Eating our way through São Paulo

All you can eat sushi!

Sprawling São Paulo does not boast the spotless beaches or stunning vistas of its coastal neighbour Rio de Janeiro, but it has a style and finesse that makes it worth visiting this non-stop metropolis. The city's attractions are not always obvious on first glance – you have to look more closely to discover its gems.

It is highly recommended to arrive in São Paulo with an empty stomach and pack a big appetite. This mega-city is absolutely bursting with places to eat, from neighbourhood grocery stores called lanchonetes to pizza parlours, French bistros and sushi bars. There are also 24-hour bakeries where you can have sit down buffets or hamburgers, pizzas and enormous sandwiches made to offer at any hour of the day. We went into one at 3am and ordered massive roast beef sandwiches with rocket, cheese and pineapple, and the place was packed with people of all ages doing the same, like it was a completely normal thing to do!

The secret behind São Paulo’s amazing gastronomy is its cultural diversity – it is the biggest, most multicultural city in Brazil. Its divine Japanese cuisine is thanks to the biggest Japanese community living outside of Japan. Besides offering amazing foreign cuisine, São Paulo has also taken traditional Brazilian favourites, such as rodizio or buffet, churrasco meat barbeques and chopp or draft beer and perfected them. The city is also awash with traditional Portuguese botequim bars which sell ice-cold beer, caipirinhas and snacks such as cod ball croquettes and meat sandwiches.

Teatro Nacional

São Paulo isn’t a mecca for sightseeing – it does have a couple of museums and cathedrals to gawk at, but its historical centre of town is quite run down, having been neglected in previous generations. Work is being done to improve the areas around Praça da Sé and Praça da Republica, in between which the beautifully domed Teatro Nacional sits.

The centre of town is quite a weird place because it is such a hotchpotch of different architectural styles. You’ll find a row of Parisian-style apartments next to a dull grey 70s-style throw up with tiny windows and no balconies. It seems as if the city was built with little to no planning in mind – unlike other mega-cities there are no grand avenues or colonial quarters, and hardly any big parks or public spaces.

The city’s central market, Mercado Municipal, is freakishly clean and organised compared to other Latin American markets. Fruit stalls are neatly stacked, butcher stalls have meat sealed in chilled sections behind glass cabinets and there is a restaurant-style eating area in a mezzanine level food court. Downstairs we found an amazing lanchonete or sandwich shop selling the most amazing variety of pasteis, which look like very large pasties stuffed with various combinations of meat, chicken, fish and gooey catupiri cheese, a runny white concoction that looks like liquefied Laughing Cow cheese.

Tall buildings dominate the skyline in every direction – from the centre it looks like most of the city’s 20 million residents live in vertical villages and work in office towers. True, São Paulo is the industrial and financial engine of Brazil, being its centre of manufacturing, automotive, high-tech and luxury goods industries. But its world-class restaurants, metro system and freeways mask another side to the city which is safely tucked away from tourists’ eyes. While there are many wealthy people living here, there are also millions living in slums away from the big end of town, and its high crime rate is a persistent problem.

Just south of the centre, skyscraper-lined Avenida Paulistana is São Paulo’s commercial and financial hub. Further out from this, and easily accessible on the city’s fabulous metro system, are a bunch of trendy bohemian neighbourhoods where locals congregate to eat, shop, party and stare at artworks. The concrete-clad urban environment is made more interesting by the amazing array of street art and murals on just about every street corner.

Vila Madalena is an artsy, upmarket neighbourhood a few kilometres from the centre. Its main intersection is packed with huge pub-style restaurants. Quieter side streets play host to an interesting collection of art galleries, quirky clothes shops and fancy restaurants. On Saturdays the area comes alive with markets – fruit sellers take over the main drag Rua Mourato, selling all types of fresh produce, including cheese, olives and nuts.

Film projectors and old dial phones for sale

A few streets away, past rows of antique furniture stores and the imposing family tombs in the São Paulo cemetery, there is a giant antiques fair. We spotted an amazing variety of goods on offer here, to action figurines of Astro Boy, Bananas in Pyjamas and other 80s favourites to old Brazilian vinyl records, film projectors, army helmets, swiss army knives and even a rocket launcher!

The antiques on display were impressive – entire sets of polished silverware, napkin rings, trifle servers and sherry glasses, as if every Nana’s house in the whole city had been raided and put up for sale. There were also more modern items you would expect to find at markets such as jewellery, quirky artworks, baby clothes and fresh flowers.

One of the many things we couldn’t leave Brazil without trying is its national dish, Feijoada. This delicacy is a bean stew with assorted cuts of pork, including ribs, fillet, sausage and optionally, ears and various piggy insides. It is served in a giant bubbling cauldron, and accompanied by rice, spinach, crunchy fried crackling and this strange powdered cassava stuff called farofa which is sprinkled over top and used to thicken up the sauce. The stew has this amazing smoky pork flavour, and the meat falls right off the bones.

Crowds gather outside Consulado Mineiro waiting for a table

We were instructed to head to Consulado Mineiro, a Brazilian culinary institution located right opposite the markets. It was overflowing with people drinking on the pavement, waiting for a table. We had to wait an hour but decided it was worth it. It helped that we could order beers and drink them on the sun-drenched pavement. An order for two costs 60 reals ($35), and is absolutely enormous. It could easily have fed a family of four. Nevertheless we were prepared for the challenge and arrived for the task with totally empty stomachs. We nearly managed to polish off the entire stew, but there was still plenty of rice left. It was so filling that we had trouble walking home, and had to lie down for a siesta shortly afterwards. We didn’t need to eat anything  for the next 24 hours!

We had intended to check out more live music and clubs in São Paulo, but we were a little put off the first night when we went to a restaurant that had a band playing (sitting down at one of the tables) and we were automatically charged a cover charge without being told – it just showed up later on the bill.

Feijoada food coma

Fortunately Casa Club, the hostel where we stayed, had it all worked out for us – they had a different live band on every night, and sold ice buckets packed with beers in them for under $10. There was a great banjo-toting funk band on the Saturday night that played a bunch of Brazilian favourites before switching to covers of popular music later on in the night.

Casa Club’s bar was really popular with the locals, and was packed out every night. The locals were super-friendly and always eager to chat – and practise their English. Everyone in the city we encountered were very nice, and went out of their way to help us, even if they didn’t speak English. We were lost in the city with our map out (ok, and kind of arguing about which direction to walk in), when a guy stopped to help us, gave us directions and even walked part of the way down the street to make sure we were going the right way!