After sticking close to home with a review of some of Liverpool’s finest eateries in the previous e-news, this month I’m going to veer slightly off the biotech beaten track!

I’ve recently had the pleasure of several business trips to Brazil. I’ve barely scratched the surface but I can already attest that Brazilian culture contains a cornucopia of culinary delights. I’m guessing that not a lot of readers have first hand experience of Brazilian hospitality, so here is my essential(ly worthless) guide to Brazilian food, football and faux pas:

Food: My top dining experience was a churrascaria in Port Alegre at Na Brasa. A churrascaria, for the uninitiated, is essentially a festival of meat. It’s a BBQ with a wide variety of whole cuts of meat grilled over coals with a huge (and very interesting) salad bar in close attendance. Waiters percolate through the restaurant hefting beef sirloins, legs of roast boar and other choice parts of slaughtered animals impaled on swords. Stopping at the tables they carve their various flesh based offerings as the diner so desires. They operated a red/green beer mat type system. If red, the waiter knows to keep on going, if green he stops to proffer. I couldn’t quite grasp the concept of declining slices of deliciously cooked steak, sausage and swine so I pretty much ate several pounds of meat in the first 5 minutes, barely pausing to draw breath. The end result was that I didn’t really need to eat again for the next couple of days. However, I did like the neat touch of suit jacket ‘bags’ that waiters placed over the backs of diners chairs – to prevent dripping meat juices from necessitating a trip to the dry cleaners.

At the other end of the calorie scale – if you are looking for a quick snack in an airport, coffee shop etc, I strongly recommend the small balls of Pao de Queijo (cheese bread). These gluten free snacks were so good I’ve even investigated several recipes since I came home to try and re create them. Not with any success so far!

Football: This is more of a boast than a review. Whilst in Belo Horizonte I was lucky enough to take in a world cup qualifying match between Brazil and Argentina at the incredible Mineirão stadium. Matches kick off late (about 10 pm) and there is an alcohol ban around the ground but despite that the atmosphere outside and within was incredible. Although firmly supporting Brazil I couldn’t prevent a small smile as Javier Mascherano (Liverpool) clattered through Anderson (Man U) forcing him to limp out of the game. It ended 0:0 – but it was a good game!



Faux Pas: OK. I guess most readers know what a Motel is? Do you know the difference between a Hotel and Motel? Well, I thought I did until I checked into a Brazilian Motel. These seem to be a fairly common feature along main roads into/out of cities – pretty much as you’d expect. Except Motels in Brazil serve a different purpose. These are discrete drive-in establishments where rooms are paid for by the hour. I at least visited an up market one. After driving through ‘reception’ into (for a full night, and without a ‘room guest’ I should add) the receptionist scribbled down a room number on a piece of paper, and the guest heads for the appropriately numbered garage door. Once parked in the garage, the door closes and the guest ascends internal steps to the room above. You can use your imaginations to paint a picture of the room, but put it this way; there was a double headed shower, a very large whirlpool bath with blue lighting and if I had turned on the TV, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been current affairs that I’d have found. I don’t think I’ve ever spent a night somewhere so clean and yet felt so dirty when I woke up!

Derek Ellison

Michael will be attending Protein Therapeutic Discovery and Development Conference, San Diego, 8-9 Sep. If you would like to set up a meeting please contact Michael.

Roger will be attending Baculovirus Technology, Boston, 17-18 Sep. If you would like to set up a meeting please contact Roger.

Kassim will be attending Biotech Forum, Copenhagen, 23-25 Sept. If you would like to set up a meeting please contact Kassim.

Roger and Michael will be attending BioProcess International Conference, Anaheim, CA 23-26 Sept. We will also be presenting some recent advances in viral purification. Come and visit us at booth #314 or if you’d like to set up a meeting with Roger or Michael please contact Jo.

For a full list of events we will be attending please visit the events page of our website.