My Brazilian Lunch Lady

Growing up I envied the lunch lady.

She brought (and still brings) happiness to the crushed spirits of elementary, middle, and high school students (and she, yes she, because if said lunch lady was a he, the title would instead be “lunch gentleman”).

Brazil has carried on the tradition of charging you ludicrous prices for a bunch of meals you won’t ever eat by offering what resembles an all-you-can-put-on-your-plate-one-time-through-the-cafeteria-buffet.

A typical meal in the PUC-Rio cafeteria consists of bread, guaraná, rice, beans (feijão), and some type of meat; and all of this for only R$5.

To give you a point of comparison, it is not unusual to pay more than R$6 for an açaí (and often more than once a day) in Rio’s Zona Sul. The PUC-Rio lunch buffet is certainly worth the money, and it has yet to make me sick (night food may win that race).