Far from being relaxing, weekends are usually filled with lots of invitations varying from participating in/speaking at events at the university to getting together with professors and hanging out with students. There's always something going on and I think Brazil remains one of the countries in which it's most impossible to be lonely or bored.
Last weekend Loni and I were invited to lunch with the director of our department, Samuel, along with a few other professors. Samuel was going to teach us how to make shrimp moqueca, a famous African-influenced local dish that we had wanted to know how to make for a long time. Moqueca is fairly easy to make and requires tomatoes, onions, peppers, shrimp, coconut milk and palm oil.
After chopping everything up and mixing everything together, the ingredients are boiled in a special pot for about half and hour. Moqueca is usually served with rice and farofa (toasted manioc flour) and should be preceded by a shot of the official Brazilian drink, cachaça.
It was fun to watch our director cook and the results were spectacular. My list of meals that I can't wait to try for family and friends at home is growing by the week; I hope you all are hungry for a taste of Bahia!
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| Potent artesenal cachaça |
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| The plate ready to eat with rice, moqueca and farofa |
mmmmmm! sounds delicious