I capped off my year of travel with one final stop to South America with a visit to Brazil. I had heard a lot of things about Brazil from people - mostly great, some of it scary but I was still excited to check it out. Lav and I landed on Saturday morning after taking a 10 hour red eye the night before. After checking out the Ipanema beach and strolling around the neighborhood, we were ready for dinner. We stayed in the Ipanema area which is the bougiest/richest part of Rio. I felt very safe walking around which was great because there were tons of bar/restaurant/shops within a spitting distance of our hotel that seemed really great. I had heard and read alot about Zaza Bistro and it was a 10 minute walk from our hotel, so it seemed like a no brainer to make it our first meal of the trip.
It's a beautiful Mediterranean restaurant with gorgeous decor. We sat outside to enjoy the warm weather and people viewing. Luckily, they had a menu that had some basic English translation, so we started with the Tapioca appetizer which is a Brazilian dish of white pastry that's rolled with coalho cheese and tomatoes served with apricot and ginger dip. It was an interesting dish - not mind blowing as it wasn't sweet or savory but it was a white, mild cheese that has a "squeaky" like texture when you eat it. I know it sounds weird to describe cheese that way, but that's what it's like. For my main dish, I got the lamb with potato dumplings. The meat was fantastic - very tender and pulled apart very easily. The potatoes were more like the mashed version and went well with the lamb - it was kind of like your classic meat and potato dish but with Moroccan flavors to it. So my first meal in Brazil wasn't really a traditional Brazilian dish but still meat focused. Lav got the Moroccan Couscous which came with curry, vegetables and fruits, Semolina wheat, carrot, zucchini, mango, pinneaple, raisins and nuts - which was basically the only vegetarian dishes on the menu. Lav mentioned that it was ok - not great but that's kind of what we were expecting from a vegetarian meal in Brazil. We opted to get dessert and got the chocolate brownies with a lemon sorbet which was ok, but I was so full from everything else and drunk from the extremely strong delicious caipirinha that it didn't really register with me.
All in all, Zaza was a lovely start to our Brazilian adventure. It was gorgeous and the food, while not traditional, was solid from a meat and caipirinha perspective. I think if you stick with the meat/seafood dishes, you'll do well. The staff was very friendly and while they didn't speak a whole lot of English (that's most of Brazil), they were patient and nice to us. The prices were pretty expensive (even by NYC standards) but considering it smack in the middle of Ipanema I wasn't surprised. Total bill with drinks, tax and tip: ~$70/pp
Photo Credit: Time Out Brazil
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