- Hey everyone, hope you're
having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens, I'm in
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and favelas are a community
of informal housing, which is a major, major part of Rio. As you drive through the streets, you'll notice high-rise buildings, but in between the buildings
and within the valleys and literally on the sides
of cliffs and mountains you will see, you will notice favelas. Now, it wouldn't be right
for me to not mention that a lot of crime does
take place in favelas, and some
of them can be
dangerous in certain areas, especially without the right connection. However, the favelas are also, there's a totally different
side of the favelas. It's home to some of the most creative, some of the most hard-working and some of the most heartwarming, welcoming people in Brazil as well. So today we're take you,
we're gonna go on a food tour of the favelas of Rio. We're gonna visit two different favelas. We're gonna eat some home-cooked food, we're gonna eat at some
street food s
talls, we're gonna meet some amazing people. I'm gonna share all the food with you and the entire experience
with you in this video. (funky music)
(food sizzling) Guilherme, good morning.
- Yes, good morning! - Good morning, Rafaela,
how are you today? - Very nice, very good, thank you. - Awesome. Guilherme, nice to meet you, man. Guilherme, Guilherme. Awesome. We're gonna jump on motorbikes. Helmet on. All right, we're off! (speaking Spanish)
On our way. (funky music)
(horns beeping) You gotta
really hold on because
these hills are steep, man! What's amazing about favelas is that I mean, it is an entire community, so it's like an entire city within a city, within Rio de Janeiro. There's businesses,
there's everything here. (funky music)
(traffic rumbling) (horn beeps)
(funky music) That's steep, man!
(speaking Portuguese) That last bit was so steep I was sliding. How do I get this off? I was sliding off the motorbike. I have a new appreciation
for hills, they're so steep. Even just wa
lking around. Yeah, taking a motorbike is
a roller coaster experience and then walking around,
oh hello chickens, and walking around is, you get a workout. I think it's a community
jackfruit, they just split it open. All the motorbike drivers
are grabbing pieces and even people walking by
are just having a piece of it. Wow, that's very, very ripe. It's good, though, really, really sweet. - It's a pleasure to receive you guys. - Thank you so much, man. - I'm born and raised in this favela. This f
avela's the biggest favela in Rio. I mean, like in Brazil it's
a kind of city within city. There are 300,000 people living here, so. Welcome to my place, we're
gonna hang out together here. I'm gonna take you out to
some really nice places. We have a lot of stores,
restaurants, so food is what we have most here. I mean like a lot of food so
they experience of all that food being really nice.
- Awesome. Thank you for taking us around. - This is the most famous
cocina in the area. - Oh cool, it's
one of the
Brazilian snacks on the go that I haven't tried yet
that I'm very excited to try. (speaking Portuguese) It's in like a teardrop shape. I'm like impressed how heavy
it is, how dense it is. Like you think it's gonna
be like an airy pocket but that is dense. Do you normally eat it from
the top or any way you like? - From the bottom. - From the bottom?
- Yeah. - Okay. - It's, it's a personal choice. - Okay, he said from the bottom. - Actually for me
traditions from the bottom. - From the
bottom. Okay he says. - You'll eat all the
chicken first and then. - And then more bread on the top, okay. He's the expert, he said
eat it from the bottom. (gentle music) Oh yeah. That's amazing, hot sauce. The batter the outside wrapper's
made from casava flour. You can taste that it's kind of gummy. Kind of sticky and very starchy. The inside is a mix of
chicken, it tastes a little bit like tomato-y but mostly
just like shredded chicken that's just delicious, that's hearty, that is packed with
chicken. And Guilherme just came out
of nowhere with a bottle of hot sauce and drenched
my, drenched mine in it. Good with that hot sauce,
oh yeah that's spicy. That's like vinegary, that
like goes up your nose, that's amazing. Yeah this is some of the
cashew juice it comes in a set. Comes with a coxinha
and some of the juice. Oh nice, this is kaju,
kaju is the cashew fruit. That's the cashew fruit juice. Oh man that's amazing. Just slightly fermented
case, very, very fruit, very tropical. Not
too sweet. It's filling. It's so tasty, that's really good. So good man.
