Many, many years ago I had a roommate who was a huge fan of Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines martial arts, music and dance. I remembered finding it fascinating to watch, but because I lacked even basic motor skills (hard enough to put one foot in front of the other without falling over most days) I never really got into it myself. This past weekend, when I heard about the Brazilian Day celebrations next to LACMA, my interest in Capoeira and all things Brazilian was rekindled. And when I saw the event was free, I knew I had to be there.
The festivities are the LA outpost of an event that originated in New York in the 80s - immigrants in the neighborhood of Little Brazil gathered to celebrate Brazil's Independence Day and to share their culture with neighbors and friends. Since then, the celebration has caught on with major cities nationwide, and grown to attract
over1.5 million people in 2010 in NYC alone.
This year's LA event was held at Hancock Park, behind the La Brea Tar Pits next to LACMA.
I was excited about all the components of the event: Brazilian food, products, capoeira, samba, and a Rio-style parade (put on by the SambaLá Samba School of Long Beach), followed by a "Trio-Electrico" parade.
It was a bright, sunny day (love LA, it's pretty much always that way with the exception of a few weeks in the year), and you could feel almost an electric energy in the air of people strolling from tent to tent, checking out good eats, tourism board brochures and Brazilian gifts from flag-colored soccer ball to t-shirts and onesies etc. while enjoying the great weather.
A crowd had gathered near the back of the park, so naturally that's where I headed - and found Samba dancers at a makeshift stage.
Apparently I had just caught the end of the dance, as a few minutes later a new group stepped up, (Amen Santos and
Capoeira Batuque) to offer a Capoeira demo. Capoeira is fantastically fun to watch, and rather than try to describe it I thought I'd post a video so you can see for yourself!
There was of course also no shortage of ways to sample Brazilian culture through food.
Several stands served fresh off the grill Brazilian barbecue skewers, from steak to chicken and shrimp. Though bbq is a Brazilian staple, and what most people think of first when they think of Brazilian food - and the sizzling meat on the grill was nearly irresistible - I went in search of dishes I had not experienced before. I've had plenty of churrascaria fare, and afterall, the fun of cultural festivals is learning - and tasting - new things!
(Well, I made an exception for
coxinha - Brazilian croquettes $5 for 3 - which I've had before. I enjoy the shredded chicken with 'secret' cheese sauce deep fried in dough - and they were small pieces so that I woudn't fill up just on those)
I had to have a can of
Ubatuba Guarana ($2), a soda made from the fruit of a flowering plant from the Amazon, which contains twice the amount of caffeine in a coffee bean. It tasted to me like apple soda, but not too sweet - light, refreshing and great for a hot day. More caffeine than a cup of coffee, to provide a jolt of energy, without the bitter taste.
I was really excited to find the Sabor da Bahia stall, which offered four key dishes that I'd never heard of:
*
Moqueca de Peixe - Bahian style fish stew with tilapia fillet in a special coconut sauce, served with rice and toasted yucca flour
*
Moqueca de Camarao - Bahian style shrimp stew - same ingredients as above, but made with shrimp
*
Acaraje - Brazilian falafel - deep fried black-eyed peas cake, stuffed with vatapa (Brazilian bread crumbs puree), tomato salad and homemade hot sauce
*
Abara - Brazilian tamale - Steamed blackeye peas dough in the banana leaf, stuffed with vatapa, tomato salad and hot sauce
I wish I had enough stomach space to try them all! But ultimately went with the fish stew ($15) - from the northern coast of Brazil - and loved everything on the plate!
Perhaps it was the coconut sauce, but the flavors of the fish stew reminded me of Thai food, but without the strong accents of lemongrass or basil. Milder and slightly sweeter, with slivers of bell peppers for veggies. The toasted yucca flour added great textural contrast and slight crunch to the coconut sauce soaked rice. Seems like black-eyed peas are a staple of the cuisine as well - there was a salad of them offered on the side. Delicious.
In the early afternoon, the eagerly anticipated Street Carnaval kicked off, featuring a Rio-style parade of dancers with vibrant and elaborate feather headdresses and fantastic clothing.
Event organizers describe this parade as "part opera, part party, and part circus" which I thought was fairly spot on. It wasn't of course full-scale as in the real Rio parade, but was a fun lil taste of Carnaval.
