Mote con Huesillo

The streets of Santiago are lined with mobile stalls selling the specialty drink, mote con huesillo. A plastic cup is partially filled with dried corn, and then peaches in syrup are ladled on top. The corn soaks up the peach syrup, and becomes soft and moist. You are given a spoon and a (much needed) napkin. If you don't like tinned peaches, this is not for you. It is tooth-achingly sweet, and the corn and huge chunks of peach make it more of a snack than a drink. I have only tried the smallest size (250ml) but you can buy a whole litre! This is only to be recommended if you have a large group to share it amongst, or an excellent dentist. That said, I love them, and they provide an excellent base for pisco sour consumption!

Tacaca

Manaus is a huge working port and provides the base for many trips to the Amazon. In addition to banana chips, which are sold from every stall in town, the specialty is tacaca. You can get it from all over Manaus, bit the best place to try it is Giselle's tacaca stand in the beautiful main square.

A ladle of thin, clear broth is put into a bowl, followed by a blob of gelatinous substance that we think is some kind of manioc flour. Greens are stirred through, and lastly a few handfuls of shell-on prawns are added. You are then presented with a napkin and one chopstick with which to attempt to eat it. We sat on benches among the locals, and imitated their method, which was to drink the soup straight from the bowl, stab the prawns and scoop the greens up on the chopstick.

The gelatinous blob dissolved to give the soup a smooth texture. It tasted of the sea, in the same way that oysters do, and it certainly didn't need extra seasoning. It was more filling than we expected, and while we thought it would just be a starter, we didn't need to eat anything else that evening.

Kate

Veloso bar

Whilst in Sao Paulo we stayed with a couple called Antonio and Ellen. They rent out rooms in the their apartment just of av.  Paulista, the main street in Sao Paulo. One of the great things about staying with people that live in the city is their recommendations.  One of the places they recommended was a bar called Veloso,  near the Santa Ana metro stop.

The bar was on a quiet street,  and we would never have found dead it if it weren't for the directions, but the bar itself was packed. We later found that the barman has been named best in Sao Paulo for several years running, and certainly his caipirinhas were some of the the best we had.

The thing Veloso is best known for though is it coxinha. Coxinha is a population snack though out Brazil,  and is often sold from many of the stalls around Sampa and Rio.  It is chicken, with onions and spices,  covered with potato and deep fried.  They are perfect beer food,  and we're well washed down with several glasses of 'chopp', or draught beer.

Veloso was an excellent bar, from the drinks, the people, to the Brasil shirt signed by Pele on  the wall,  but the coxinhas will be what I really remember it for.

Tom