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| Migration flows to Brazil at Museo da Lingua Portuguesa |
I have come to the conclusion that it is food to reveal what Brazil really is. Yesterday a Japanese-Portuguese woman prepared an italian dish for us, using a recipe Italians don't use. It was still a delicious plate! Few days ago, Roberta brought us to a pizzeria, insisting that the best pizza in the world is made in Sao Paulo. Despite skeptical, as soon as the first bite of pizza paulistana met my mouth I had to frankly admit that it was indeed delicious! The sushi in Sao Paulo can be a delicatess and the 'food of the slaves', the feijoada, is today a typical Brazilian dish...What does it all tell?
Of course food and recipes travel along with the people and folks that use them...when Italians started to move to Brazil from the 1870s didn´t bring with them only hope for a new life in the new world, but they also brought along their culinary habits, gnocchi and pizza! According to the numbers, Italians are the biggest immigrant group in Brazil with some 1,5 million Italians of which 70% seems to be concentrated in Sao Paulo...No wonder a pizza can be so good here! Then there are also Portuguese, Spanish, Germans, Russians, a big colony of Japanese people, and even Chinese, Korean, Lebanese, Jews and...Africans (theirs is another story).
This diversity in faces, languages and food is the richness of this big country. At the Museu da Lingua Portuguesa you learn that since the Portuguese came to Brazil in the 1500, the portuguese language evolved and enriched itself by meeting other cultures. A lot of names and names of places derive from tupinambá, the indigenous language the portuguese met first. Words like moleque, bunda, tanga come from African banto. Açougue, açucar, àlcool come from Arabic. The portuguese language is extremely rich, and so is this culture and this place! Personally, I adore its diversity!
Of course food and recipes travel along with the people and folks that use them...when Italians started to move to Brazil from the 1870s didn´t bring with them only hope for a new life in the new world, but they also brought along their culinary habits, gnocchi and pizza! According to the numbers, Italians are the biggest immigrant group in Brazil with some 1,5 million Italians of which 70% seems to be concentrated in Sao Paulo...No wonder a pizza can be so good here! Then there are also Portuguese, Spanish, Germans, Russians, a big colony of Japanese people, and even Chinese, Korean, Lebanese, Jews and...Africans (theirs is another story).
This diversity in faces, languages and food is the richness of this big country. At the Museu da Lingua Portuguesa you learn that since the Portuguese came to Brazil in the 1500, the portuguese language evolved and enriched itself by meeting other cultures. A lot of names and names of places derive from tupinambá, the indigenous language the portuguese met first. Words like moleque, bunda, tanga come from African banto. Açougue, açucar, àlcool come from Arabic. The portuguese language is extremely rich, and so is this culture and this place! Personally, I adore its diversity!
Dear Author:) It's really great to read about all the things you describe, so please: do not stop and post as often as possible:)
ReplyDeleteYou inspired me with the pizza story and apart from buying one I did some small thinking - the conclusion is that you might have eaten Italian food prepared to the recipes from as early as XIXth century. Just imagine how cool would it be ;) Hypothetically it even makes sense - as first Italian emigrants arrived, they built their houses and decided to preserve the pizza making procedure within their clans ;) I really have to do some background research on that..
Ah! Good point, indeed! To be honest, I also think that sometimes they call 'Italian' things that an Italian would never ever even think of preparing! I find it weird that in chile wathever is sold as Italian has a ridiculous amount of mayonese! 0_0
ReplyDeleteElena, your words "I adore its diversity" are well known.... Because so used them, when you talked about your love for Amsterdam...
ReplyDeleteEven there are good Italian restaurants...
Stan