Eco - Integrale

Wow - I had fun last night. I have no idea why I woke up at 8:30am (given that I went to bed at 3:45am) but that is pretty normal for me. I am headed to the shrine of Nossa Senhora Aparecida today - my future tattoo - so hopefully I will sleep in the car (it takes about three hours to get there). So....about last night. Me and the "Fast Forward" crew (my school friends) met at the Vila Madalena metro station at 9:30p.m. We were all basically on time, how very un Brasilian of us!

I had heard of a restaurant, Eco Forneria-Integrale Pizzaria, in Vila Madalena that had whole wheat, vegan, and organic options, as well as meat. The crew was up for finding it and so off we went. We eventually made it there around 10:15pm, after several conflicting sets of directions (though I am proud to report that I was willing to ask). The setting was nice, the menu was made out of recycled paper, there was a very good (if somewhat loud) singer playing acoustic guitar. We were excited, even when the waitress said "um instantinho". (Whenever a Brasilian adds the dimunitive "-inho" to time you know you are in trouble; a "minuntinho" is usually five minutes, a "segundinho" is usually 10 minutes, and an "instantinho" - well you may as well go home).



Over a hour later, when we still had no pizza, but the table of 12 men who sat down about 20 minutes after us had eaten two pizzas, we were much less excited. We all started complaining in our native languages (Swedish, Japanese, English) with big smiles which provided a good 15 minutes of entertainment. I did complain in Portuguese, and both of the waitresses assured us that the food was on it´s way. They also tried to convince me that the men sat down at the same time but I wasn´t fooled.

I was the first to receive my food, I ordered a whole wheat calzone with tomatoes, brocoli, onions, black olives, and seitan. It took almost 15 more minutes for the rest of my table to get their food. Our spirits perked up, until we took a bite. The food was incredibly salty - and I like salty food. The black olives were whole olives, pit included, not quite conducive to eating pizza or calzones. The seitan had an odd ham like flavor. The dough was dry and the others told me their cheese wasn´t very good. That - on top of the incredibly long wait - definitely made this one restaurant I would not recommend for vegans visiting São Paulo.

Good thing we had so much fun at the party. I only lasted until about 3am - but staying out that late, eating dinner after 11pm, and trying (very poorly) to dance forro gave the night a very Brasilian feel.