If you’re from São Paulo, you’ve probably heard of those guys. They’re five partners. A girl ruling among four dudes. Either you’ve heard of or you’ve probably been to one of their locations: Chez MIS, Chez Lorena, Casa Nero or Bar Secreto.

I lost count of how many times I’ve been to both Chez. It’s the same menu (I love it!) and every time I’m in São Paulo I’ll make time to go and have the best breaded steak with dijon mustard + sweet potato I’ve ever tried. So good…

Then I heard they closed the Lorena location (called Chez Lorena for a reason! ;)). I felt so bad. It's the one I used to go the most. Lunchtime meetings or clericot with my girlfriends by the end of the day. I loved it. And they closed.

But they soon opened a new location. Much bigger and even more beautiful than the first two ones. Chez Oscar!

The building is all made of glass and overlooks the street. There are five floors, I think. I only went up to second. Didn’t explore much. But they have a café, restaurant, rooftop, two bars, tables on the sidewalk, a salon that turns into a nightclub, a delightful balcony… A friend of mine celebrated her birthday there (I missed it! I was in Rio!) and loved it. The options are endless!

I have to go back and explore it better. I was on a rush for a meeting. I left really late so I wasn’t able to take the tour. But I had enough time to fall in love with the place. So, so beautiful. Really charming. Super cool.

I’m a sucker for their menu. Big time. There are two dishes I love. I dream about them. My mouth waters just from writing about them… There’s the breaded steak I mentioned in the beginning of the post and an out-of- this-world gnocchi, which I always get one of my companions to order so I can have a bite! Check it out:

Loved it! Meets the high standards of the other locations. I had some amazing food. The hottest spot in São Paulo right now, hands down. For a date or a night out with friends. To see and be seen. Or just sit anonymously on the corner of the room. Have some great food. Great drinks. Great everything! So, GO! It’s a must-go. Go!

Can’t wait to go back!

Approximately a month ago, Rio de Janeiro got a new spot for those who swear by some green juice! And even I, president of the condensed milk fan club and best friends with a nice portion of fries, went to check it out. After all, I’m always thinking about my health and I enjoy eating some healthy stuff.

Just because I don’t deprive myself of my favorite treats, it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy taking care of myself. Having some good food. Whole food. To nourish my body.

So, off I went! I LOVE getting to know new restaurants, so I was pretty curious about this one. I took a leap of faith and tried it!

There are four partners. Actors Reynaldo Gianecchini and Giovanna Antonelli, along with Andrea Henrique (owner of Detox in Box) and Anisia Paula Henrique. According to their instagram accounts, they’re four human beings who always looked for innovation, good food and health. Giovanna, who already knew Andrea, invited Giane to join them! And that’s how Pomar Orgânico was born.

It’s not 100% organic, 100% vegan, or even 100% vegetarian. It’s a bit of all that. The concept is to create dishes from organic ingredients, free from animal fat, dairy, gluten, colorants, conservatives, canned or processed foods or animal protein. Everything was thought to make ours bodies work better.

O.k. It all sounds great, but let’s get down to business, right? The good food part. We are pretty aware that it’s all very healthy (thanks!). That’s interesting. Then it’s time to try and test it. We were a group of three, so we picked one dish each to try a bit of everything and cross some of the menu items off.

We ordered the chips for starters. Pretty good. Tasty. As the main dish, I ordered the peach palm fettuccine, from which the really nice girl who waited our table said I would be able to taste the intense flavor of truffles. And I have to say I wasn’t very happy… The pasta didn’t taste like anything. I poured some olive oil, salt, and it still didn’t work out well. Couldn’t taste the truffles either (o.k., I’ll cut it some slack since I’m not used to all that #childspalate).

I tried the risotto (almost ordered this one!) but it didn’t get to me either. The burger, though, was awesome. I had almost half of my friend’s dish. It was veeery good. Tasty. Should have gone for that…

Among the juices, my favorite was pineapple and ginger. Yep, also tried everyone else’s! Since I had to write about it for you, I’d better do my homework!

For dessert, tiramissù. I’m not very keen of actual tiramissù. Let alone the green juice version… Tastes like nothing.

I do have a child’s palate. Enjoy some heavy seasoning. So Pomar, to me, is much more about trying a new place, full of cool people, super charming (they say it’s amazing at night, candle lights and all, and they have the only organic wine menu in Rio!) that about food.

Good getting to know it, though!

Pomar Orgânico – Shopping Itanhangá Center

Estrada da Barra, Itanhangá/Rio de janeiro

Phone: 55 21 24946745

Lazy Saturday at home, so I decided to go after a movie I missed on theaters. I heard only great things about it. It got the Palme d’Or in Cannes (not only the director but both actresses as well! The first time that’s ever happened). And I hadn’t yet seen it.

