillas!
I hear they’re everywhere. Man. That would be so cool to see real gorillas in the wild.
(hint: guerrilla)
For those in Arizona, also check out the Rodizio Fogo e Brasa in Phoenix, west of I-10 south of Chandler Blvd.
For all you UFC fans, you can’t forget the impact that Joyce Gracie brought to cage fighting with his mastery of Brazilian Ju-Jitzu.
Then there’s beauty, and Brazil’s contribution to Super Models – Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, Giselle. 🙂
Brazil also has the greatest footballer in the world right now, Ronaldinho!
Did anybody see this in my blog last year? Just sick is what it is – course I have a hard time believing its real, but with Ronaldinho anythings possible.
http://whatasavage.com/2005/12/06/is-that-real/
– you dialup people won’t want to watch the video
WOW. That video is sick Mark. Ronaldinho! I’m going to add it up top in the section on Real Football…
Ward – You might not want to forget Pele too!
Nice Tomas. I could do a whole post on Brazilian football players. I like your insights on the UFC and Joyce Gracie..the great thing is that it seems everything in Brazil is done with such passion and enthusiasm.
yes.. yes.. YESSSSSS!!! REAL FOOOOOOT BALL! ooooh, i get chills thinking of copa mundial!
Also, there’s another cool Brazilian martial art called Capoeira a.k.a. the dance of war. Here in Phoenix, there’s a dance troupe by the name of Axé Capoeira that performs at various local venues. If you’ve never seen it, it is truly acrobatic and amazing to witness.
Here’s the Capoeira in popular culture Wiki link for more info on the dance/martial art.
Man, I almost forgot Brazilian Carnaval and Brazilian Samba! 🙂
Ok so I just had a chance to read the rest of this post and it rocks. I’m going to definately check out the churros. I had not known about them. I knew about the ethanol but I didn’t know that they were going to be energy independent this year. That’s what the US needs to do. Adopt sugar cane farming.
How does someone go about getting a name like Ronaldinho anyways? I think that rocks and so does the video.
Cool stuff Ward!
Hi I’m a Brazilian, living in Curitiba ( before in Sao Paulo, 3rd or 4th biggest city in the world, 1st in the country ). What a great surprise to see this post ! 🙂
One comment in particular, that I liked is that everything here is done with passion and enthusiasm. I liked that you forget about Samba, I know it’s big, and it’s hard to explain, but almost everyone here who does think won’t like it. It’s too much related to crime, money laundry, extortion. It’s a thing to attract tourists.
We have many natural beauties too, and unfortunately great corruption in the politic system.
If I could I will be glad to host anyone who wish to come to here to know it more, But I live on a small house ( just got married 🙂 )
Thanks for the article!
Grillo – thanks for the info! I’m not sure where Curitiba is, but I’ll look it up later.
Places I’ll be visiting:
* Angra dos Reis
* Rio de Janeiro
* Sao Paulo
* Florianópolis
Grillo – I will be taking my laptop with me on the trip. Do you know of any good places to get information about wireless internet?
Well Chris, angra is beautiful, Rio de Janeiro I don’t like ( take care there, they are well know here for taking advantage of tourists), the organized crime there rules the city, but it’s a beautifull city.
I’ve lived in Sao Paulo for 27 years, it’s a crowded city, but there’s some places that I know you’ll find wifi there, at the airport, and at some restaurants. WiFi here is still hard to find, but you will find many LanHouses as we call here, that are public places with computers logged on the net, probably most of them will have WiFi.
And when you’re in Floripa ( short for Florianopolis ) be sure to check out the beachs there, is the largest concetration of wonderfull women in the planet 😉
Curitiba is 400Km south of São Paulo, about the same distance north of Florianopolis, I’ve moved down here to marry my GF that I’ve met in a beach near Florianoplis:)
If you need more tips, contact me directly by email ( grillo at gmail dot com ) and if you have gtalk you can add me too.
Thanks Grillo!
great web chris keep it up
sup my man
Know Brasil come to us.Scottsdale and shea.word copa 2006 Brasil .O sabor do brasil.
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