Saturday, November 14, 2009

Pretentious Pizza

Seriously love when the weekends rolls around!


Though I don't know why. My weekends aren't very different from my week days. Sadly. Anyway, but the thing that is different is Sidnei usually takes pity on me and we go out!


Tonight we decided to live a little and go to a "real" restaurant. You know the kind where they have real waiters?


Here in Brazil there are a couple of types of places to eat...
  • Lanchonetes- these places are found ALL over every corner of Ipatinga. You can find them from small to big, having things varying from pastel and coxinha, to hamburgers, pizza, soups, and ice cream. 
  • Boteco- I actually like the boteco that we have down the road from us. These are also all over every corner of Ipatinga. These places are sort of a mix between a bar and restarant. Some people come to drink. Some people come to eat. Most do both. The boteco sets out plastic tables and chairs, often has live music (here anyway) and my favorite place does churrasco every night that is fantastic! Though they aren't all nice..some are pretty dumpy looking.
  • Restaurante por kilo- Buffet style restaurante by weight. Serves all kinds of meats, veggies, sometimes salad, rice, beans, farofa, potatoes..etc. I like to go to places like this for lunch. But really, not great for me since my eyes are always bigger than my stomach...and I really hate wasting.
  • Restaurante- A place in rare form in Ipatinga. I think we seriously have like 5 "real" restaurants here. Where you go, sit down, given a menu, order with a waiter,  and have more choices than hamburgers and pizza.
So anyway, Sidnei picked a restaurant that we have been admiring from afar to go to tonight. The outside is beautiful (I wish I had gotten a picture), with big glass walls to see inside, pretty decorating, and it just looks NICE. Like a real establishment. Anyway so I'm all excited. We walk in, we are greeted by a hostess (!) and taken to our seats. Everything smells SO good. The waiters look all nice and crisp in their uniforms. The table cloths (!) are pressed. Everyone around us is dressed nicely and having a nice time. Not to mention they had a big bottle of olive oil in the middle of the table, making me think I might get bread (you know, like at an italian restaurant). Did I mention this is the first time we've been to a real restaurant in the five months I've been here??

The waiter hands us our menu and asks what we would like to drink. He gives us the house special for the day. I think it was some kind of fish. We open the menu...and to our surprise...the place we are at is a PIZZERIA. I almost died laughing. Sidnei was pissed. Seriously the restaurant looks so pretty. The waiters are SO formal. I would have never guessed. And just so you know, they don't have any signs outside except for one that says Bohemia which is an alcoholic drink they serve there. Ahhh well. What's a girl to do? So we order a pizza...my style. Quatro Quiejos (four cheeeses) because I like to keep it simple. And thankfully our overpriced, pretentious pizza, was the best I've had since I've been here. Though, I don't think Sidnei will be back.




*Just as a side note, in different cities, the eating scenario varies in different places and in bigger cities(so I have heard)  it is much different. We just don't have many options in this small town.

13 comments:

Lisa said...

Too funny!!! They lured you in with the decor! Sounds like something that would happen to us. Glad you had fun though.

Lisa Q

Eve said...

Oh, that's too funny! At least the food was good and you got to sit down and be served! :)

Betty W said...

LOL! I would be pissed too! :)
But I´m glad you enjoyed the pizza. We only have about 4 "restaurants" here also. It can get boring it you like going out every weekend! :)

AkuTyger said...

Maybe it's a sign you should open your own restaurant.

Stephanie said...

Lisa and Eve- Thank you!!

Betty- Most of the time we are pretty low key, Im happy with going to one of the street vendors for a little churrasco or just going to get ice cream (or some days both!) But we will definitely have to rotate!!

AkuTyger- Funny, that is something we talked about! However opening a restaurant takes money...and knowledge. Something we have neither of!

LadyFi said...

That's hilarious! At least you enjoyed the experience - and the pizza!

We ONLY have pizzerias where I live - so boring.

Mrs. Carioca said...

That's funny! Glad you got to go out though!

Anonymous said...

Wow what a different world from Rio! I can't wait to see some of the smaller places in Brazil, but we are definitely spoiled here with food!

Do the people in Mineas put Ketchup & Mustard on top of their pizza like they do here in Rio? If you get a chance the next time you are out for pizza, they make one here called a Pizza Calabresa, that is like pepperoni but a different kind of pork sausage, a little spicy--it's my favorite and something I never saw in the U.S.

Beijos & Abraços!
Tricia

Fabiola said...

That is funny. But as I said before, we have any kind of restaurant in São Paulo that you can think of.
And we do have pretentious pizza places EVERYWHERE. São Paulo is famous for its pizza places.

I am hoping you can come down some time so you can check a lot of different things down here.

Fabiola

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh! How funny that it was a pizzeria! ;)

Gabriela said...

;) We have all those eateries here too. One of our first nights here we sat down at a "fancy" pizzeria, looked at the menu, and Guapo made some excuse why we had to get home...it was SO expensive. Now it probably wouldn't seem THAT expensive since everything here is outrageous, but that first week we were stunned.

Samantha said...

That's adorable! And I love the title. I hope you find some "real" Italian food soon!

And thanks for your dental support. It's true--your teeth look fantastic from the outside! :)

Shannon said...

Ahh! The universal availability of pizza and hamburgers! At least you got the restaurant experience!