A round of applause for Steve Jobs and Apple TV, who made it possible for me to rent the movie in HD for 4 dollars and watch it from the comfort of my own home.

It’s a three-hour movie. Three delightful hours. It’s about the love encounter of two women. So I must warn you – if you’re not comfortable with (pretty) hot scenes between two girls, don’t even bother! They make love on close-up. Several times. Some sex scenes are so real that are almost a pornographic record. No strings attached. No shame. No boundaries. Deep dive from the women in the story and the actresses who play them. I was astonished. Incredible movie.

First, I fell completely for the lead actress Adèle Exarchopoulos. Her character is also called Adèle. She’s a student who dreams of being a teacher and discovers sex while we watch it. She experiments. Experiments with herself. Experiments with the other. Finds herself. Looks for herself. Finds herself in her body. In the other girl’s body. Intensely and profoundly in the other girl’s body (and her smell, her glance, her company). Life starts to make sense. And there’s no take in vain. It’s three uninterrupted hours of Adèle’s (actress and character!) extraordinary performance. Amazing. I guess it’s the most beautiful performance of an actress I’ve ever seen. No kidding. Spectacular. Genuine and aggressive. Precise. Flawless.

As soon as it was over, I ran to google. I didn’t know either of the actresses (Léa Seydoux, who plays Emma, is also great! But for me the film is all about Adèle!) I needed to know where that outstanding actress had been all my life that I hadn’t seen any of her work. And I was even more shocked: she’s 20. TWENTY! And she shot all the torrid scenes when she was 18. Who saw the movie will be able to understand my perplexity… She dove in incredibly deep for such a young age. Powerful extremes that I, at 28, don’t even know if I’ve ever been able to reach. And she goes further… Explodes. It’s a catharsis on set.

I swear I could spend a whole day here talking about this girl’s work. But I think that was enough, right? A round of applause also for Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche (I actually read that the actresses said they suffered abuses during the shootings. That they were overly exposed, unnecessarily nude and all, but I didn’t even get deeper into it. Just focused on the final result) with beautiful takes that make us even read the characters’ thoughts. Making us witnesses of it all. Being a part of it. So many eloquent moments of silence.

I loved it. Really. So much that, when the movie was over, I opened a bottle of wine and got to write. Maybe I’ll get a chronicle from here too… Reflexive wine to toast for life’s ups and downs and ups… No easy task!

Cheers!

Everyone knows their own delight. Their own desire. Their own hunger. Their own calories. Their own food orgy!

Yep, that’s exactly what I experienced yesterday in São Paulo. A food orgy! It had been a while since I had such an amazing meal. In a place that was so me. And I’m telling you all about it!

That’s my beloved friend Renata Vanzetto’s new enterprise. For those who never heard of her, I’ll break it down: self-taught cook, born and raised in Ilhabela (lucky her!), she opened her first restaurant, Marakuthai (still in the island!) when she was eighteen, can you believe it? Yep, eighteen. Go figure…

Then the business expanded, won a bunch of awards for best contemporary cuisine restaurant in the North beachside and she brought it to São Paulo.

Opened a new location. Then she started a wedding catering service. Then, she opened MeGusta (a bar, also in Ilhabela). As if it weren’t enough, last fall she launched her latest enterprise along with her cousin (who’s also a chef) Aline Frey: EMA! Which I was glad to get to know yesterday!

It’s 27 seats. Only. Tiny. Just right. The feeling is of going down to a friend’s place to grab a bite (talk about a bite!). There’s a bar and five tables. Dim lights, just right. Good music on the background. Cute decoration. It’s all very cute. Cosy. Perfect for a date. Or an intimate birthday get together. Book the entire EMA for you and your friends. Working on that!

Another fun fact is that all the little rheas (ema is the name of the animal in Portuguese!) painted throughout the restaurant (did you see the ones at the back rest of the chairs?) are by ms. Vanzetto too. She painted them all. And they’re so cute! It was Rê’s habit of painting rheas that turned into the name of the restaurant. The paintings were there before the restaurant. So, so cute.

Now let’s get down to business! FOOD!

They call it root cuisine. Like a reinterpretation of Renata’s childhood food, along with author dishes she developed in the last couple of years. The deal is the menu changes all the time. Like yesterday, she made from scratch two appetizers I ate basically while crying tears of joy. And they’re not on the menu, she just made them up for us on the spot. Intuitively. Boy, they were good. Perks of sitting on the bar and being close to the chef! You’re almost part of the preparation of the dishes.

The APPETIZERS! Try them all if you can. Get there, order your cocktail (I had the best sangria of my life! I’m not exaggerating!) and taste the appetizers. Impossible to tell what’s the best… I tried almost all of them!