- Yeah thanks, appreciate it. - This place is called
Sabor da Roca, Roca. - Sabor da Roca.
- Sabor da Roca. They're so cool. When you are here check
them out, come have a snack. That was tasty. - So in the favela we have
only one main street, that one. It's called (speaking Portuguese). For the majority of people
live in little alleys. We have a lot of alleys right here. It's the most, the most
dangerous thing that could ha
ppen to you in the favela is to get lost. It's kind of a huge,
it's a kind of huge maze. - Most of the favelas, most
of the people live down side alleys which are only
walking, only walking space so we're just going down
a side alley right now. It's, what's amazing about a
favela is just the community and everybody knows each other so you, you know everyone that owns the shops, you know you have friends
all over the place. And so there's a trust
factor of everybody that knows each other. Little
barbershops,
little convenient stores. Steep staircases. You can get your pet food. You can get your tvs fixed
and your appliances fixed. And all within a walking
only little very small alley with power cords running
right above your head. Look at the art too. These are like all the
people's everything mixed. - So guys now we're gonna,
I'm gonna have a surprise for you. We're gonna visit a place
called Gate of Heaven. (speaking Portuguese) - 88 years old (speaking Portuguese). (funky music) You
step out onto the top
of his house onto a patio and it just overlooks
the entire valley Rocinha all the way down into the
valley, all the way to the sea with the mountains. It's like an amphitheater
and then you can see just a massive rock face to the left hand side and even more housing that goes up. If you look around at the
tops of the roofs you can see most houses, all houses have
these big blue water tanks. There are services in this community. There's electricity, there's
internet, there's
water but it's sporadic right? Sometimes it turns off,
sometimes it's not, sometimes it just doesn't work. So then people do store water. (funky music) We're on our way now to go find some food. But then in the next favela
that we go we've also arranged for some home cooking so
that's coming up as well. (food sizzling) His name is Anderson. He's the chef here, he's an amazing cook. He's friendly, he's so cool. (speaking Portuguese) Let me just give you
a quick little tour of this restaurant. He
does all the cooking
right here and it's literally like his home and then if
you come out the kitchen you've got the little
bar counter right here with the drinks in it
and a little bit cold, a little bit cold. And then you continue out
here, this is a little dining room section. There's four tables set up
and then if you go up these steps right here this
is literally the alley. And it's an amazing little spot. He's so friendly, the aroma of those beans and meat cooking just
like goes down the
alley. I don't know how you
could not stop when you're walking through here. (chatter) - Would you prefer here the
balcony or on the table? - Right, moving out. And they do have the indoor
section where you can sit but he does have this is like the VIP, this is the ultimate seating. Bar counter seating along the alley. He just sets the food
right in front of you. It's hot, it's fresh, it is
definitely cooked with love and like the, it smells delicious. Try some of that beef first. That beef rib.
Oh, it's beef rib right? - Yes. - It's so tender (speaks Portuguese). Look at that meat, the jiggliness of it. That's just like falling apart tender. (quiet music) Oh wow. Anderson, Anderson, (speaking Portuguese). Oh wow these ribs are amazing. Like they're so tender,
they just fall apart. That's just, it's
disintegrating in my tongue, on my tongue right now (laughs). Okay move into some of
those beans and rice. And there's a little bit
of like maybe like onions in there. (funky drum beat) I l
ove how beans are so common
in Brazil, I love beans. They're hearty, they're
nutritious, they're just good. Also I'm gonna add in
a little bit of that, that (speaking Spanish).
(funky drum beat) Mmm, mmm.
(funky music) The mix of starches but most
importantly that beef rib is absolutely incredibly tasty. He did just bring us another
plate of meat which is like beef maybe like sauteed in a pan. A little more like grizzly
texture to it but in a good kind of way. Just like salty, flavorful beef. Go
nna try some of that fatty, fatty piece. (chatter) Like it's all good but that combination, that beef rib, the tender
fattiness, will just melt in your mouth. You guys gonna head down there? How's the ribs man? - Amazing, really good. - It's so good right? - Yeah.
(funky music) - Oh the beef man.
