- 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 stalls,
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 walking 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 favela'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 happen
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 love 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.
Gonna 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 entrance
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 Spanish) (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.
Thanks 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 much 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.
And 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 be 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 Portuguese) 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 oil
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.
(speaking 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)
And 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 little
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 kale,
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 bone, 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, the 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 so 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 heavenly 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 comforting, 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 the 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 that 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 in 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 Brazil 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.