A great option in Sao Paulo if you want to meet new friends, have excellent appetisers and hamburgers, and play snooker while enjoying live music is the Canucks, located in the Vila Olimpia region. It is a fantastic place and English is spoken (www.canuckspub.com).

Rua Gomes de Carvalho 1666 phone 55-11-3463-5240
www.canuckspub.com

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Despite being a chain, Fogo de Chao is one of the most incredible restaurants I've visited. We dined there the night before this year's Grand Prix, and although our hotel had made a mistake with our booking, they still managed to accommodate our party of ten on what must be their busiest night of the year. The service, food and wine was outstanding - there's a set menu and the gaucho waiters will keep bringing various meats to your table and carve them, until you signify you've had your fill by turning over your drinks coaster, from green (Yes!) to red (No more!). There's a wonderful salad bar and wine list, and the staff are great. Highly recommended!

www.fogodechao.com

São Paulo, Vila Olimpia, Av. dos Bandeirantes, 538
(55) 11-5505-079

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If Sao Paulo is only a stopover as a transport hub for you, then this is a good hotel that has deals on the net and if you join their scheme (which is free) gives you late check-out at 4pm. Free transport to and from the airport too.

Rua Rafael Balzani, 32
Guarulhos
Tel: 55 11 6475 7500
tryp.guarulhos@solmelia.com

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In this respect São Paulo is truly exceptional. When you see these you begin to understand the city's culinary reputation. São Paulo's street markets receive fruit and vegetables from all over Brazil and from Chile and Argentina. What is more, ringing the city are thousands of Japanese-Brazilian market gardens.

The selection of greens alone is massive: mustard, many types of lettuce, chicory, fennel, rocket, bok choy, fresh melokias (not many places outside of the Middle East where you can get it), spinach, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, watercress...stalls and stalls of massive bunches of fresh herbs: dill, mint, basil (several types), lemon grass, rosemary, oregano, coriander, parsley, sage - basically everything you can think of.

As for the fruit, it ranges from Amazonian looking stuff, to tropical: pineapples, papayas, mangoes (palmer, Tommy Atkins, small green citrus-flavoured ones, and more) and jackfruit. A good pérola pineapple when in season will impregnate the flat and your hands with its aroma for the whole day. It will be very sweet, not sharp and not fibrous. It literally melts in your mouth. Similarly a perfect mango.

There is also plenty of fruit more associated with temperate weather: apples, pears, strawberries, blackberries, plums, as well as Mediterranean-climate fruit such as watermelons, grapes and so forth.

Also at the markets: fish stalls, meat stalls, spice stalls (you can find most of the basics you'll need for curries, for example), hardware, cheap toys.

The tradition is to drink a cane-juice (with lime juice) and eat a fried "pastel" (minced meat or palm heart are my favourites).

There are markets all over the city. The ones I've used are:
Friday: Rua Sergipe, in Higienópolis, opposite Zilana. Genteel. You can stop off for excellent coffee and sweetmeats before or after at "Dulca".

Saturday: Corner of R. Helvetia with Barão de Campinas. Far less genteel. The neighbourhood used to be the administrative center of the city. Now faded and nervously on the edge of crack-land.

Sunday: Amaral Gurgel, at Sta Cecília underground station. Huge, bustling, under the flyover (flyover incidentally closed to traffic on Sundays for pedestrians to amble).

Sunday: Praça Roosevelt. A smaller version of the Amaral Gurgel one, at the bottom of Rua da Consolação. Easier to handle, but very bustling nonetheless.

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