(funky music) Followed by beans. Fantastic meal, I'm just
loving everything about this. (funky music) (speaking Spanish) (dog barking)
(chatter) From here we're walking back
down actually to the entranc
e where we took a motorbike
up but first we're gonna walk down. This is like underneath a
tree underneath a building underneath the highway or the road and it's just a little
tunnel back here taking some shortcuts I'm sure to get down. This goes for all of Rio De Janeiro and all of Brazil but
the murals, the wall art, the graffiti, it's spectacular
and it's so colorful. Definitely a faster route
than the road that has to go back and forth switchbacks
is just taking the staircase. (speaking Spani
sh)
(horns beeping) Back out onto the main street. This is the main street of Rocinha. Sushi bar.
(engines rumbling) Yeah yeah yeah, no. Man these amphitheater views
with the rocks and stones and mountains in the background wow. Oh and the sea. Just stopping in to buy some water. (speaking Portuguese) Awesome, awesome people. This is their store. It is just packed from
the roof to the pillars. Everything you could need. (speaking Portuguese) Have a great day. And we've just got some water. Thank
s man.
(speaking Portuguese) Here help. Tiny staircases leading to people's homes, little walkways, little pathways,
little like tiny spaces. And then all at once you emerge
back onto the main street. And then as you get to
the base of the Rocinha, to the base of the
mountain, the base of the, the community there's
just more and more shops, there's businesses, there's restaurants, there's supermarkets, all
services you could imagine are all down here. It was amazing to visit Rochina. Thanks so m
uch to Guilherme
for showing us around. That was great.
- My pleasure. - Meeting some of the
people, eating lunch, eating some food. Yeah, wow that was a learning experience and it was yeah, cool man. Thank you so much. (speaking Portuguese)
- See you next time. - See you next time man. Thank you.
(speaking Portuguese) We're on our way to another
favela which is kind of across town. - Yeah.
- The other side. - Yeah it's located downtown Rio called Morro Da Providencia.
- Morro Da Providencia. An
d it's another favela
where we're gonna meet a lady who's gonna home cook us a
meal and she's gonna cook what is one of the, it is
the national dish of Brazil. (funky music) We made it to a downtown area
and from here we're gonna jump into, it's called a
kombi, it's like an old Volkswagen van. Which is gonna take us up
the hill to the favela. Oh yeah. (engine rumbling) And we are off.
(funky music) Yeah.
(speaking Portuguese) Okay, we've reached the end of the route. Jump out here. Thanks man.
-
No problem. (funky music) - This is underneath an
abandoned or within an abandoned railcar kind of cable car station. She is gonna be cooking for us. But she also maybe has
a bar called Bar Da Jura and her name is Jura. (chatter) We're following Jura back to her house. So she owns that bar
underneath the abandoned railway station, cable car station. Now we're going up to her house. (kids babbling)
(chatter) (speaking Portuguese)
(laughter) Check out the Brazil logo, awesome. I think we made it
to the house. - Going upstairs to show her balcony. - Oh cool. - It's like a great view of the city. - Another room up here
on the second floor. (speaking Portuguese) You don't wanna fall down there. (funky drum beat) The view from up here like
180 degrees fantastic. And again just the construction
of the houses just going up the face of rocks, up
the face of the mountain. And even, yeah this house
is four stories high just because it goes up, it's so steep. (speaking Portuguese) Jura is gonna b
e making
a dish called feijoada which is, it is considered
one of the national dishes of Brazil. It's an ultimate dish, it's
an amazing hearty dish. And something I didn't know
before coming to Brazil is that feijoada is a
dish that's typically eaten on the weekend, Saturday
or Sunday because it's a heavy dish. It's a dish, it's one of those
dishes that you wanna eat and then take a nap after you eat it. So best reserved for the
weekend as a family meal. She's gonna get started now. (speaking Po
rtuguese)
Okay. (water splashing) This is a dish that includes very hearty, it includes beans, but
much more beans go in. (speaking Portuguese) Oh, cumin.
- Is that cumin? - Pork is a major, major part of feijoada but not just meat, but
all pieces of the pig. She added in all the different parts. There's, you see some of the leg parts, some of the hoof parts, some
of the probably the ears, the everything.
