Silverware and Waiters

Would it be a vacation with Bell girls if we didn´t at least mention food?

We´ve eaten a lot of meals out. Sister isn´t that much into street food so we´ve had a lot of sit down meals. And each and every time silverware has been the star. Apparently it´s a really big deal here. I don´t know if this is a new development or if it has always been like this (the last time I was here I only ate food on sticks) but place settings are very important. Plus, waiters hover but they don´t really do anything and just when you need them for something* they avoid eye contact. It´s lovely.

This morning at breakfast our waiter took Sisters sugar away. She has finally embraced the 1 part warm milk-1 part Nescafe-1 part sugar Brasiliero way of taking coffee. And then he took her sugar away. He also took my water away. I said quietly to Kristie, ´´I wasn´t finished with that´´ and a hand with my glass of water appeared in front of me!

During lunch the other day we shared a salad. I used the correct salad fork (because I´m wicked proper) but Sister didn´t. So when they took away the salad plate with her lunch fork she moved her salad fork to the side of her new plate. Instantly the waiter appeared, took her salad fork and replaced it with real fork, placed a new salad fork in the correct position and disappeared, just after placing the salad fork he took from the table back in the drawer of silverware.

Last night the waiters dried silverware as they watched a soap opera. They couldn´t be bothered to get our check.

They do have a special way of using silverware to serve things. We´ve been served using two spoons to dish something to our plates. Two knives as well. But the waiter feat of the week was just yesterday at La Felice (which when I first saw the sign I thought it said LICE and told Sister I didn´t want to eat there) when the waiter gracefully used two spoons to pick up napkins which he then placed on the table.

We also ate real salad at La Felice. It was delicious. I am craving kale. It might be the only thing that will get me to return. Kale. What´s wrong with me?

*There was one exception. We were faced with a big decision: To eat at the Restaurant Yellow or the Restaurant Green (very creative names here-the Restaurant Yellow was all yellow and Restaurant Green was, you guessed it, all green). We went with green, mostly because Kristie didn´t want to upset our waiters from the previous night who worked right next to the Restaurant Yellow. So we decided on Green, which was wonderfully entertaining to me because Sister was wearing a green shirt and matched everything-tablecloths, building, etc. We ate a most delicious Brasilian feijado and drank some ´chopp´ (beer). We had one, then two, then three and while we contemplated leaving, our sweet waiter arrived with a smile and two mais chopp. It was like he knew us and our one more beer tendencies! Needless to say we tipped generously.