São Paolo’s market frenzy
In the city of São Paulo, the star of the show – or at least my show – is the Mercado Municipal de São Paulo. This market is a local life blood and for international folk, a sensory playground where food nerds go crazy. It's a jam-packed gastronomical landmark that brings to life the taste of Brazil's culinary carnival: from century-old recipes and spices to rare Amazonian delicacies.
This food market is not like Madrid's San Miguel, London's Borough or Amsterdam’s beloved Food Hallen. Mercado Municipal is a magnetic beast of never-ending chaos. There's raucous shouting, intense hassling, wild yelling from one stall to the other. There's sizzling grills and huge machetes slamming down on chopping boards. There's an orchestra of whistling, the clinking of coins in pockets. And traders clacking beer bottles together during a break on the stairs that overlook the beeping, engine-roaring, traffic-clogged streets outside.
Besides the noise, the smells here are eyebrow-raising. The whole place reeks of bacalao – the salt cod all Brazilians are obsessed with. It's mandatory to try at least one version of its many manifestations. I'll start any day by tucking into a massive buñuelo de bacalao – a huge croquette – with an intoxicating amount of lime per bite. The fishy aroma here is mixed with those of the open-kitchens making another big favourite – churrasco – an excessive Brazilian-style barbecue. Many restaurant-looking stalls serve classics like feijoada, a hearty stew with black beans, pork and beef, while pastel is an emblematic appetiser of deep-fried pastry filled with cheese and meat. But the elite stalls serve picanha – a sacred cut of beef from the rump cap, slow-cooked so that it comes apart like cotton candy, – absolutely worth the sticky fingers and the wild amounts of mess.
Although the market has great churrasco, I will quickly recommend a cheeky side mission to the iconic Fogo De Chão in Jardins for the ultimate grill bonanza. This is the destination for a top-notch rodizio – a Brazilian style of dining where guests pay a fixed price and servers bring a variety of freshly cooked foods. In this case, it’s the juiciest meats – from beef ribs to chicken hearts – followed by caramelised bananas with farofa, a typical toasted cassava side dish. But just to clarify, Fogo De Chão is an all-out brazilian experience. Now, let's rewind to the market. The mini restaurant-stalls in the market are decorated with neon, bold, Comic Sans-lettered signs and always crammed with locals. There’s could well be a squad of cops, bullet-proof, head to toe, stuffing their mouths with pao de queixo – a beloved Brazilian snack made with tapioca flour which results in a gooey and chewy cheese bread.
The last carnivore reference I'm going to make is to an Anthony Bourdain favourite: the mortadella sandwich at Bar do Mane. This corner stall, like many others, serves a fluffy bun sandwich that consists of a ton of stacked and grilled mortadella, melting gruyere, served with dijon mustard on the side for some aggressive dipping. It is impossible to fit this sandwich into any human mouth without making a fool of oneself – but it's beyond delicious and a pit-stop that has to be made in Mercado Municipal.
Mercado Municipal goes big on fruit too. There are hundreds of booths that hold wall-to-wall exotic, tropical fruits, fresh from Northern Brazil. Stalls are filled with delicacies of every colour and texture, mounted higgeldy-piggeldy on top of each other. It's a mural of pits and a pile of funky skins, an assortment of pulps and juices.
Totally indifferent to apples and bananas, vendors here will showcase a rainbow of fruits that most visitors have never seen before. The pitomba, for instance, looks like lychee's identical twin, but is actually its cousin – and just a bit more Latin: less citric, more sweet. Or, the jabuticaba, a small circular fruit that when ripe turns a purple-black and has a sweet creamy inside, and tastes like a very sweet grape crossed with an in-season peach. Finally, a special one due to its name: cagaita – a tiny round fruit with greenish yellow skin that is super-super sour – and a super successful laxative (in South America, "cagaita" actually means "little shit".. so, you get the gist).
Any curious spectator will be pulled in close to taste new flavours, whether they like it or not. These treasures are the perfect way to wrap up a visit to Mercado Municipal. But after all that freneticism, head to Vista for an Açai cocktail and a surreal panoramic view of the Paulistano city.
Lia Mongrut
Spin a globe; stop it at random. In all likelihood, wherever your finger’s landed, Lía’s probably lived there—or been there on holiday at the very least. A Literature and Society graduate from the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam and more importantly, an Editorial Assistant here at gloobles, she never stops exploring. When she’s ready to hit the road, food tends to lead. Lía’s list of must-visit restaurants is seemingly endless, as is the list of top spots she’s been to. From Marrakesh to Medellín, we’d follow her anywhere.
