Zac was born at the end of last year, so for the last eight months CH and I have been super busy being (can I say awesome?) parents. We do our best and as a result he seems to really like us, the rest of...
As the saying goes: you can learn a lot about someone when you walk a day in their shoes. I like to think the same goes for when you eat in someone’s home. I have had the honor to be invited to Tatão’s home...
Brazil has a serious love for condensed milk in their desserts and brigadeiro is the #1 most commonly made of them all. It is the holy grail of condensed milk, butter, and cocoa powdered chocolate. They make for a seriously awesome ball of thick chocolate,...
CH and I have relocated to Rio for work (and personal pursuits) and finally, we now live in the tropics. But this is not the Amazon, not even close. The Amazon rain forest is thousands of miles away. In this particular neighborhood in Rio, literally...
São Paulo has the second largest Japanese population outside of Japan (about 650,000+), but since my arrival here I've been pretty bummed by the lack of good Japanese restaurants. Thank God for the Koreans! Koreans immigrated to SP with promises that Brazil was the country of the...
The world is full of burger places. There is one in almost every strip mall in America, and then there are the chains which are often the culprits or the scapegoats of many a country's poor eating habits. Burgers stretch the gut, go well with less healthy...
Over the last year, I have been desperately trying to get my hands on the Ghosts of the Great Highway LP by Sun Kil Moon aka Mark Kozelek from Red House Painters. If not familiar with any of his bands or side projects, most...
L'Epi Dupin near Le Bon Marche is normally a quiet place full of neighborhood types and locals. Their course meal is a bargain. Old types sit and drink. The snobbery was at a low. When our mixed mash group of birthday...
After a painfully long day of marching shop to shop near Opera, we needed to eat something. Anything. Shopping with CH and Angela was exhausting normally, but this was sale week in the fashion capital of the world, and it was intense. The hustle...
Recently a surge of concept stores and boutiques have marked our larger cities, the world over, from Paris to São Paulo, all bringing a bit of something new and curated. Concept shops like Paris' overtly "cool" Colette throbs with waves of tourists, often...
Paris is packed with things like bad service, people who don't wear color, restaurants with funky bathrooms, people who embody blasé, park benches older than both of my countries, and street food that will screw your brains out, call you lover, and often never call...
It’s getting colder here in Brazil and dry season is approaching. In the North, the crops have been harvested. Festa Junina (June Festival) was carried over from the Portuguese to celebrate and thank God for the rain by eating wonderful foods--and like any good Brazilian...
With the in-laws away in Paris, my sister-in-law, grandma, house chef Gracinha, and dog-in-law Pri (short for Princess or Priscilla, still not sure) have come to stay with us. The opportunity was ripe to finally ask Gracinha to show me her feijoada-lite...
In a city like São Paulo with its mild climate, and millions of Italian immigrants, you would expect to find loads of good gelato. Instead there is a ton of picole (popsicles) and regular ice cream. Luckily for us, just down the street is
After getting canned without reason, the day after her maternity leave was up, Paula Cinini was not sure what to do; she had always worked as a journalist. To find some solace in this devastating situation, and cope with her mother's passing, Paula dug up...
In my hood, the chic São Paulo bairro of Jardins, I share sidewalks with a rather large group of Hasidic Jews. All of the beards make me feel like I'm safe and at home. They are the unspoken guardians of Jardins, as...
Seeing an old friend after some time is like nothing else. You catch up, see how they are doing, and talk about old times. I made my way to Okinawa a while back to check old the old island and made it my first priority...
My wife and I are dressed to kill. The guards are looking us up and down. My hands are sweating. I enter awkwardly remembering last minute to bow, even though I'm not sure who these people are greeting us at the...
Carnaval is just complete madness. People running around, eating, dancing, shaking it, getting it on, peeing on church walls, and swapping spit. It’s hot. The music is loud, samba is blaring, and you are pretty much forced to like it. It's like sex. This is...
Bali was our first destination on our honeymoon tour. It is where I was promised we could recover, read and sloth out! After the crazy stress of moving continents (from Japan to Brazil), learning a new language, surviving the first year in my...
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