Whether out of boredom or a desire to please you, yesterday I went to the Mercado Municipal again to explore it better. And guess what! I found that bar where I’d had my heavenly pasteis. It’s called Hocca Bar. So now you know the secret. Save this information for some time in the future when you don’t know where to go for your holidays and you decide to follow my track. Also, I found that the market only gets ridiculously crowded on Saturdays. During the week it’s a completely different experience; I could actually see/smell/touch what they were selling at the stalls and even take a few photos. So here we go:
Don't let this photo fool you, these were not just ordinary prawns.
They were XXXX-large, the size of your palm, to be precise.
The area near the market is known for cheap shopping, especially Rua 25 de Março. I was hoping to get some affordable summer clothes. Wrong. 99% of shops (roughly calculated) in the area sell jewellery, or carnival costumes, masks and all sorts of trinkets. The closest I came to clothes was a lingerie shop, tucked somewhere in between the glaring samba outfits and huge Chinese bags. Actually “lingerie” is an overstatement. There were rows of racks with plain knickers, briefs and thongs with prices exceeding Oxford Street best. Cheap they said, hey? A petite shop assistant beamed her forced smile at me as I crossed the door, offering help. It’s normal in Brazil to be assisted by an overly friendly employee, who typically gives you a card or a slip of paper with their name so that you can call them at will, and then another less friendly one when you want to pay so that you can collect what you chose from the first one. Complicated? Well, I didn’t feel like I needed anyone’s help choosing my underwear, so when I saw Denise, Daniele or whatever her name was, approaching me again, I hurried to the door. Some cultural differences take time to get used to...
