Pretentious Pizza

Seriously love when the weekends rolls around!

Tonight we decided to live a little and go to a "real" restaurant. You know the kind where they have real waiters?


Here in Brazil there are a couple of types of places to eat...

• Lanchonetes- these places are found ALL over every corner of Ipatinga. You can find them from small to big, having things varying from pastel and coxinha, to hamburgers, pizza, soups, and ice cream. 


• Boteco- I actually like the boteco that we have down the road from us. These are also all over every corner of Ipatinga. These places are sort of a mix between a bar and restaurant. Some people come to drink. Some people come to eat. Most do both. The boteco sets out plastic tables and chairs, often has live music (here anyway) and my favorite place does churrasco every night that is fantastic! Though they aren't all nice..some are pretty dumpy looking.


• Restaurante por kilo- Buffet style restaurante by weight. Serves all kinds of meats, veggies, sometimes salad, rice, beans, farofa, potatoes..etc. I like to go to places like this for lunch. But really, not great for me since my eyes are always bigger than my stomach...and I really hate wasting.


• Restaurante- A place in rare form in Ipatinga. I think we seriously have like 5 "real" restaurants here. Where you go, sit down, given a menu, order with a waiter,  and have more choices than hamburgers and pizza.

So anyway, Sidnei picked a restaurant that we have been admiring from afar to go to tonight. The outside is beautiful (I wish I had gotten a picture), with big glass walls to see inside, pretty decorating, and it just looks NICE. Like a real establishment. Anyway so I'm all excited. We walk in, we are greeted by a hostess (!) and taken to our seats. Everything smells SO good. The waiters look all nice and crisp in their uniforms. The table cloths (!) are pressed. Everyone around us is dressed nicely and having a nice time. Not to mention they had a big bottle of olive oil in the middle of the table, making me think I might get bread (you know, like at an Italian restaurant). Did I mention this is the first time we've been to a real restaurant in the five months I've been here??

The waiter hands us our menu and asks what we would like to drink. He gives us the house special for the day. I think it was some kind of fish. We open the menu...and to our surprise...the place we are at is a PIZZERIA. I almost died laughing. Sidnei was irritated. Seriously the restaurant looks so pretty. The waiters are SO formal. I would have never guessed. And just so you know, they don't have any signs outside except for one that says Bohemia which is an alcoholic drink they serve there. Ahhh well. What's a girl to do? So we order a pizza...my style. Quatro Quiejos (four cheeses) because I like to keep it simple. And thankfully our overpriced, pretentious pizza, was the best I've had since I've been here. Though, I don't think Sidnei will be back.

*Just as a side note, in different cities, the eating scenario varies in different places and in bigger cities(so I have heard)  it is much different. We just don't have many options in this small town.