boba bubble puba tea

Bubble Tea from Teahouse
picture courtesy of yakisobanao

We've hunted down the real deal... Boba Tea, Bubble Tea or Puba Tea as it's known here can be found at the Tea Station on Rua da Gloria, 283 in Liberdade. It's been open since last July and I must've walked past it hundreds of times..

It's really simple - a bar with a computer and some canisters to make the tea. On the wall there are lots of post it notes from adoring customers and some pictures of Taiwan, home of the Boba Tea.

R7.25 for your simple milk bubble tea, and they have lots of different flavours. So if you're looking for another excuse to head down to Liberdade (aside from dumplings, fresh noodles, peking duck and massages).. here it is!

More dumplings

I was recommended another restaurants in Liberdade for dumplings so I went today to pick up 100 dumplings to put in the freezer - basically for backup when I have the baby. I'm not sure if they will last the next few days. I got 80 pork ones and 30 veggie ones which are amazing. I pan fried and steamed a mix of them.


Their portuguese isn't great, mine is bad. My chinese is awful (I really can't hold more than 1.5 languages in my head at one time) and their english is non-existent but I got the message across!!

Restaurante Jardim Meio Hectare  (半𠺖園 )

Rua Thomas Gonzaga, 65

3207-3133

E.CO

Sorry I haven't been blogging in awhile. We were travelling for most of June and had a friend visiting the start of July, and it always takes me a bit of time to mentally return to 'normal'. We are also still waiting for our visas, which is taking longer than expected. We really shouldn't be surprised. So we are in a 'holding zone' for now  - it's hard to make plans if you're not sure where you're going to be next month. That said, we are still making the most of Sao Paulo being our new home. On the weekend we went and did some exploring of parks. Spent some time chilling in Parque Ibirapuera and Parque Vila Lobos, hunted down a pretty decent chinese restaurant in Liberdade (Tenzan on R. Galvao Bueno which has giant portions, you only need one or two dishes for 4 people). We also visited Centro Cultural Sao Paulo  which is an open building next to Vergueiro metro. It serves as a library, meeting place, exhibition space, shelter from rain; courses, various performances and collections can be also found there.

There is a fantastic photography exhibition currently running called E.CO - a display of 20 photographic collections from Latin America and Europe. My favourite collections were NoPhoto (Espanha) which was a series of photos of chinese cyclists training in a chinese metropolis, Documentography (UK) which showed the impact of urbanisation throughout the world and SupayFotos (Peru) which depicted local life. I think everyone nowadays, with a digital camera and photoshop, fancies themselves as a photographer, but this exhibition has reminded me of why photographers are justified in calling themselves professional. Most of my photos are stored away on my computer somewhere never to see life in print. Seeing these well thought out images blown-up, close and personal is truly enlightening. Definitely worth it! (and then Liberdade is just up the road for lunch). 

*p.s if you are lover of photographic exhibitions and travel a bit, here are some other spaces that are worth visiting if you are in NY (International Center of Photography near Times Square ) or London (Getty Images Gallery near Oxford Circus).