Village and Vegetables

There is a link! The afternoon started with me longing for a big salad. Brazil is the land of meat and although I do eat meat, I also love my vegetables and was starting to get in a bit of withdrawal. The day finished with yet more meat – but some interesting ones!

I managed to get to the village yesterday. The village is the neatest part of the Games and it’s a beautiful one. It may not be the most exciting – a Gold Medal performance surely is – but it is the most memorable. I make my way using the carpool service specific to the Games – a colourful fleet of cars driven by volunteers.

The dining hall is the largest I’ve ever seen – and these are my 8th Games. Finding people will be a challenge. I am wearing our white T with black shorts – so I look like a Kiwi or German – and then I come across German athletes in red and white on my way in – this is really going to be a test, and I’m not visually impaired. And yet I find all sorts of people I know – mostly Canadians.

Then comes the quest for the elusive salad which shall remain elusive since there was only one salad station and a long lineup. So I go for noodles and cooked broccoli with a nice piece of chicken. Not gourmet food but pretty good. Alas no ice cream…

Before the pace really picks up, we decide to go to a small restaurant that serves a typical dish called Faijoada which is a stew of black beans loaded with all sorts of meats. Serves with rice and yucca, it’s excellent and I even eat the blood sausage which I really usually wouldn’t touch. We did get about a quarter of a cup of greens but that’s it. So the search continues!