Japanese

 Layne has a birthday lunch coming up and she’s picked a French restaurant in Brasilia. La Cheminée gets some pretty good reviews so we will see and you can expect to see some pictures here.

I laughed and pointed out we are in Brasil and she wants to eat continental food.  Everyone likes a break  and on that note we recently had lunch in Japan in Brasilia. 

Isn’t it a crack up how they describe the cuisine in English? Menus in Latin America often come in QR codes which is modern but a pain I find. And this place is modern.

Layne likes raw fish but I am a caveman and I like my food to be cooked if I am going out to pay for it. I eat raw fish but it’s a waste of money putting it in my mouth.

Divide the shared fish prices by 5.3 to get dollars if you care. I don’t think if you are in the US you will find them costly. We shared a plate to start. One dumpling was left by the time I remembered you lot and pulled out my phone camera. Imagine a plate full of crispy little pillows. 

Layne got a sashimi plate so she got her raw fish just as she wanted. 

I had the cooked noodle dish that people have when they eat Japanese and don’t want sashimi. It was perfect especially as I wanted shrimp. 

And we shared one among my favorite vegetables and I like most vegetables. Mushrooms remind me of my Italian side and these Japanese mushrooms were delicious of course. 

Desserts were included  and  Layne loves chocolate so she got the Brazilian favorite which they call “petit gateau” (little cake) which we call lava cake.

I had fried bananas with Nutella cream. Perfect of course. 

The whole lunch including non alcoholic drinks and mineral water and tip (no tax in South America cane to $42. Fancy huh? The hound stayed home of course. 

He was much happier to see me than shown.

He loves the apartment and his routines, sleeping on the patio…

…and as he’s slowing down and getting gray I make the most of each day with him. 

He likes one long walk in the morning, an hour or more with pauses, and some sitting and sometimes he wakes me up in the morning darkness and expects attention.

So I get out of bed grumbling and pretty soon the cool night air and  Rusty’s joy gets me in the mood.

This is my picture of Rusty staring into the void of Lake Paranoá:

 

Capybara

 

If you should find yourself wandering the grounds of Lakeside Condos in Brasilia and happen to come across one of these hairy butterballs don’t say you haven’t been warned.

At first I thought it was a terracotta planter at the edge of the walkway. Rusty does not go on high alert for clay pots. You can see from his leash I was hanging on tight. 

I was not in a position to do research but I have heard of these South American rodents, the biggest rodents in the world apparently and related to guinea pigs, and we have seen a few from a distance. In the marina at Lakeside they reminded me of the sea-lions snoozing on the docks in San Francisco.

Naturally this was on the morning I wasn’t carrying my camera and long lens as I had got a bit tired of photographing the condo complex. 

My iPhone 12 mini, by now ancient technology, had to do. 

If you go and look them up as I did you will discover reams of information about them. They are social animals mostly well adapted to living in water and able to hold their breaths up to five minutes. They aren’t endangered, they are herbivores and generally live to be ten or twelve if not earned by jaguars crocodiles or anaconda. Some humans eat them though as far as I can gather the literature seems to indicate they are poor peoples’ food at best.

Around here I’ve seen them chasing fallen mangoes as there are a great many wild mangoes throwing shade on the open spaces along the lake shore and in the parking lots. 

I’ve seen them at night when Rusty gets the urge to go for a three am walk and I have seen their droppings which are large and disturbingly humanoid on the lawns around the condos. I rather like that no one bothers them here. 

Rusty watched them intently but they pretty much ignored him which was fine by me. I have no desire to end up gored by a capybara while defending my inquisitive dog. 

It’s just another weird South American creature Rusty can add to his list of things he doesn’t much like  which includes llama and Peruvian hairless dogs, wild ostriches and peacocks. 

Pondering the void as we all do from time to time. 

Last Night Of Christmas

It was magnificent procrastination that got me to the Christmas fair last night, the night before it closed. It was fun wandering among Brazilians enjoying their families.