This octopus in from out of this world!

And the presentation is amazing! Crystals, leaves, pieces of wood.

The dishes we ordered:

Those mashed potatoes that come with the ribeye (my choice!) are unbelievable. The whole dish is, actually. So, so good! I grabbed a piece of my friend’s cheeseburger and it was amazing as well. That means we have to go back and try it all.

I ended up not ordering any of the desserts, which are also pretty well-known. The conversation was great, so was the sangria, and I ended up not having any dessert.

No problem though…

Another of the many reasons for coming back!

EMA

TUE-THU, 8pm – 12pm

Rua da Consolação, 2902. RESERVATIONS ONLY!!!

55 11 3081.8358

The Oscars are only a week away and there are still SO many movies to see. This weekend I crossed two films off my list. I’ll start with Dallas Buyers Club, which placed the fantastic Matthew McConaughey as the absolute favorite to the Oscars.

So… I even said on instagram how I’m rooting for DiCaprio, right? I think it’s about time he won an award, for all his history, all the amazing characters he’s played: The Wolf of Wall Street, Django Unchained, J. Edgar, The Great Gatsby… I don’t know, there are so many! What about Titanic? So it’s not just for Wall Street, but for his whole career. I think he’s a genius and really deserves it. But then I went to see this movie featuring the absolute favorite Matthew…And… I have to admit I was divided.

I didn’t think the movie was all that. It’s fine. What really got me was the actor’s work. He plays Ron Woodroof (the real guy whose story inspired the movie!), a Texan-redneck-homophobic-electrician (really homophobic) who’s diagnosed with AIDS in a time (1986) when it was seen as a “gay disease”.

He gets the news along with a prognosis of only 30 days left to live. Can you imagine that?

It’s a painstaking performance. Starting by his characterization. He lost SO MUCH weight. 48 lbs. You can see the illness in his face. When the film started, I didn’t know much about the story and in the first scenes I could tell he’d have HIV. Before they even mentioned it. That’s how good his construction is. He gets better at every scene. Exquisite.

Another pleasant surprise was Jared Leto (I don’t recall having watched any of his movies! But my memory may be sabotaging me, so please refresh it for me!), who plays a transexual who also has HIV. Fantastic! Also nominated to best actor in a supporting role – he won the Golden Globes. And he nails it in this film. Genius. I read he remained characterized throughout the whole shooting period (25 days), and the director was only able to meet the “real” Jared Leto in the movie premiére in Toronto. That’s how I fell more and more deeply for him… Incredible!

So, great movie to check the work of both actors. More than anything else. To watch Matthew make us fall in love with the drug dealer, bad, dishonest, stubborn, unpleasant guy. Defend him. Turn him into a hero. And Leto filling his Rayon with poetry! Turning her into the good girl. Awesome! The nailed it! Worth the tickets.

Now it’s just wait to see what’s the Academy’s verdict.

Are you #TeamDiCaprio or #TeamMcConaughey?

I went to watch the goddess Zezé Polessa on the theater. Her. Daniel Dantas, another amazing actor. Ana Kutner. And Erom Cordeiro, whom I’m a big fan of. Great cast. Great text. Expectations were high!

I knew the text was very renowned and that the author (Edward Albee) is pretty picky about the remakes. He only assigns his copyrights after it’s all set: setting, costume, translation and the actors’ rehearsal. It wasn’t different this time. The show was ready, flawless, and the assignment was granted.

It was directed by Victor Garcia Peralta. We considered him when we were choosing the director for our play. And after seeing Virginia Woolf, I felt even more like working with him. I loved his choices. The text itself is brilliant. Long. But brilliant.

The translation by João Polessa Dantas (son of both leads!) is pretty good. The play had two acts, which they decided to turn into a single one. The result is a two-and-a-half-hour play, which can make the the eyes of the less involved spectators a bit heavy – even the most involved ones may feel a bit uncomfortable on their chair – but it’s definitely worth it.

The set design (by Gringo Cardia) is fantastic. One of the most interesting I’ve ever seen. The stage makes a 360º turn, allowing us to dive into the characters’ madness and drunkenness. Oh, the characters. Let’s talk about them! Fantastic performances. I had never seen such an interesting Daniel Dantas. Complex, deep character, full of amazing divisions he plays poetically. Poetry of pain. Of love. Of defeat. What a beautiful work! Zezé is exquisite as well. Perfect. So good to see her perform. Great body. Beautiful. Intense. Strong even in her character’s weaknesses. Striking.

If you enjoy theater, it’s a must see. To contemplate the work of those two fantastic actors. Ana and Erom (as I said, I’m a fan!) are pretty good too. But the play is all about the other couple. It couldn’t be otherwise.