Though I had filled up on hot foods earlier, I was drawn to the grocery stall - with wire racks packed with Brazilian snacks, candy and drinks. Cheesy Bread, or "Pan de Queso" seemed to be a featured item, along with cookies and lots of guarana and cool fruit juice drinks from maracuja (Brazilian passionfruit), to goiaba (guava) to acai-coconut. Lots of fun to browse, though I didn't want to carry my purchases around, so made a note to myself to find and pay a visit to a Brazilian market soon.
The second parade of the afternoon was a "Trio-Electrico" parade, which turned out to involve a truck tricked out with speakers, blasting music while street dancers, singers and drummers lead a procession inviting guests to dance and sing along on the parade path behind them. This one is described as "
equivalent of Brazil's Spring break". I loved that lots of people were game, and danced along with abandon (nice to see a total absence of 'fronting' or image-consciousness unfortunately too often associated with Los Angelenos)!
Throughout the event, the MC had called for entries into the raffle for two roundtrip tickets to Brazil - tickets were only $1 each! Being a hopeless optimist, I went and bought a ticket but of course wasn't so lucky. The two winners both turned out to be from Brazil, so they got their tickets home for free!
After hours of gorging, it was nice to lay back on the grassy knoll and lazily watch the activity below. Kids were in their own world, amusing themselves alternately rolling down or running up the hill. Normally, rowdy kids annoy me (I know, I know, all I'm missing are a dozen or so cats in order to turn into a grouchy old cat lady) but at this event, for some reason, they added to the idyllic setting - and most I thought were adorable, having a great time outdoors with their parents dancing or playing.
Another thing I loved about the venue is that, if you're a LACMA member, you can pop over to wander the museum (excluding special exhibits that require admission fees) free, or check out Ray's and Stark Bar on the plaza if you still have room for food/drink.
All in all, Brazilian Day LA was a fun, festive, fabulous free event that I look forward to making an annual outing to (I hope they have it next year at the same venue)!
[For more photos of the event, check out my album on
Facebook]
_______________________________________________________________________
Brazilian Day LA
September 10th noon-6pm
La Brea Tar Pits / Hancock Park
Free Admission
Website:
braziliandayla.org
_______________________________________________________________________
Deep in the San Fernando Valley, springs the Wat Thai (which literally translates to "Thai temple") - like an unexpected dollop of Sriracha in the oatmeal of suburbia. 
...Awesome food vendors selling all kinds of authentic street foods from meats on a stick, rolls, noodles and pancakes (which unfortunately we skipped as that was the fateful night of the epic fail (in terms of access to food) known as 626 Night Market in Pasadena - where we expected to be able to gorge on all kinds of fantastic pan-asian street foods...great expectations dashed...in retrospect we wish we gorged at Wat Thai!) 
There was a marketplace of vendors selling everything from Thai paper umbrellas (I knew I didn't need one, but really wanted one!!), to canvas shoulder bags (I picked up a cute one for $7!!!), to all sorts of jewelry - and even hi-fis (not sure who their intended customers were - hipsters??!). 
And then we wandered to the back area where there seemed to be some sort of live entertainment...and found that they had the dance performances I had so missed at the Thai Town fest!! LOVED the beautiful, graceful traditional dancing backed by classic Thai instruments. (And loved that most people in the audience were from the Thai community, out to support!)
Aside from traditional dance they also had a more playful choreographed dance/skit with dancers dressed in school uniform. I think this was a nod to the portion of the temple dedicated to Thai school, where kids can come to learn their language and culture. There was also of course, like the Thai Town fest, a beauty pageant. The ladies were in gorgeous traditional garb, a sight to behold. Pretty much all of the MC and live entertainment (except where pageant contestants answered in English) was done in Thai, so we weren't entirely sure what everything was about, but loved every minute of it. 
Designer was so into it, she was a bit sad when I dragged her away to explore the rest of the grounds - she needed to know who won the pageant! 
There was a lot more to look at, at Wat Thai versus the Thai Town Songkran fest, understandably as Wat Thai already had all its structures and lovely statues and displays in place. Wat Thai also had an area set up for people to take potted 'money trees' and sand by small buckets and place them around a buddha statue for good luck.
You don't have to be buddhist, or Thai, to enjoy an immersive afternoon in the culture at Wat Thai. We felt transported from LA for the hour or two that we were there. I was excited to learn that their food marketplace at the temple actually takes place every weekend. Will have to confirm that asap and will let you guys know!
