August 29,

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!

I couldn’t sleep until after 0130! So I didn’t awaken until 0930! Jeff patiently waited until I awoke, sometimes he can be patient! We readied and had our Javas with breakfast of Muesli, yogurt and a piece of toast each. Since we were eating so late – brunch – we decided to forego lunch. We stayed in and watched some YouTube, resting my knee. We saw the horrible flash flood results in Nepal – will be praying for all those involved and the families, who most likely lost loved ones.

Morning gave way to afternoon. I blogged some and Jeff planned & read. Around 1600 we went out. Jeff had found a great reviewed place for us to have a nice meal, but it did not open until 1800. So we drove around Diamantina some, and came near the restaurant. We found parking, yay! In the square adjacent to the restaurant there was a musical festivity going on, so we stayed there, listening to the live band and people watching. The music all seemed to carry the same samba/salsa beat, but each song with different words. The band, heavily loaded with a percussion section, swayed and bopped with the pulsating tunes. The audience of onlookers did the same with a few really “getting-down with it”…showing my age with that phase. Anyway, it was fun to watch as they all knew the words to the songs. Most of the participants were twenty and thirty somethings. Incredibly, the band played nonstop for at least the 1.5 hours we were there!

At 1750 we walked around the square to the restaurant, Relicario Gastronomia – the name did not translate. It opened on time and we went in, being the first customers. The menu stated that the place served “Minas Gerais cuisine, with a modern twist, using traditional ingredients prepared or served in a different way…” We took our time translating and ordering. Finally, I went with Chico Agnu, which was chicken thigh and drumstick medallions, wrapped in bacon with a sauce of fresh mushrooms and coconut milk, accompanied with sides: mustard greens sauteed in butter; green corn puree with Minas Artesanal cheese; buttered okra; and a cashew nut brittle & Parmesan tuile. Jeff ordered Tropeiro de Bico, which was filet mignon in tamarind sauce, accompanied with sides: a “reinterpretation” tropeiro made with chickpeas, cassava flour and bacon; and plantain gnocchi. As we waited for our meals (which took a while) we looked at the eclectic place. The placemats were old vinyl record albums; and the decorations were older small kitchen appliances, rotary phones, and transistor radios to name a few. Our meals were super excellent with descriptions of the best highlights: the cheese tuile was a super, rich creamy wafer, crunchy and good; and the tropeiro was very dry, but flavorful with sausage and bacon, collard greens, eggs, and cassava flour -it paired well with the tamarind sauce. We were super-jazzed. Jeff ordered an Argentinian Malbec that went quite nicely with both meals. While we were eating the place filled up and when we finished there was only one empty table. We paid our bill of 315.04 BRL, which was $60.74. It was the best meal we have had in Brazil! As Jeff was paying I did a Google translation to our waiter, thanking him and telling him it was our 34th anniversary. We made it to the door but he stopped us and offered a free dessert to us. We told him okay, but to go. He came back and told us it would be 20 minutes and offered us back our table. So we sat. The dessert was ice cream with a chocolate molten lava cake. Yum!

As we left the restaurant we headed to the main event of the Vesperata music festival (held multiple times a year). It sells out way ahead of time and we couldn’t get tickets. It turned out not to be the way it was described anyway. But it was lively and standing room only. Now we did leave, going back to our place. We count ourselves as very blessed with another wonderful anniversary day!