Our hotel room - no mosquito net!

The rooms at the Radisson were enormous and really nice - it was so fun!

We had been planning for a couple of months to spend a weekend at a nice hotel for our third anniversary.  Our goal was to enjoy time with each other and a few days away from the intense heat and humidity and the hungry bugs.  We had also been wanting to try the famous five star Amazon restaurant in the city called Remanso do Bosque.  We just got back today and had a great time even though we were just a few blocks away at the local Radisson.  It was really fun to have a few special days of luxury away from it all, swimming in the pool, trying crazy new foods and going up for seconds and thirds at the awesome breakfast spread.   Now it's back to reality and I'm sitting in front of the fans and slapping mosquitoes, but I can still smell wafts of the trendy upscale shampoo and conditioner from my hair left over from our multiple hot showers.  It's the little things.

Awesome breakfast buffet

I spent most of my time at the rooftop pool - love at first sight

For our first night we walked to Domino's Pizza and got a pepperoni and mushroom pie - something that we have been wanting to do for awhile but is normally a little out of our price range.  The taste of home was awesome!  On Saturday night we took a taxi to Remanso do Bosque to try out the tasting menu.  We were there right at 7pm when it opened because we had heard the tasting took about 3 hours and we were hungry!  Brazilians eat dinner much later than the normal American supper hour and other dinner guests didn't start rolling in until about 8:30.  We ordered fancy drinks and then started the twelve course culinary delight.  The two chefs who created the restaurant and the menu are brothers from Belém.  They only use local ingredients from indigenous communities or from the surrounding Amazon.  Sean and I had never done something like this before and it was a very entertaining and delicious experience.  By the end, however, I was so full that after just a bite or two I would pass my plate to Sean.  We both agreed that the best dish was the homemade chocolate mousse with handmade chocolate from a nearby island.  Somehow there was magically more room in my stomach to finish all of mine on my own.  Bonus points that we got to eat it out of a fun clay pot with a mouth shovel.

Twelve Course Tasting Menu (of course I took pictures!):

"Tacacachaça" Artesenal alcohol with Jambú leaves and Passion Fruit juice (Drink: Mango and Ginger Caipirinha)

"Beiju cica, Beiju de tapioca, Manteiga de leite de Búfalo" Manioc biscuits with buffalo butter

"Manga com farinha" Mango and manioc flour ceviche

"Ariá in Caldo de Tucupi" Amazon potato in a type of indigenous broth

Fresh raw oyster

"Pupunha, Pele de arroz, Amendoim, Pipoca" Pupunha fruit, rice skin, peanuts and shaved popcorn

"Filhote na brasa, Leite de castanha" Grilled Filhote fish in nut milk

"Tucunaré na folha, Tucupi, Farinha d'agua, Rapadura" Tucunaré fish cooked in banana leaf, broth, homemade flour and brown sugar

"Pirarucu defumado, Banana da terra, Urucum" Smoked Pirarucu fish, banana gnocchi in a Urucum sauce

"Arroz de Pato" Duck rice with egg

"Bacuri, Hibisco, Tapioca" Bacuri fruit, Hibiscus and Manioc flour

"Cacau do Combú" Chocolate mousse from Combú Island

Happy 3rd Anniversary babe!  Cheers to many more.

1 Comment

1. Linde on August 18, 2014 at 3:31 PM

   Wow! Looks like a fabulous weekend! Congrats on your anniversary!
   =)