Friday’s Featured Food: Brazilian Pizza in Sao Paulo Bakeries

I know what people will say before I even start here and that is “how can you call it a pizza if it’s not from Italy?” but seriously, I’ve been to Italy 3 times so I know what Italian pizza tastes like and I know it’s good. That’s beyond question! Or stating the obvious. Then I heard that Sao Paulo in Brazil is one of the best places to try pizza OUTSIDE Italy so I headed there!

For a start, please note that Sao Paulo is a mega busy city. Even the Lonely Planet calls it a monster!! The term monster very much sums Sao Paulo up! But away from the skyscraping metropolis, I found time to relax and visit no less than 3 Brazilian Bakeries. I was a food and drink addict in Sao Paulo, inspired by the delicious pizzas and the cocktails from my “local pub for 4 nights”, Rei Das Batidas.

First up a definition is needed: What is a Brazilian Bakery?

I posed that question to my good mate Rodrigo on my first night in Sao Paulo. Rodrigo is a good friend of mine who I met in Antarctica in 2010 and have since travelled to Indonesia with. While staying in Sao Paulo, I stayed in Rodrigo’s flat which is near a river and a university (as Sao Paulo goes, that’s probably a decent description!). Hunger and thirst had kicked in after my first tour of the streets and University near Rodrigo’s flat and my brain was telling me “beer and pizza!” So it was off to find a local bakery. It didn’t take long, these “bakeries” are scattered all over “the monster”.

Why do I call them bakeries?

Because that’s the term Rodrigo used, and it fits so I’m using it. Rodrigo is a local Sao Paulo resident. He knows the ins and outs of the city.

What exactly is a Brazilian Bakery?

It is kind of a mix between a café, a restaurant, a bakery and a bar. Basically it’s a cheap, quick and easy place to eat in Sao Paulo. What was even better was that the bakeries we visited were all relatively quiet, as I was staying outside the main city centre. This meant we could really relax in Sao Paulo.

Enough about Brazilian bakeries, what was the pizza like?

 Delicious. Totally top notch. I have to say that YES, Sao Paulo is the best place to eat pizza outside of Italy. Heaped with cheese, oozing with flavor and endless in variety, these Brazilian Bakeries sure know how to make and cook pizzas!

I was addicted to them, and we visited a further two of them during my time in “the monster”, gulping down beers with our pizzas before heading for Brazilian cocktails at the local Rei Das Batidas.

I loved Sao Paulo and I am gasping for more of Brazil, having only visited Sao Paulo, Recife and Foz Do Iguacu so far. I have friends in Curitiba, Sao Paulo and Recife so I am seriously aiming to head back for the 2014 World Cup. It’s football!

Brazil does football,beer and pizza well. Hats off to the chefs in the bakeries of Sao Paulo and thanks once again to my travel buddy Rodrigo. “Saudi!” 

I didn’t make any videos in the bakeries as I was too busy scoffing down the pizzas, but here’s a video from the local pub Rei Das Batidas (King of Cocktails) in Sao Paulo:

Brazilian Pizza in Sao Paulo Bakeries is Friday’s Featured Food this week, one of my regular features on Don’t Stop Living – a lifestyle of travel!