Tropicalia

Bife Tropicalia
Marinated Beef Steak served with unique salsa Tropicalia,
farofa and salsa campanha.

Last week I promised my friend Chad from my swim team that I would take him to get breakfast burritos on Sunday.  The only problem is that I cannot sleep in past 7am, and he wakes up around noon.  By the time he is up I am already ready for lunch.  Unfortunately our breakfast burrito date didn’t end up working out, so I promised him I would take him out to dinner one night before thanksgiving.  When I asked him what type of food he wanted, he said anything not American.  Last time we went to Umami.  Even though he loved it, he needed a break from traditional food, eating in the dinning hall everyday.  I took him to Tropicalia, the Brazilian restaurant in Los Feliz.  I’d been here once before with my Grandpa, and thought he would really like it.  We both needed some protein, and some traditional bistec sounded like it would just hit the spot.  

I ordered the Bife Tropicalia, a marinated steak that came with rice, beans, fried plantains, and some side sauces.  It was the same dish I ordered last time with my Grandpa, and under the restaurant specialty menu, I knew it was going to be good.  Chad ordered the same thing.  There were a lot of options, but he was just worried about having enough food.  Being a swimmer, and a big boy, he needs a lot of calories.  He told me that he is actually the shortest guy in his extended family, but the most athletic of course.  The dish is a pretty large portion and I knew that he would have enough.  Both of our plates came out relatively fast.  We talked about our class on the team, and how he would like to go to Rio in 2016 to swim for Canada.  I told him that I would go, mainly for the food, but to watch him swim too.  This time my meat was a little colder than last time, almost room temperature.  But everything else on the plate was perfect. The rice and beans were very flavorful, and the green sauce (salsa Tropicalia) and light salsa (salsa campanula) both compliment the whole dish very well.  They go great on everything.  My favorite part of the plate is definitely the fried plantains.  Sweet like bananas, they’d go great with ice cream for dessert!  The only part of the plate I didn’t really like was the farofa (toasted manioc flour)  Even though it is little salty, its super dry, and I really don’t think that the crumbs add anything to the plate.  Chad loved his dish.  He finished the whole thing and then what was left of mine.  

Madagascar Vanilla and
Espresso Banana with
Brownies

We were thinking about ordering dessert, but I recommended that we go to a great gelato place really close in Silverlake.  We drove just down the street to Pazzo Gelato, supposedly the best gelato place in all of Los Angeles.  I’ve been here with my sister before, and they have some really interesting flavors.  

I sampled the Banana Nut Fudge and Mascarpone Orange with Fudge Swirl.  But I ended up with Madagascar Vanilla and Espresso Banana with Brownies.  The Banana Nut tasted too much like overripe bananas for me, and I didn’t really like the creamy mixture with the citrus in the mascarpone.  I knew I couldn’t go wrong with the Vanilla, and coffee sounded good to me after our South American dinner.  Chad went with the Egg Nog and Hazelnut Chip.  The small comes with two huge scoops of gelato, but for the price of $4.25, it was a pretty good deal for the best gelato in LA.  We sat outside by the heat lamps and tried each others flavors.  His Egg Nog was great, it was just very overwhelming, and I can only take so much Egg Nog in one winter season, going to have to wait after thanksgiving to have my yearly glass.  Our drive back to campus consisted of his persistent DJ-ing from my auxiliary iPod chord, and only getting lost for about 15 minutes.  He always argues that I never invite him to go anywhere with me, can’t say that anymore Chad.  I’d go on another adventure with him anytime, especially if he pays for the dessert again.