Did I just unwittingly innovate in my local paderia (bakery-cum-cafe) ? A rare solo outing, I found myself ordering yet another pao na chapa and cafe com leite. Surely I'm not becoming addicted ? But then, wanting something a little more adventurous, I asked for another old familiar: a pao da queijo, aka little white-bread ball stuffed with semi-baked cheese. Eaten fresh and hot they can be delicious, but stodgy and cold is bad news. So I asked for them "quente" (hot). What I got was this, the aforementioned ball cut in half, squashed flat and grilled just like a pao na chapa. Tasted pretty good, too. But my question is: did a possible misunderstanding by the waitress result in this interesting hybrid or is it just something I've not come across before ? I won't rest until my curiosity's appetite is sated !PS: That big fat card next to the plate is something many places hand you when you walk in. All purchases are logged on the card's magnetic stripe and tallied up when you pay the cashier on leaving. It's so typical and infuriating of Brazil that when you ask them to give you just one collective card rather than one for each person in your group, thus freeing up precious table space, the underpaid staff look at you incomprehendingly and politely insist that you must have one each. Those are The Rules, and as always in Brazil, The Rules must not be questioned.
The "one card per person" rule has a very simple reason: it keeps a group of people from walking in with more than one card, putting expenses on one of them, leaving it behind, and presenting another card with few or no expenses at the exit. Forcing everyone to have one (and only one) card makes sure all expenses are tallied up, barring more creative methods of forgery. Leave it to "gringos" to be this innocent... ;)
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