A Misto Quente Moment – eatrio.net – صحيفة الصوت

The longer I eke out a living on the fringes of the food world, the more I realise that I’m often most enchanted by the simple things. Sure, the idea of a 12 course tasting menu (with wine pairings – yay!) is really exciting, and the reality can be pretty fantastic, but I started to notice some time ago that I generally get more units of pleasure out of something uncomplicated, like bread, butter and cheese, or a perfectly ripe and juicy pear, or a gooey, chewy, crunchy-topped piece of pork belly. This morning I enjoyed a little nirvana moment with the help of a Misto Quente.

The anatomy of the misto quente is simple – cheap, crappy bread (toasted); cheap, crappy ham; cheap, crappy cheese (lots!). Assemble sandwich and grill until the cheese achieves oozy consistency and starts attempting to escape the sandwich. That’s it. You’ll find this minimalist snack in pretty much every bakery and juice bar in Rio and sometimes it’s just what you feel like for a quick breakfast or snack without a lot of fuss.

I had the sandwich you see in these photos this morning, sat at the counter of a simple juice bar as I killed time waiting for a beer supply store to open [more on this soon]. I’m not sure if it was the lovely sunshine, coupled with a perfect light breeze, or the fact that the woman who was sitting a few chairs up from me was clearly suffering from a horrible hangover which made my lack of hangover feel fantastic; perhaps it was the cheery smile from the waitress when I ordered a second misto quente (sue me!), or maybe I just had that Friday feeling… In any case, even the really terrible coffee tasted good today.

The beer store was supposed to open at 10am so, knowing how Carioca punctuality works, I waited until 10.30am before paying up at the juice bar and wandering over. Of course it was still profoundly closed – security grating locked in place and not a sign of life anywhere. But I was still glowing from my own little ‘nirvana’ moment and this minor inconvenience wasn’t going to bother me – I’ll visit the beer supply store another day. I took the bus home…

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