Geeky Yet Waterproof

Almost every day since I arrived in Brazil, my family has been asking if I ate feijoada yet. Feijoada literally means “beaned”, and it is a classic Brazilian dish consisting mostly of black beans, rice, and different parts of pork. For a while Iza and her family wouldn’t let me try feijoada because they said that I have to “return all in one piece”. You see, feijoada sits very heavily in your stomach… in fact, you’re not even supposed to drink anything while eating it, because it will make it harder to digest.
Well on Monday, I finally got to try feijoada. And much to their admonitions, I had four plates of it with five glasses of Coke over lunch and dinner. And I’m alive and well! Iza freaked a little bit when she was digging through the pot and found an entire ear and a foot with toes, but other than that I thought it was pretty good. But I can see why Brazilians normally only eat it on Saturdays… Unless your stomach is reinforced with iron brackets, you can’t really do anything but lie around after eating feijoada.