Rio 2016: Olympic menus around London

The capital's menus are getting fit for Rio, finds Frankie McCoy
Spicy sausage: Tico’s salsicha hot dog, with cheese and onions
Frankie McCoy3 August 2016

There are only two days to go until the Rio 2016 Olympics starting gun fires, and it’s time to consider how you’ll have the energy for your own endurance event: sitting on your bum to watch it. Seeing superhumans push themselves to their physical limits is hungry work.

Stay on brand with Brazilian cuisine, which is succulent and packs energy. London’s restaurants are full of it: from cheese balls in Hoxton to Benugo’s chicken churrasco wraps on the high street, via fried crab pies in Tower Bridge and a stupendous amount of barbecued meat, Rio appropriate food is everywhere.

The Olympic opening ceremony starts at 7pm on Friday, perfect timing for a cachaca-soaked party. Sprint-start off in our own 2012 Olympic Village, now the East Village, where Darkhorse is screening the fireworks, pyrotechnics and surprise pop-star performances, and serving baked bacalhau (saltfish), hake and the Brazilian stew feijoada, and dangerous cachaca cocktails.

Then jump on your bike for a 4km individual pursuit to Rio Boteco, a pop-up at London Fields’ Institute of Light, where you’ll find authentic dishes including moqueca (seafood, coconut and palm oil curry) and cassava chips.

Your final stretch takes you to to St Katharine Docks, for street-food specialists Epicurean Events’ one-off Rio Market. Traders Muffin Man & Co will be frying up pasteis — basically, a crab-filled version of the best Greggs pasty you’ve ever had — while Tico's, London’s only Brazilian hot-dog specialist, is serving its special northeast Brazilian salsicha: beef dogs, marinated and served in fresh tomato sauce, with fondue cheese, (more) shredded beef and onions.

Think that’s a lot of cow? That’s just the warm-up. Beef is Brazil’s bread and butter, and the country’s churrascarias, bottomless steak restaurants, are being replicated at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen. Its resident chefs Smokey Tails will barbecue colossal quantities of meat on sticks with citrus salsa.

Then see if you can beat Usain Bolt’s 200m world record on your sprint from there to The Hoxton. There are none of his favourite chicken nuggets: instead, the hotel is launching a Brazilian menu for its Hox de Janeiro celebrations. Dishes include picanha (a rump cap of beef) and coxinhas (chicken coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried like a Scotch egg).

If you aren’t steaked out already, Soho steakhouse Mash is pairing huge slabs of seared beef with a trio of mini cachaça cocktails for £12, including an English garden twist on the caipirinha, with added lavender and rosemary syrup.

And because there’s nothing like an internationally celebrated event to get London’s burger maestros flipping themed patties, complete your beefy triathlon with Gourmet Burger Kitchen’s X-Burger: two 6oz beef patties, mature cheddar, baconnaise, grilled pineapple, Cajun relish, jalapeños, chillies, crispy onions.

While the world’s best athletes slurp energy gels and protein shakes, make eating your Olympic sport.

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