The story makes for a good post-play dinner discussion. It makes us think, once and again. It touches us. It touched me, at least. A lot. And I’ll love to hear about the impressions of those of you who decide to see it too!

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF: Teatro dos Quatro. Fridays and Saturdays, 9 pm. Sundays, 8 pm.

Up and running with my Oscar Marathon! March 2nd is approaching and there are so many films on the list! Are you keeping up too?

This weekend was for the amazing Leonardo DiCaprio in yet another duo (it’s their fifth film together) with Scorsese.

Loved it! Three hours that fly in the movie theater. It’s an adaptation of the memoir of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort, who became a millionaire starting a brokerage firm from scratch. He began by doing all things legal, living in the edge, and then it all became a big fraud. One scam left to the other, causing the firm – and everyone involved – to break.

It all happened in the 80s-90s, but it’s a pretty up-to-date subject, right? Who doesn’t want to know how the stock market operates? What they do with the precious money of those who decide to invest? And here I speak from my own experience… I know nothing about the subject and even feel a little dumb when I talk to my bank manager, or anyone, about investments. And being able to see what goes on and we can’t even imagine, makes the conservatives like me even more scared to make risky investments. Even if the story doesn’t mention the drama of those who were deceived. Even so. If you’re layperson like me, you’ll get to the end of the film really fearing those stuff.

Besides the attentive “client” perspective, of someone who can fall for one of the many market scams, which really grabs your attention (at least for me), I loved the movie for several other reasons. Scorsese really nailed it!

The entire cast is fantastic. All of it. And Di Caprio once again outstanding. I waited for the final credits and saw he’s also the producer. I love to see when an actor is also the producer. It makes it even more special for me since it shows how passionate he is about the project. When an actor decides to deal with the whole production bureaucracy, it means a whole lot of passion involved. And we can see that. We see both Di Caprio and Scorsese pulsating. Avid. Passionate.

Get ready for a whole bunch of drugs. An awful lot of it. Lots of sex. Bad words. Craze. Forget about boundaries. I read this movie hit the record of 569 mentions of the word “fuck”, having even been censored in countries such as Malaysia, India and Lebanon. What? This kind of thing still exists? Anyway, be prepared to excesses of all kinds.

They were nominated as best picture, director, actor (Di Caprio already won the Golden Globes! Will he get an Oscar this time? I find it so bizarre that he hasn’t won it already!), supporting actor for Jonah Hill and adapted screenplay. Wow!

I’m rooting for it!

Congratulations, Scorsese!

My 2014 Oscars marathon has officially started! And I began with one of the favorites. Along with winning three Golden Globes (best motion picture – comedy or musical / best actress – comedy or musical to Amy Adams /best supporting actress – comedy or musical to Jennifer Lawrence), American Hustle was nominated for all of the Oscars main categories: best picture, director, screenplay, film editing, costume design, Christian Bale as best actor in a leading role, Amy Adams as best actress in a leading role, Bradley Cooper as best actor in a supporting role and Jennifer Lawrence as best actress in a supporting role. Yeah, I guess that’s it. Or am I letting something out? I probably am.

A favorite for the Golden Globes. Now a favorite for the Oscars. So I rushed to cross it off my list. And I enjoyed it. But the rest of my family who went to see it with me complained so much about it (they thought it was tedious, slow, uninteresting) that it ended up curbing my enthusiasm a bit.

It’s the story of a scammer couple who, after being caught by an FBI agent, agree to take part on a mission to debunk corrupt politicians and members of the mafia.

Amazing cast. Only the best. And even though a good cast is no guarantee of a good film, in this case any of them alone would make the tickets worth it. Flawless performances. Geniuses. Fabulous four (sorry about the joke, couldn’t help it!). Each character’s strong and particular personality is, without a doubt, the icing on the plot’s cake. So, it’s a must see for their work. The ladies especially. How exquisite they are!

Christian Bale (who deserves an entire paragraph!), one of my favorites of the moment, who once again doesn’t look anything like Christian Bale. Boy, is he amazing. The first scene, in which he’s atands front of the mirror trying to conceal his bald head, along with the one in which he wins Amy Adams over while just sitting down, chill, with an open shirt, are painstakingly crafted. He’s the perfect crook, in every gesture, every glance, his 70s costume and aviator glasses. Bale nails it again!

And, last but not least, the soundtrack! What an amazing soundtrack (I must say that was the only thing my parents liked about the movie!!!)! Another jackpot. So, yeah, regardless of all those things I said, having I liked or not, having my family liked it or not, having you heard good or bad things about it, just watch it! Big favorite. Incredible cast. Fantastic soundtrack. Rush to the movies and then come back to tell me what you thought!