Cheese + tapioca flour = deliciousness

We've started "Sunday Funday" which pretty much means a lazy Sunday at someone's apartment and copious amounts of food. Vonatron (this is your new name now on my blog) donated her apartment this time. Last time she tried to make Pao de Queijo but apparently it failed. This time I tried my hand at it. I used a different recipe (pretty much the most basic one I could find) and they came out totally legit. At first I was super worried when I was trying to beat in the tapioca flour since it was really hard to incorporate it (also made a huge mess). But in the end it all worked out and after reading the recipe reviews, it seems that I could've done half butter, half oil and also upped the amount of tapioca flour in the recipe. The dough is extremely sticky, so I kinda just plopped down chunks of dough onto a baking sheet. We had made some bacon in the oven so I just reused the bacon fat greased baking sheet.

End results: delicious.

Pao de Queijo

adapted from food.com

2 cups tapioca flour

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter*

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese**

2  large eggs

Preheat oven to 400F

Bring the milk, salt and butter to a boil and then remove from heat. Make sure not the burn the milk.

Slowly add the tapioca flour, constantly stirring with a wooden spoon until incorporated. It might take a while but it will work. You can add up to 1/2 cup more of tapioca flour if you want to be able to form actual balls at the end.

Next add the two eggs, one at a time, followed by the cheese. Stir until everything is incorporated. If the dough is not too sticky, you can knead it. I didn't and it was fine.

Make balls or drop lumps (this is what I did) onto a well greased baking sheet and sprinkle with some more cheese. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until lightly golden brown on top. Eat while still hot!

* You can apparently substitute half the butter with oil as this is more traditional

** Some reviews also said that you should substitute half the Parmesan with a softer fresh cheese, like queso fresco for more moisture but you can probably use any kind of cheese

Glorified ham and cheese

They say there are so many different types of cheeses in France that if you eat a different one each day for a full year, you still won't have tried all of them. You'd have 35 more days to go, at least. And so, during lunch, instead of getting St. Nectaire, which I've tried before (one of my coworkers said its too smelly thereby I deduct that I am more French than him), I got Cantal on my sandwich. And apparently, Cantal is made from milk from cows that feed on hay in the winter months in the Auverge region in France. You know what happens to the milk from those same cows when they feed on grass in the summer? It's made into a different cheese! That one is called Salers. Genius!

And so, the point of my story is that I had the most delicious sandwich today. Ham and cheese. But waaaaay glorified because the baguette was from Julien which is a somewhat famous bakery in Paris (it won best baguette a few times), and the ham was jambon de pays, which is a thicker, less salty but more intense prosciutto, and the Cantal cheese which has a mild flavor but the texture of butter that has been slightly softened and can barely be spread on bread. Oh, and it also had some butter on it. IT WAS SO GOOD. And huge. I ate a whole baguette for lunch. And then a salted butter caramel tiramisu from Kaiser. Oh gosh....

Update: Apparently this place (Le Petit Vendome) really does have some of the best sandwiches in Paris according to various internet sources. I even got the right combination! +1 pour moi!

Pão de Queijo Taste-off

I sampled several pão de queijo (its pronounced KAY-zhow, not KAY-ho) over my last few days, taking a bite of each right when I got them, as they are best eaten fresh and hot (they get stale really fast, I mean imagine congealed melted cheese….not pretty). And so, I present, the results:

The Restaurant Pão: A Figueira Rubaiyat

This is the plate of pão I got as part of the couvert at A Figueira Rubaiyat. They tasted very fresh, but the condensation from the hot bread and the plate made the bottom of the pão wet (not very pleasant). Actually, the small ones were ok. The big ones however were insanely good. I’m not sure what they were as they were completely hollow inside and only the shell had that chewy texture. Maybe not true pão de queijo but wow, those big ones are awesome.

