Cachorro Beethoven

It has been raining almost non-stop in Olinda for the past couple days, so we have been doing a lot of eating and catching up on sleep. When it rains here, it pours buckets, but then the sun comes out, and it feels hotter than ever because of the evaporation, plus there isn´t much wind. People are whining because it is not the rainy season. We are making the most of it of course, and enjoying, including getting plenty of sun. This picture was taken at this busy Olinda restaurant Oficina do Sabor. We ordered a stuffed pumpkin which made me think of Barbara Kingsolver´s warted pumpkin in Italy from her book AVM because of the warts. You could have it stuffed with almost anything from Octopus to chicken. We chose the local favorite of Carne do Sol and coconut. It was amazing, and a huge amount of food for R$40 - would easily feed 4 people. When it is written on the menu it will feed 2, you know it is going to a large portion! The salad was absolutely wonderful, the freshest imaginable local veggies including cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, red cabbage and olives. It was also giant. On the table were two house made wonderful marinade condiments one made of roasted garlic in olive oil, and one made of hot peppers in olive oil. We could not get enough of either because they were so yummy.

Prior to this great meal, we hung around the quadra for some beers, and ended up seeing some great Carnival parade music. Keep in mind, it was raining on and off.
For those of you following the Carnival dog story from Rio: http://carnaval.uol.com.br/2009/album/cachorro_na_sapucai_album.jhtm
He was all over the news again today! It turns out that he is a street dog from around the Sambadromo. He is well fed by the local street vendors although he was sleeping on the streets, and his name is Beethoven! It seems that everyone has a thing for him, and after this story broke, one of the news reporters decided to adopt him. Now he not only has a collar, but he lives in a posh Zona Sul apartment in Rio!


The witch in this video was everywhere. We kept running into her including at the Serenata! She would dance around to the beat of the music. Here you can see she was getting in position for the parade.