Day 6: Pelô
6 Jan 2009 Author: admin In: Korean CelebritiesOn Tuesday night we went to a bar in the district known as Pelourinho. Pelourinho is part of the Upper City, or Cidade Alta, which is connected to the Lower City (Cidade Baixa) by the Elevador Lacerde, as well as steep, narrow streets that are dangerous to walk at night.
Most bars here are open-air, a bunch of plastic tables pulled together to make room for the fifteen or twenty Americanos. I favor capirinhas, sweet and limey cocktails made with cachaça, a sugarcane liquor, over beer (cerveja). I was pretty happy that night. I’d actually brought my brother Lazaro out to come play… and for a little while, I felt a little guilty that I might be corrupting him. He’s fifteen, after all. In the car, we were asking him if he drank… but I couldn’t tell if the answer was “no” or “yes, but I have to keep it a secret from my mom.” Seriously. Well, I later found out that my little brother is a SKANK HO who’s kissed all the girls he’s met (galinha, I think, is the term). And oh, he drinks, like all Brazilians do when they’re babies. So no hard feelings for me! It was a very enjoyable night, with good conversation and new friends.
Pelourinho, though, is a pretty sketchy place at night. Vendors will be hawking every minute of your stay there, and if you’re unlucky a certain 8-months-pregnant lady who looks like she’s foaming at the mouth will pinch your arm, steal your drink, knock it over, or throw stones at you. My family had cautioned me that Pelourinho was sujo (dirty), and it’s a pretty literal warning; there are some areas simply littered with human and canine feces.
All in all I had a good experience, though it wasn’t exactly thanks to the area… I’ve had enough of Pelourinho to last me for the next couple of weeks.
I returned to the Pelô for class on Thursday to attend a tour of the historic neighborhood. It definitely looks different during the day, and some of my classmates had difficulty recognizing the giant plaza that we’d acquainted ourselves with only two nights earlier. The city certainly affords some breathtaking views, and I’ll have to post my pictures. But I think the highlight of the tour was the Afro-Brazilian Museum. The delicate wood-carvings of orixás, spirits of the Candomblé religion, were breathtaking. Salvador has about 365 Catholic churches—one for every day of the year—but more than 2,000 Candomblé houses.
Caribbean Fruits
5 Jan 2009 Author: admin In: Sustainable Tourism
It’s time for some fruits again. Granted, not all of these are necessarily in season right this minute, like my previous post, but think of this as some more general information on fruits in the region. You never know when you might need this kind of information. Buying fruits in the Caribbean can be a tricky business because you really have to know where you are and what to ask for…disregard those stereoptypical views of Caribbean life as simplicity, we like things complicated. Remember the story of the Pommerac? Oh, the names…even in the same country. I tell you - it took forever to find out what they call it here in Guyana!
MANGOES
Of course this shot is of mangoes, which are easy. We all call them mangoes. Ah, but what KIND of mangoes! These are Julie, and I believe they can be found by that name in most of the English-speaking Caribbean (go on, correct me, it’s not like I am actually basing this on anything other than my gut feeling 
) But what do other people call the ice cream mango?
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Or this hybrid mango my mother saved for me last month, which she thinks is called Saibani - doesn’t it look interesting? It’s supposed to be a sweet, almost spicy, very flavourful mango and she saved 2 for me. These didn’t taste much different from a long mango (mango vere) though…not bad, but not particularly special. A friend who knows these things better than I, said that it’s not a very stable hybrid, so some of the mangoes on a tree may revert to a less fancy tasting ancestor. They do look pretty with that cool S-shape!
SUGAR APPLE
Now, this is an interesting looking fruit! Made of overlapping, almost petal-like bits of rind, covering sections of sweet (oh so sweet) slimy white flesh, each with a shiny black seed. Wikipedia entry for Annona squamosa. We do also call it custard apple in Trinidad, and although that may be incorrect scientifically, that’s just how it is with the fruit names down here. I believe it is also called sweet sop in other islands, like Jamaica (as opposed to soursop). Also called anones in Puerto Rico (thanks to Flickr visitors!)
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DRUMROLL!!!
And last, but not least, a fruit that really should have been showcased on this blog since its inception. Seriously. And I think it was only a month ago that Umar, a regular reader and commenter, made his way though my posts and called me on this glaring omission. So, here it is. Finally. Lifespan of a Chennette is pleased, for the first time, to showcase the Chennette. The fruit. The green one. That grows on trees. NOT ME. These!
CHENNET
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The fruit which gave me my ID…my online ID anyway. Also called guinep in other islands (including Tobago). These were bought in the Chaguanas market last week in Trinidad. My neighbour’s tree used to bear really big chennet, so whenever I saw the more common small ones I always felt they were inferior somehow. Maybe that’s why I never actively sought them out before for the blog? Nevermind, for now I can perhaps replace Stuart (the sheep on my About page)…for a while anyway 
Wikipedia entry: :”The mamoncillo (Melicoccus bijugatus), also known as the mamón (although the word is considered obscene in some Spanish speaking countries), chenet, guaya, gnep, ginep, skinnip (in Jamaica, St. Kitts) genip, guinep, ginnip, kenèp (in Haiti), quenepa (in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic), ackee (in Barbados), Spanish lime, or limoncillo, is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae…”
You’ll note the Bajans call it ACKEE…I think they beat the Guyanese/Grenadians at this dual name game. As strange as Cashew is for the pommerac, I think calling chennette ackee is stranger 
It’s hard to describe what this tastes like…I think it has a light sweet taste, maybe like a grape?, but completely different texture -that flesh is soft and squishy and has to be sucked dry. According to wikipedia, it’s lychee-like. You have to crack the shell open with your teeth and then the flesh is a relatively thin layer on a round hard pit/stone.
