Lunch on the Beach in Florianopolis, BR

It was nothing gastronomically amazing. Just a plate of deep fried shrimp with a big glass of icy cold mango juice. It hit the spot in a really simple satisfying way after a morning on the beach. The sauce served with it was something like thousand island dressing with cilantro. Thought you food pornographers would enjoy the simplicity of it all.

Will,

You captured on film, what I hope to be living in a few weeks in Jamaica.

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip,

trixie

I might be on my way here in a few weeks. Is there anything I need to know about 'em floripa'? Ostras, Lula, Frutos Do Mar, Cao Quentes, Mercado Municipal, Salgados, Lanchonetes?

Part 1: Centro


The Mercado Municipal is the culinary landmark of the Centro Historico, and its brilliant architecture and huge open dining area make it a must for tourists. The market once abutted the water, but in decades past the area to the south was filled with land to hold two giant bus stations and a busy highway. The Centro neighborhood developed as a trading area at the closest point to the mainland of Brazil, and the historic Customs House/Alfândega next door is filled with local arts and crafts inspired by the Azorean heritage of the locals. Fish are trucked in from the small villages around the island where small fishing and oystering operations continue. The oddest thing about the market is that only half of it is dedicated to food. One hallway has fishmongers, butchers, a spice store, and a tourist restaurant. There were a couple lanchonete places but none looked like anything special, and half the market along with the surrounding buildings were dedicated to shoes and clothing. The Mercado Publico was more impressive as an edifice than as a food market and its survived a couple fires in its history.
Garoupa:

Ostras:


Butcher shop counter:

Spice shop Emporio Mania da Ilha:

Dried meats stall outside:



Central do Café is a small coffee shop on the edge of the historic part of downtown and it looked like a nice place to stop in for a Salgado, a savory pastry. This chicken and cheese stuffed thing wasn't any good, but I liked the old building stuck in between tacky skyscrapers. Served with ketchup and mustard.

Salgado de Frango:




Pastels are in no shortage in Floripa, with multiple chains of small hole in the wall locations. Each with their own giant deep fryer to bring these things to the people with as much hot oil fried into the giant surface area as possible. Keko is one of the leaders, but at least three other chains have up to ten locations each on the island. My eyes lead me to a shrimp and cheese pastel, and the tiny shrimp inside were swimming in some yellow salty stuff.

Pastel de Camarão e Queijo






Mercado Municipal
Rua Conselheiro Mafra

Central do Café
Rua Vidal Ramos, 174

Keko
Rua Anita Garibaldi, 30 - loja 6

Part 2: Centro and Lagoa



O Padeiro de Sevilha translates to The Baker of Seville, is a self service bakery with brazillian and european goodies with a coffee shop and table service. The banana bread had caramelized bananas on top, the asiago pão de queijo was blissful and crunchy on the outside, apple crumble was good, the flakey chicken and cheese pastry at the end was perfect for an early morning snack. The eye catching exterior was done by a local street artist, and the walls covering buildings all over town are decorated with this kind of work which is embraced so much that it ceases to be graffiti but is accepted and appreciated by locals.



The artist is named SAN and his work can be seen around town:

https://www.facebook.com/gabrielfloripa?fref=ts



Sanduíches Mafalda serves what is known in Buenos Aires as a Sanduíche de Miga, a cold three layer lunch sandwich on special Miga bread with the crust cut off. Mafalda has been serving these in the same location for three decades in a small space dedicated to an Argentinean cartoon character whose cartoon strip ended in 1973. Its worth reading up about Mafalda and her campaign for human rights in Latin America. The space was cutely decorated with cartoons and other images of Mafalda. The experience was nice with the service of a friendly old lady showing me the drink selection from an old refrigerator.

Sliced ham, egg, tomato, lettuce, mayo sandwich:

I went with Antarctica Guarana Champagne Dietetica:




The Centro neighborhood was nice, but the rest of the island is where the visitors stay, in several village communities up and down the island. The neighborhood of Lagoa da Conceição is like the downtown of the eastern part of the island. This is where you find night clubs filled with tourists and the services and foods dedicated to that market. Its just a short drive or a long walk to some unspoilt sections of the island.