(food sizzling) (speaking Portuguese) So that bacon and then she
just added in some olive o
il is gonna be for the farofa which is gonna add some casaba flour powder to it. That's one of the staples of Brazil. (speaking Portuguese)
(food sizzling) And now she added in a whole
bag of the casaba flour powder, mixing that in, working it in. That is gonna be ultra flavorful. Farofa is ready. That smells delicious. She like just had to like
slowly stir it so it gets a little golden color without burning. Her incredible cooking
expertise, she's a master. (speaking Portuguese)
Awesome. (speak
ing Portuguese) Getting a taste test of the farofa. (chatter)
(food sizzling) Oh yeah, oh it is hot. It's crispy, it's so flavorful, and that pork fat and the bacon. Another dish that she's
gonna be making is nhoque. It's called nhoque.
- Yeah nhoque. Gnocchi, shrimp gnocchi. - It's gnocchi with shrimp
which is one of her specialties. Potato noodles. For the shrimp she mixed in garlic, there's a little bit of cumin,
vinegar, and lime juice. (speaking Portuguese) (laughs)
(speaking Portuguese) An
d then into the potato
went two eggs and some flour and that's looking more
like a, like a dough. Okay for the feijoada pot she added in, she took off the cover,
she added in the ribs and the sausage. Put the cover back on,
now it's gonna cook more. This is some of the pork
crackling that she fried up. Marinated again in some
vinegar, a little bit of cumin and garlic. And she wants us to taste it. Oh, I bet you can hear that
crunch on the microphone. Wow.
(speaking Portuguese) Oh it's so crispy.
The crispiness of that skin,
that fattiness of that meat, the flavor.
(speaking Portuguese) She just hooked us up with
a couple spoons of chili directly onto the crispy pork. What a brilliant idea.
(funky drum beat) Oh wow, a world class snack, oh with that spicy vinegary sauce. Now she wants us to
taste it with the farofa, like dinner has not even,
the meal has not even begun but we're just like snacking
on the different ingredients. She, she wants us to and there's
no way I can say no to it.
(funky drum beat) Oh, that combination. Oh, Jura.
(speaking Portuguese) The sun is going down
but she is still cooking. The aroma of the food is incredible. It should be ready pretty
soon but just take a moment to appreciate, enjoy this view. An amazing city. The people we've come across
and the food we've had, this is gonna be like one
of the greatest meals ever in Brazil right now. (funky drum beat) Finally she's squeezing
that potato batter through the press and chopping
it off to form the li
ttle bit sized gnocchi little bits. I've eaten gnocchi many many
times, never seen it made. This is my first time. (speaking Portuguese)
- Garlic. - For the sauce for the gnocchi which is, it's gonna be a shrimp sauce
but she added in onions, then in some tomatoes and green peppers, then some tomato paste,
then some coconut milk, so it's really gonna
be Italian, Brazilian, but Jura's own style.
(speaking Portuguese) Then the shrimp goes into the
sauce, that's gonna be rich, that's gonna be thick
,
thickened with the coconut cream and that's gonna be
eaten with the gnocchi. How much it comes from
her, how much she loves it. She even dances when she's
cooking, she is amazing, an amazing lady. That is amazing.