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So, there you have it. Some more fruits of the region. And an introduction to my namesake fruit. And my attempt at watermarking my photos after the theft! I started out with the watermark clear across the middle, but have settled for now on the lower right.
Champions League 2007.11.07: Olympique Lyonnais - VFB Stuttgart 4:2, highlights, all goals.
4 Jan 2009 Author: admin In: French goalscheap air fares to paris
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O rosto das gravações
2 Jan 2009 Author: admin In: ComunicaçãoO blog Gente de MÃdia, do jornalista Nonato Albuquerque, despertou em mim alguns fatos curiosos. Ontem descobri, através do GM, de quem é a tão famosa voz que identifica uma chamada telefônica a cobrar. Depois disso, lembrei das gravações nas entradas dos estacionamentos dos shoppings, daquela voz nos aeroportos, entre outras.
Curioso como sou, fui procurar no mestre-Google os locutores dessas gravações e achei uma matéria falando justamente sobre isso. O problema é que a matéria é da Veja de São Paulo. Logo, citam os locutores com a voz mais famosa somente em São Paulo. Quem tiver a curiosidade de saber quem são essas pessoas na região paulista, clique aqui.
Aqui no blogddi, você vai saber como é o rosto daquela pessoa que sempre causa em você uma leve sensação de prejuÃzo e impaciência ao receber uma ligação a cobrar.
O nome dela é Patricia Godoy, formada em piano clássico, educação fÃsica e laboratórios médicos. Atriz desde os 15 anos, já atuou em novelas do SBT e já apresentou o telejornal desta mesma emissora. Começou gravando comerciais, jingles e dublando vozes. Godoy atualmente trabalha como locutora de comerciais.
“Chamada a cobrar: diga seu nome e a cidade de onde está falando.”
“Chamada a cobrar. Para aceitá-la, continue na linha após a identificação.”
Vejam abaixo o rosto de outros locutores famosos e suas respectivas “caracterÃsticas”:
“Bem-vindo ao Shopping Iguatemi. Aperte o botão e retire seu tÃquete.”
Ana Maria Mello,a voz dos estacionamentos
“Atenção, foi dada a largada.”
Roberto Casella, a voz do Jockey
“Atenção, senhores passageiros, vôo 3216 com destino a Salvador, embarque imediato pela sala 9.”
Iris Lettieri, a voz dos aeroportos
“Ao desembarcar, cuidado com o vão entre o trem e a plataforma.”
Aline Meyer, a voz dos trens
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RP155: The Oils of Chile
29 Dec 2008 Author: admin In: chefs
ReMARKable Palate #155: The Oils of Chile
This week, we speak with Chef Pilar Rodriguez from Chile, who specializes in creating dishes to pair with the wines of Chile. She speaks with us about some special ingredients which are indigenous to this South American land, and how she incorporates them into her cooking. We then learn about the wonderful work being done in Chile to produce Avocado oil and olive oil, and how this South American land just may sneak up on the Mediterranean countries to become the preeminent producer of fine cooking oils in the world.
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Sergio Carrera Undurraga Viña Tarapacá
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Summer’s almost gone
16 Dec 2008 Author: admin In: BlogsFirst, for no better reason than that it tickles the hell out of me, from the eXiled comes this picture of a purse dog being carried by a former Russian paratrooper - the happiest-looking critter I’ve seen since this history-making cat:
I can haz vodka?
I love how the dog’s wearing the trademark striped VDV t-shirt as well as the beret.
Next, as I’ve said before, seasons in NM change pretty much the beginning of the month - in this case, Fall usually does so September 1st. If not before.
It’s also usual for the advent of the coming season to become obvious about two weeks before the month change. It’s very sensory: the length of the days, the quality of light, the feel and smell of the air.
The first harbinger of Autumn, though, is my birthday. Which happened last Sunday; I had a very nice day, thank you very much. (And a party tomorrow - email me if you’re in Burque and want to come!)
It’s a bittersweet time of year for me. I love my birthday; always have. And I feel obligated to feel an attachment to Summer, even though it’s hot, if not so hot this year, and as if to compensate, humid this year. And even though it’s been a long time since I suffered through it first-hand, the end of summer always means the beginning of the psychological and emotional abuse of school slavery. I still feel sorry for the kids who’re getting their natural, indeed hormonal, love of learning ground out of them in order to turn them into unquestioning conscripts, consumers, and corporate cogs.
Still and all, Fall is my favorite season: Summer without the heat; Spring without the winds; and charms of its own such as the leaves turning color, the air beginning to nip, the smell of piñon smoke in the evenings.
One of the greatest autumn delights for me is always the smell of roasting green chile (and also, well, fresh roasted green chile itself.) It pervades the city, at least the North Valley, for weeks.
This afternoon I went on a major supply-buying expedition. One of my stops was the Fruit Basket on North Fourth (I know two of them, the other being on Twelfth just north of Candelaria): my go-to source for fine, mostly locally-grown produce. And I got a happy surprise in the form of the awning-covered kiosk set up in the parking lot, shading stacked burlap bags and black wire-mesh drums: it means chile-roasting time is about to arrive!
Or so I thought. It turned out that it already had, although they seemed to have packed it up for the day by the time I got there. As I checked out I found waiting, cleverly by the cash register, plastic bags of fresh-roasted chiles. Which were still warm. Ooh, baby!
I bought one. You’d’ve done the same. If you love green chile, anyway.