Living in a Brazilian Condo

I read almost everyday expats complaining about Brazilian condos and fees. The complains arise from the lack of understanding about how condos are structured in Brazil.

Most people in large Brazilian cities live in condos (condomínios). There are houses, apartments and even country houses condos; upper class, middle class and lower class condos.

Living in a condo is convenient and it is perceived as safer than a house. You don't have to care about gardening, building maintenance, outdoor cleaning, exterior painting and so on. Most of the times, you have a doorman and 24h electronic security, burglary is very rare and you can leave your unit empty of people for days and weeks while keeping your peace of mind.

It's unusual a condo to have just one landlord in Brazil. In most cases, each condo unit is independently owned. For each condo, the owners gather in an association called "Assembleia Geral do Condomínio". Then they meet and approve enhancements and expenses, elect a representative called "síndico", decide how to maintain the condo area, and what services should be provided and shared.

All the shared services and expenses are supported by the residents through a monthly fee called "taxa de condomínio". In most condos, the residents are a mix of owners and tenants. Permanent enhancements to the condo, like a new swimming pool, improve the property value and are supported only by the owners. It's usual to see the "taxa de condomínio" split between investment ("investimento" -- supported only by owners) and expenses ("despesas" -- supported by all residents -- owners or tenants).

Generally, the owners representative (síndico) hires a professional administrator (in most cases, the cheapest company he can find) to keep accounting records, pay employees by the Law, maintain the area and calculate and collect fees.

It's important to stress that the owner is the ultimate responsible for the "taxa de condomínio". If he rents the unit and the tenant does not pay the "taxa de condomínio", the owner will. If the unit is sold and there are outstanding debts ("taxas de condomínio em aberto"), the new owner is responsible for them. In the worst scenario, as the outstanding debts grow, the unit owner can be sued by the owner's association and lose his property.

When I have time, I'll post "Being a Tenant in a Brazilian Condo"! I hope you enjoy...

Italian Restaurants in São Paulo

São Paulo houses the largest Italian population in Brazil. There are many Italian restaurants, as you may expect, most of them with Northern Italian accent. What you may not know is that over the years many São Paulo restaurants have hired Northern Brazilians as cookers and with them came their non Italian influences. More important, however, is that some Italian ingredients are not available in Brazil, or their Brazilian counterparts don't taste the same.

Does this mean there aren´t good or even excellent Italian restaurants in São Paulo? Well, it depends on your references... Most of them are more authentic than the ones in the US. Some fulfill any expectations. The two I like most are:
Vinheria Percussi: famous for the extense wine list and the quality and speed of its cuisine.
Restaurante Cosi: "cosi" in Italian means "this way". It's a place where the food is prepared the way it should.

I wouldn't recommend, however, local restaurants that cost up to 6 times more than top Italian restaurants in Italy! I'm talking about Fasano et alli...

Earthquake! And True Italian Food...

I'm in Parma, Italy, this week, 25mi from last night quake epicenter! 6 degrees strong, 7 people died! Some beautiful nearby old buildings are cracked, specially in Bologna. I hope the Italian people can find a way to restore them. At Parma's Duomo, where I am now, everything is fine.

Let's go to dinner now! Yesterday I had tortelli di mortadella, grigliata mista, tiramisù and Nero D'Avola wine. Excellent! And everything for less than 40 euro in a renowned place with only 6 tables. Very exclusive...

The best Italian restaurants in São Paulo are light-years behind! That's not a surprise for me, since most São Paulo chefs at Italian restaurants are from northern Brazil and they carry their influences from their native land and not from Italy.

In January, by the way, the most prestigious Parma restaurant, La Greppia, boasted a truffle festival. Five courses meal plus fine red wine for 76 euro (all included). At the same time, Fasano Italian restaurant in São Paulo had its own truffle festival for R$690, NOT including parking, taxes, wine, water etc... The cover is 6 times pricier than the original thing. And, for who that doesn't know it, Parma region is the top place to get the top Italian food on Earth...

Not so Brazilian Things Perceived as Brazilian by Expats

I love reading expat blogs and their daily discoveries. Maybe because I like to share my own experiences as well.

Whenever I go to some new place, I almost immediately get that feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore... It's inevitable to compare the new surroundings with the places I was before. For each new experience, I wonder if it is a typical local one or not.

But what makes a typical local experience? Being locally developed? Taking place just locally? Being free of foreign influence?

Born Again Brazilian has been writing an extensive list of Brazilian experiences. Over 100 for now! One can find many other Brazilian experiences in other expat blogs. Nevertheless, I've noticed some experiences are not so "Brazilian"...

So I decided to make a list of things perceived as Brazilians by expats, but not not found only in Brazil or not native from Brazil.

THE LIST (PART I)!

1. Not refrigerated eggs in supermarkets. Yes, eggs are sold not refrigerated in Brazil, but not only here! Eggs are sold not refrigerated in Italy too, for example...

2. Passion fruit mousse. Passion fruit, or maracujá, is very Brazilian, but mousse is French. Yet I think passion fruit mousse is a Brazilian creation, you can find it in France (mousse aux fruits de la passion)!

3. Pavê. Very popular in Brazil, it's a French dessert with a French name (pavé).

4. Hot dogs for breakfast. Commonly found in Brazilian hotels' buffets, and nowhere else! Brazilians think Americans have hot dogs for breakfast, so they serve them at hotels...

5. Sweetened condensed milk. It's a Swiss invention by Nestlé. In 1893 Nestlé opened the first factory in Cham, Switzerland, to market the first condensed milk, MILKMAID. Brazil has the highest consumption of sweetened condensed milk worldwide, however. It seems the Brazilians have been the most creative people worldwide in developing condensed milk recipes!

6. UHT milk. Ultra High Temperature processed milk. It's very popular all over the world. The only exception is the US. It can last up to 6 months with no refrigeration, until opened.

Common Sense

So you moved to Brazil, the land of samba, tiny bikinis and so on... Once in Brazil, social behavior, family relations, general attitude towards sex, the food, the overwhelming red tape, the human diversity etc., all of them seem so strange, different and new that you don't know if your hardly developed common sense still applies.

Well, there may be some striking differences between your home country and your new home...

But, be sure: if your common sense says some situation is wrong, strange or very unusual, probably it is! 90% of the time, the same standards apply to Brazil, the US and Europe. At least, if you stay in the more developed and cosmopolitan centers...

Read this post from Jana and you'll know what I'm talking about!
http://mypaperplains.blogspot.com.br/2012/04/crazier-things-have-happened.html