(speaking Portuguese) (laughing) Oh wow, she is taking
care of us like a mother. (speaking Portuguese) (laughing) No idea what dance that is. - No she was like is everything fine? (food sizzling)
(speaking Portuguese) - Oh wow. (food sizzling) Then finally she also
sweats down some k
ale, sweats down some garlic,
and some kale to go with the feijoada. In order to honor both the
dishes we're gonna begin only with the gnocchi so that
we don't mix the two. 'Cause they're almost like
two full separate meals she's prepared for us. The gnocchi with the (speaking Portuguese). That's her like signature
dish that she's known for. But then the feijoada,
she just knows how to cook everything expertly. Oh that is stunning. Like Brazilian, Italian, home cooking. You can taste the coconut
milk in there. Taste the tomatoes and
peppers simmered down. The gnocchi just melts in your mouth. And then the little like mussel-y
shrimp insanely delicious. (speaking Portuguese) That is just marvelous
in every single way. (funky drum beat) That gnocchi, unbelievable. Finished my plate of
gnocchi before moving on to the feijoada. (speaking Portuguese) It's just incredible. (speaking Portuguese)
(funky music) She just might be the coolest
lady in all of Brazil. Everything is falling off
the b
one, it's that tender. All of the fat and then she
separates the meat with the juices and the beans and
then she did a beautiful, beautiful feijoada dance for us. Shaking, shaking the meat
and you could just see it wiggling, oh wiggling meat. That cannot get better than wiggling meat. (speaking Portuguese) There's nobody who could
make a better single plate of the feijoada than Jura so we asked her to make a plate. Added everything perfect
with a selection of all the different pork, the ribs,
th
e ears, the, the feet, the gelatin-y bits, all things
included with the beans, with the rice, with the
kale, with the farofa, with the pork crackling. Meal cooked form the heart. I gotta begin with these like, I gotta begin with those beans. The gelatin in the, oh
man what is that little, what is that little tube? (funky music) Oh wow, that is like the
most fall apart tender pig. The beans, the starchy beans,
the farofa which has that like crunchy starchiness to it. The farofa is so good,
it's s
o like crispy. It's like bread crumbs
almost, like a casaba. With that bacon, everything
tastes like bacon. Oh yes. Moving on let's try
another piece of this pork. You don't even need a knife, look at that. These like bits of meat
just like look at this. With some of the crispy pork
with some of the chilies with. Oh man, it's almost too good to be true. (funky music) It's unbelievable, and what's
amazing is also the different parts of the pig because all
of them have different tastes, textures,
all of them have
different like jelly-ness feels to them. The, the fattiness content,
the porkiness, the beans. The most beautiful plates. (speaking Portuguese) That's a jelly fatty piece. (funky music) It's stunning. The only thing I might do.
(speaking Spanish) I'm gonna re-juice, I'm gonna re-bean it. And these beans are like
literally like liquid pork. Drench everything in bean
juice 'cause it's actually like a liquid pork. Oh, wow, that's unbelievable. (speaking Portuguese) Dude, that is he
avenly bean
juice 'cause all of those oils, all of the collagen has
just come out of the pork into the bean juice. Oh dude, like, I was like
biting down way harder than I needed to. I did not need to give it
that much effort (laughs). It just slides off the bone. We have say a massive
(speaking Portuguese) to the, to the chefs Jura and Eliana. - How'd you like it? - It was just stunning beyond belief. (speaking Portuguese) It's beyond like, this is
home cooking beyond belief. Like more comfortin
g, more
comforting than you could possibly imagine. (chatter)
(funky music) That rib!
(funky music) I am sweating from that feijoada. I am so happy, I am just
like that was a hearty, incredible meal where every
single bite was just cooked with passion and love. It was such a good meal
in such a beautiful place. I cannot even like, I just
thank you from the bottom of my heart to Jura and
Eliana for cooking that incredible home cooked meal here. That was just spectacular. And so we have come to
th
e end of the this favela food tour of Rio De Janeiro. And I mean it was just one
day, it was just a taste of the, the life in the favela. And learning about the favelas of Rio. But again favelas, they
don't get a good reputation and they, I mean they definitely
are the center of where a lot of crime takes place
and where a lot of organized crime happens in Rio, in Brazil. But that is by not even
close to the majority of the people that live in the favelas, that call the favelas home. I'm happy t
hat we were able
to show a positive side. People making a difference
and this is an experience that I'll remember for the rest of my life and it was a privilege
to have a chance to visit both of these favelas today. I don't even know if I can
make it out of this favela though after that meal. I might need to spend the night here. Oh man, okay. But that's it, big thank
you to Guilherme and Rafa from Rio4Run, Rio4Food. They run tours, they're cool,
they make videos as well. I'll have their links
i
n the description box. Again everything we did as well. And man, what a day in Rio. We're gonna also be
traveling all around Brazil. So I'll leave the link in the
description box but you can check out all the videos. If you're not already subscribed subscribe then click the little bell
icon so that you get notified of the next video that
I publish but then watch the entire Brazil series. We're learning so much about Brazil. Traveling around Brazil,
eating the different food, the diversity of Bra
zil will just, it will blow you away. Brazil is amazing. Check out all the videos. Thanks again for watching. Good night from Rio De Janeiro. See you on the next video. Thanks again for watching.
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