Observations: Kitchens

As previously mentioned, most apartments and houses only have a cold water supply.  A proper hot water supply such as we are used to in Europe/US/Canada is the preserve of the super-rich and, err... footballers.  This means the sink, washing machine, etc all only use cold water.

Kitchen sinks are usually square/rectangle-shaped and deep.  Most sinks will have a double-sided draining board which is completely flat.  Older/nicer apartments & houses will have draining boards made of solid stone.  Some more modern and cheaper draining boards are just made of metal.  They're crap.  The draining boards made of stone are obviously better, you simply use a squeedgy to wipe the water and dirt off.

Kitchen appliances in peoples homes often look cheap and/or old compared to what you would be used to.  Don't be fooled.  Kitchen appliances in Brazil - especially in Sao Paulo - are really expensive.  Seriously, even in GBPs they can be 2, 3 sometimes 4 times the price depending on the brand and how common/rare the style/type of appliance is.  People here don't replace washing machines or fridge-freezers because they are old/don't look nice/don't fit in with the new decor, they replace them only if they stop working.  Getting appliances that match is the preserve of the rich too.  Brazilians tend to buy the simplest thing that works.

This is because almost everything electrical in Brazil is imported and the import duty is astronomical - at least 60% - not to mention 20% VAT added on top (in SP state).  Having said that, good appliances can last a long time and we have been impressed with the reliability of their gas stoves & ovens.  The child safety catches are a pain in the ass though.

Dishwashers are rare, I haven't actually seen one in a house or apartment yet.  They are available, but again they're expensive.  Also, the people who can afford them can usually afford a maid to come in a couple of times a week and clean for them, and they'd rather have that than a dishwasher.  It's all a bit Ancient Rome - I'll write a blog about it another time.

Most kitchens will have an additional room/area attached to it called the 'área de serviço' (service area).  This is a room specially for doing laundry.  Here you will find an upright washing machine, a handwashing sink (very deep, with an angled ridge for scrubbing), and a clothes horse (often hanging from the ceiling - ingenious).  There are usually some cupboards and storage in this room specifically used for household cleaning products, laundry detergent, etc.  Brooms, brushes, rubber floor sweepers for washing the floors are kept here too.  The área de serviço is always well ventilated and near a window for the rapid drying of clothes.  It is rare to see a dryer in a home: they use up a lot of electricity and they're not needed most of the time - clothes dry quickly in the heat.


Kitchen floors are almost always tiled.  They will often have a drain or two on the floor in the room for the purposes of cleaning the floor.  Tiled floors are cleaned by flooding the floor with soapy water and pushing the water towards the drains with a rubber broom.  The rubber broom also wipes the floor dry.  I much prefer it to mopping - that takes ages to dry and you have to keep wringing the mop.


Brazilian kitchens don't often have a lot of kitchen surfaces or room to prepare food.  I have no idea why this is, it's really aggravating.  We end up using the sink area a lot for that kind of thing.  Also, they don't tend to have a lot of cupboard space.  I'm mystified by this, too.


Cutlery and crockery are cheap and tatty looking.  Most people use cutlery that has plastic handles, it's unusual to see decent quality all-metal cutlery.  Decent quality crockery sets are also rare (and expensive).  I've seen a fair amount of plastic crockery in use.  Ceramic crockery is expensive, even the kind we would normally consider basic.  Brazilians love their tupperware - every home has an impressive stock in a range of sizes and colours.


They use pressure cookers a LOT.  Mainly for rice and beans (which they eat all the time), but I'd imagine it's for other stuff too.  It's actually a novel way to save on gas consumption.  Brazilians are very concerned with keeping their gas and electricity bills down.


Toasters: they don't use them.  They all seem to have electric sandwich-makers and toaster ovens, which is nice, but they're not toasters.  They don't eat toast.  I, however, do.  I'm English: I like to eat toast for breakfast.  Toasters are available to buy (they're not very good), so we bought one.  It makes me feel human,

General Observations: Bathrooms

I've been putting together a list of things that are different/interesting about various aspects of life in Brazil.  Today's topic is bathrooms.

Showers
Pretty much every home has a shower.  It is unusual to have a bath - houses or larger/older apartments might have one.  The water supply consists only of cold water.  Usually, the only household fixture in an apartment or house that produces hot water will be the shower.  This is only because the shower fitting is connected to the mains electricity and the cold water is heated up this way.  If the electricity supply goes down, you will be having some seriously cold showers.  I have experienced this a couple of times.  Because of the way the water in the shower is heated, it never really gets as hot as it does in a boiler system - Brazilian showers are usually just warm enough or lukewarm.  Showers cubicles here are often rectangular in shape, which means plenty of room to move around inside, and the drainage system is excellent.  The bottom is usually tiled very well with a ridge around the edge, so no water can escape into the rest of the bathroom.  Shower installations are very solid here.

Toilets
They usually have a button flush on the top, other than that they're not particularly different to what I've seen before.  What is different is the Brazilian plumbing system: it cannot handle toilet paper being flushed down the loo, the pipes are too thin.  Therefore, bathroom & toilet cubicles everywhere have a little bin supplied for the disposal of used toilet paper.  YES, EVEN WHEN YOU'VE DONE A NUMBER TWO.  Sounds a bit gross, huh?  I was pretty grossed out to begin with myself.  I made the mistake of flushing my used toilet paper down the loo for my first couple of weeks in Brazil, which caused a blockage in the toilet at the apartment I was staying at.  After that, I learned my lesson, bit the bullet, and learned to wrap up my used toilet paper neatly and dispose of it in the bins provided.

Sinks
As mentioned before, there is only a cold water supply to most homes so sinks usually only have one tap: the cold one.
N.B. Having said that most bathrooms only have a single cold tap, there are some that don't.  Like, at the Copacabana Palace, for instance.  My mother went in there to use their bathrooms and saw two taps on each sink.  It had been so long since she had seen a sink with two taps, that she had forgotten how to use them.  Plus, the taps were marked 'F' ('frio' = cold) and 'Q' ('quente' = hot) so she had to stand there for a few seconds to work out which one was which.

Bathrooms in general
Most bathrooms are completely tiled over: the walls, the floor, the shower - everything.  You won't see lino or carpet in a bathroom in Brazil.  It really is the most practical way to fit out a bathroom - it's easy to clean and lasts ages.