This Crepelito stand was run by an old man who wheeled it in front of a 24 hour pharmacy in a busy pedestrian area, it was my first taste of the increasingly misnamed crepe culture in Brazil. The weird dough mixture was put into a strange pressing heating contraption with spaces for three fillings, barely resembling any kind of crepe I was familiar with. Every crepelito on the menu was R6.00 and the savory ones had no shortage of melty cheese and crunchy dough. I went with a ham and cheese crepe dusted with oregano:


Late night "mini pizza" service in parking lot under giant billboard. The Linguiça Calabresa and Onion pizza was served up on a little table for R8.00:




Ilha Pastel is another local chan of Pastel shops, and serves the cachorro quente along with a large selection of filled pastels deep fried to order. The cheapest filling is just listed as "carne" and is just ground beef. The oil on the surface just bleeds through the packaging and turns the bag translucent:




O Padeiro de Sevilha
R. Esteves Júnior, 214
http://www.opadeirodesevilha.com.br/

Sanduíches Mafalda
Rua José Jacques 4 (quase esquina com Hercílio Luz)

Crepelito Guy
Rua Henrique Veras do Nascimento, Lagoa da Conceição

"Delicious Mini Pizzas"
Avenida Afonso Delambert Neto, Lagoa da Conceição

Ilha Pastel
Avenida Afonso Delambert Neto, Lagoa da Conceição

Coming soon: gratuitous beach food and more....

Each praia had several Quiosques set up selling everything from rentals of chairs and sun shades to soft drinks and pastels.

What the locals refer to as Milho Verde, on the beach at Praia Mole:



água de coco gelado at Praia Jurerê Internacional:





Jurerê Internacional is the most luxurious beach development with an open air shopping mall and condominium towers right next to mansions and streets filled with sports cars. I had to use this opportunity to try out what is called a Suco, or juice place near the beach. Every suco will list dozens of juices and mixes from fresh squeezed fruit or frozen pulp mixture. Deguste Jurerê served up the tigela de acai (mixed with guarana paste to sweeten) topped with banana and granola for R14.00






The Lagoa da Conceição forms a freshwater lake in the center of the island, and the edges of the water are dotted with tiny communities of lower income Floripans. I assume they work in the local fishing industry, and the villages are only accessible by foot or by boat. I thought I was going to take a leisurely stroll along the side of a lake when I followed a map to the start of a trail. It turned out to be a brutal two miles up and down hillsides of bare rock and muddy paths filled with mosquitoes and climbing past waterfalls, through villages, past ruined old buildings and an archaeological site around and old flour mill. The trail goes past several seafood restaurants where nearly all the smarter patrons arrive by boat. Restaurante Bela Ilha was the first and I admitted defeat and returned by the trail after eating here.
porção camarão de óleo e alho:


It was a busy day on the lagoon:



Deguste Jurerê
Av. dos Salmões, 754, Jurerê Internacional

Restaurante Bela Ilha
Rua Geral Costa da Lagoa
Ponto 13 Lagoa da Conceição
Canto dos Araçás

Is there a thread about Rio De Janeiro or Curitiba? I have boatloads of photos to share?

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Postscript: São Francisco do Sul



São Francisco do Sul is not a big town, its not in every guide book, it isn't easy to get to, there just isn't much here and its far from the main attractions along the coast. Its on an island in a bay and the naval fortress has been looking over things from here for as long as anywhere in Brazil. Its the third oldest town in the country, but small enough to fit on one tiny postcard image.



The Mercado was not very big but every space was filled with one restaurant, one lanchonete, a couple butchers, a grocery, and a fishmonger. There is a space for boats to load up the catch beside the market, everything is close to the water. This market didn't have any clothing or electronics vendors inside, just food.
The fish in the logo were a nice touch.

Butcher shop window:





The bakery was the only place open when I was here, and there were only a few restaurants in town anyway so I don't feel like I missed much. Panificadora São Francisco has been operating here serving up baked goodies for forty years. I saw a Banana Farofa tart with some other fruit thrown in to add a purple layer, and a maracujá (passionfruit) tart looked good as well. The farofa makes a good crumble topping, but I can't remember the other fruit inside.




Bakery on one side, public market on the other, this was a large part of the town in one picture from the pier with a single boat tied to it:



Mercado Municipal
Rua Babitonga, s/n° - Centro Histórico

Panificadora São Francisco
Rua Babitonga, 89 - Centro Histórico
http://www.panificadorasaofrancisco.com.br/index.php