Hello and happy Friday!  How has your week been?  Besides this everlasting cold that does not want to get better (I’ve had no voice since Tuesday!), we had a good one over here.  In true Friday fashion, we are jumping in with Friday’s Food & Fitness!

This is where it all begins to get a bit crazy!  Last Friday for my birthday, the Hubs took me to D.O.M. (fancy!).   D.O.M. is number 9 on the World’s 50 Top Restaurants and it is the highest number restaurant we’ve been to besides Eleven Madison Park in NYC.  But with such a highly ranked restaurant right here in Sao Paulo, we knew we needed to check it out!

We started out with a glass of champers each to toast.  Mine was appropriately pink!

It was funny because most tasting menus we have tried have a list of everything they are going to serve us right down to the tiniest detail.  The menu at D.O.M. was literally: bread, seafood, meat, dessert.  We had asked for the menu in English so we could be sure we were understanding all the complexities.  Needless to say, I could have figured this one out in Portuguese!  Haha.

Everything on the menu was delicious and I was excited by the fact that the restaurant incorporated traditional Brazilian flavors like citronella, seaweed, amazonian fish, a play on feijoada (a traditional Brazilian dish), hearts of palm and more. 

This dish was topped with citronella.

A play on the traditional Brazilian feijoada.

Traditional Brazilian hearts of palm.

Jellyfish!

Peppers filled with sake!!

Watermelon with seaweed.  So much better than it looks and sounds!

And of course, my favorite part of the meal was eating ants.  That’s right you heard me.  They serve you ants.

I have to say, the ants were very tasty and I would eat them again.  Bring it on!

Overall we had a lovely evening full of food and good wine and it was such a lovely birthday dinner.  The service was definitely no where as good as Eleven Madison Park or some of the other top restaurants we’ve been to but it was still a very enjoyable experience.

After that meal, a lot of fitness!  I’ve been trying to take it a little easy with this awful cold but this fun mother-daughter pilates session did happen!

My mom and I are the best workout buddies.  Whenever we are together, it is full steam ahead with our workout classes.  This is probably completely driven by me but she is in great shape and loves to go along with me.  Plus she was a good sport with our two person pilates moves!

Readers, do you workout with either of your parents?  Have you eaten ants before?  What’s the best service you have ever had in a restaurant?