Porto Alegre notes

Dinner with ravioli, ice water, and a small coke cost $40.  It was very good, but no better than in the days of hyperinflation.  The real has risen more than forty percent against the U.S. dollar since 2008.

There is much here to study if you favor a greater density of high-rise buildings in cities.  The population tends to grow beyond the limits of the infrastructure, but arguably that would happen with sprawling suburbs too.

You can taste the future (and past) of bananas, once current U.S. brands are devastated by rot.  It is a bright future, though with lower quantity and probably higher price.

People keep on asking me if I know what acai is, and how Americans consume it.

“Cheeseburger” is spelled “Xis,” because that sound is how some Brazilians mispronounce the opening sound of”cheeseburger.”  Xis is now as much of a platform for culinary innovation as it is a specific meal.  It needn’t have meat or cheese at all, and it might be based on chicken hearts.  “Sweet pizza” is another creative culinary platform here.  Churrascarias are the static part of the food sector.

Pastels (a bit like empanadas) are very good and the expected rate of return from sampling random chocolate desserts is high.

If you imagine the Jardin section of Sao Paulo, and make it quieter and safer and greener, with an influence from B.A.’s Palermo district, you have the nice part of Porto Alegre, Moinhos.

The English-language expat sections of foreign bookstores are interesting; you get to see what people wish to read, not which books they wish to buy.