Young Professional’s “Taste of Brazil”

December has been the month of the Young Professionals with events ranging from film screenings to restaurant visits; YP has been very busy the last few weeks! The past two Wednesdays had YPers eating delicious international cuisines from Brazil and Mexico.

On the 5th, a group of 12 gathered at Oliveira’s Restaurant (297 Chelsea St) for all-you-can-eat Brazilian buffet. The food ranged from salads in varieties of greens, potatoes, olives, tomatoes, and pasta; to beans and rice; to meats where chicken hearts were a favorite tester; and finally to a scrumptious coconut chocolate confection for dessert.

As we enjoyed the ethnic food, we also got to learn a little about Brazil! For example, do you know what two South American nations Brazil does not share a border with? Chile and Ecuador! Can you guess how many stars are on the Brazilian flag? 27! And do you know what colors are on the Brazilian flag and what they stand for? Apparently the yellow stands for gold, the blue for sky and the green for forest.

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The very next week, on the 12th, YP met once again to enjoy Mexican food at Ole Restaurant (11 Springfield St). 26 people crowded together in a private back room to taste traditional tapas dishes, which included the obvious guacamole and salsa with chips, quesadillas, melted cheese and mushroom, and fried plantains, all served with homemade corn tortillas! Similar to our Taste of Brazil, interesting trivia questions were shared, but also fun language cards floated around the room, teaching us that burrito actually means little donkey! Or coaching us on flirting phrases in Spanish, such as ‘isn’t that guy over there handsome?’

imageYP was lucky enough to get a demonstration from the head chef and owner of Ole about Mexican food, his relationship with it, how to make the best guacamole (don’t forget your lava stone!), and smelling the different chili peppers. We devoured the food and margaritas well into the night, unwilling and sad to end the evening.

We will be having our last event of the year, ‘Hotel Rwanda’ screening for a belated celebration of Human Rights Day on December 19th.

Happy December everyone and we hope that the holiday season is starting out well! Hope to see you all at some YP events in 2013!