Vegetarian in Brazil (Sao Paulo)?

[lilymugworts]

So I'm going on a 6 month study abroad in Sao Paulo next fall, and my advisor warned me of being vegetarian in Brazil. I've been vegetarian for over 7 years, near vegan (no milk or eggs), and have very strong moral values about being vegetarian. I'm going to be in a homestay for the 6 months as well in which they are to provide 2 meals a day, and am really concerned that I won't be able to eat any of it (and therefore have to spend a lot more on food).

So is it possible to survive as a vegetarian in Brazil/Sao Paulo? Or will I have to introduce meat into my diet (even the thought of that makes me ill)? If I had to do meat, I could only do fish... would that be enough? In my Portuguese classes we always talk about the dishes of Brazil, and they're always full of meat! This study abroad is necesary for me to graduate on time, and for my own personal benefit, so the least amount of meat I will have to consume the better (none being optimal).

Thank you for your help!

[itaunas]

The breakfast at your home stay shouldn't be any issue. Fruit, bread, coffee and olive-oil based spreads are readily available. Meat and eggs for breakfast are foreign to Brazilians. Most Brazilian bakeries use a pre-mix for "pao frances" or "pao de sal" which has a number of ingredients (generally normal dough enhancers) which is something to be careful about, but I haven't seen milk solids listed on the ones I have read. Do you know if the second meal is going to be lunch (generally a larger meal) or dinner (which often but not always lighter)? If you are own your own for lunch, it might actually be easier for your family. There are web resources in Portuguese for vegetarians and vegetarian restaurants in Brazil, but you would be best to simply join "Orkut" and maybe ask your questions directly of vegetarians in Sao Paulo via a community there.

There are lots of lovely vegetables, dried and fresh beans, fresh farinha de mandioca. Salads are served with sit down meals, "massas" (pastas) are often available and can be made w/o meat (although it may take getting used to paprika with pasta), polentas are common. Its very possible to eat vegetarian (a common workmans meal is "rice, beans, eggs eaten with farofa or mandioca flour"), but your hosts may not be used to that. They maybe used to seasoning beans with meat or using animal fats. Thus it might be an extra expense to accomodate you since one meal is generally cooked for the whole family - meats in Brazil are usually much more expensive than basic vegetables, but if they can't reuse leftovers that affects them and fish in particular can be extremely expensive (Sao Paulo for instance offers some excellent sushi but its not inexpensive). So changing the menu to accomodate you or making a separate meat-free meal could be an added expense. Its also entirely possible that your homestay family could be from a Japanese, Chinese, Italian background, Sao Paulo is the most International city. In any case its going to be a bit difficult and require some negotiation, but you will have available to you fresher fruits and vegetables year round. Buffet restaurants also make it easier for you to seek out vegetables, but may have the issue of beans including some meat, there are plenty of pescatarian friendly snacks but keep in mind that milk is used in some salgadinhos.

If you are at all sensitive to MSG keep an eye on pre-packaged seasonings (widely used for meats, but also used for beans and salads by some families). Also given your "strong moral values," I'll point out that Rodeos are very popular in the state of Sao Paulo and some vegetarians are activists against them. If you find that your host family likes "country culture" you might have to politely decline from attending such events (generally away from the capital).

Update: Here are some Orkut communities you could start with. No posts in either of them, but they aren't full of SPAM either so you could join and post your questions or poke around related communities.

http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Community?cmm=7280316
http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Communit...

Also you can do searches through "topics" across orkut and find some vegetarian events (dinners, activist, etc) in Sao Paulo.

One last thought, Sao Paulo has great bookstores so you should be able to find vegetarian cookbooks in Portuguese which might be something you could offer as a "welcome present" and say its something you are interested in. Or some of the bookstores are pretty good about International orders (Sariva comes to mind and carries a lot of cooking books).