The Institution Pão: Haddock Lobo

There were a lot of articles on the walls of this little storefront on Haddock Lobo between Oscar Freire and Lorena streets. I only looked it up after I got back to my room, but apparently, this is the best pão in all of Sao Paulo, some even say the country! So good thing I stumbled upon it. The place is has been an institution since it opened in 1968 and they put out a fresh batch of bread every 15 minutes, keeping them in a wicker basket covered with a cloth towel (how cute and old school). I bit into the warm pão to reveal a soft, chew interior. I really liked how they didn’t look uniform, but were kind of a big pão attached to a smaller pão. Unfortunately, someone dumped an entire container of salt into the batter and it tasted like I had just licked the top of a salt shaker, although the texture seemed there: a nice warm gummy inside that isn’t too soft nor too fluffy, and a nice, crispy outer shell.

I had them again the day I went to the MASP. This time they were hot out of the oven, so hot I couldn’t hold it in my hand and had to use a napkin to eat it. Same chewy, gummy interior, way less salty but I think overall, still a little salty for me. Darn that rogue salt shaker...

The Chain Pão: Casa do Pão de Queijo

See the bag? They put a picture of a grandmother (apparently the mother of the founder) on it, making you think that the pão you are eating is like your granny used to make. Well my granny never made something that tasted underbaked on the inside, and smooth cardboard on the outside. Better than the mini pão I had gotten there previously, but I don’t understand what’s with the industrially smooth outer crust, whose texture reminds me of those satellite wafer candies that I think I had once and spat out. Plus the inside, while fluffy, was too gummy, almost to the point of raw dough. Grandma never did this.

The McDonalds Pão:

Even at McDonalds they give you pão! It’s on the menu in their McCafe. Its actually not too bad, except that its not fresh out of the oven (they microwave it) and it has some kind of flour coating that comes off a little bit. It also didn’t look like the other pão I’ve had, you could see bits of cheese on the outside, but I liked how even though the shape was uniform, the outside was a little bumpy, making it texturally more interesting. 

The Starbucks Pão:

The taste of this was spot on in my opinion. Not too salty, not to sweet. Unfortunately, its not poofy enough! What kind of pao isn't poofy?! Way too dense making me feel like I was eating a brick. Also I don't like how it had little raised dots on the bottom, reminds me that its commercially produced. 

The Supermarket Pão:

This is apparently a chupa de queijo (or something like that). Whatever, its still queijo pao. And even if it doesn't taste that great (it tasted better heated up in the microwave), I'll still eat it. Warm or cold. 

Conclusion
My favorite was the restaurant pao (the larger ones) that weren't even real pao. After that, probably Starbucks for the taste (blasphemy, I know) and Haddock Lobo for the texture. McDonald's had the weird coating I didn't like and the chain pao was meh. And the supermarket one wasn't even a real one but I'm a fattie and I eat everything in front of me. But thats not my conclusion. My conclusion is that I think you should eat as many pao as you can if you're ever in Brazil. Don't worry about your tummy, it'll be fine. And even if its not, its worth it. Damage done? +3lbs.

Pão de Queijo

Each morning (as long as I wake up early enough), I get to eat Brazilian cheese bread for breakfast! I love it, its so good and chewy. Apparently its because its made with manioc flour (cassava / yucca). So far, the best cheese pão (hah, that sounds funny, pronounce it!) I had was at a restaurant next to the hotel, but that’s not saying much. There’s also a chain called Casa do Pão de Queijo but they totally disappointed!

I might give them another chance though, but even the supermarket bakery’s pão that I had tonight was better…or perhaps I will have to do a cheese bread taste-off post before I leave!

Also, if you are going to join my tentative NYE party (by tentative, I mean it isn't 100% planned yet, but it will happen), prepare to eat this for dessert:

Yes, all of it is going in my suitcase back to the U.S. and I will be hoping it doesn’t get crushed. Maybe I should put everything in my carry-on.

And, on a side note, I only have two free days (this weekend) and so much stuff I still want to do and places to eat! There are three restaurants I want to go to, all of which would have heavy food (one is a traditional feijoda restaurant, another is a steakhouse, and the last is a traditional brazilian with a modern twist). And on top of that, I still have to go to the park, to buy my mama Havaianas, to go to Avenue Paulista just to check it out, and lounge by the pool because I brought three bathing suits. Well, if I have to look not so great in my bathing suit while I lounge by the pool on Sunday, so be it! Food comes first!