Rio

There are vendors everywhere in this city, from the sensual tourist beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana to the crowded, workaday streets of the Centro, Rio's bustling downtown. Most sell from the type of mobile van that dispenses snacks all over the world, but street food here seems to bring out the jeito � that singularly Brazilian ability to adapt, to be clever, to make do with what you have � in everyone. It must be jeito, for example, that accounts for the traveling bicycle kitchens that are a favorite of so many clever-but-impoverished entrepreneurs in this city. At one such ambulatory stand along the Ipanema sidewalk, pizza comes piping hot from a wood-fired oven that has been soldered together from stacks of metal boxes. There is a Styrofoam "freezer" for the premade pies; a place for the wood; the oven, with several levels for the logs, the ash, and air circulation; and metal trays on which to cook the pizza. A foil-wrapped chimney towers about eight feet tall, only slightly higher than the sign � "Pizza Na Lenha" � that is hand-lettered in red tape on a yellow background. In addition to pizza, there are plenty of other stands selling hot buttered corn (efficiently served in the husk), grilled shrimp, and warm peanuts dispensed from candle-heated tiffin carriers.

Back in downtown, you'll also find plenty of kiosks and open-fronted shops selling all kinds of goodies. On the busy, graffiti-filled corner of Rua Primeiro de Mar�o, in front of Pra�a XV, skewers of meat and cheese brown on a huge grill. Empanada stands line the bustling Rua Uruguaiana (by the metro station of the same name), and it is fascinating to watch as thin rounds of dough emerge from an electric pasta machine to be filled with chicken, or ham and cheese, before being fried. Fruit and suco (juice) stands are everywhere; try fresh suco de caju (cashew apple juice) or sweet-sour passion-fruit juice. And all over town, shiny mobile carts selling fried churros (stuffed to order with chocolate or dulce de leche) cluster near the corners of almost every metro station. On weekends, many of the vendors relocate to Copacabana or Ipanema, where they mill around the edges of the vast stretches of Atlantic beach. So don't worry about missing out on anything if you choose to stay put at the beach rather than to make the long trek into others parts of town, which, in Rio, can be crowded and rather frenetic.

Most food carts, no matter where in the city, come with a side of urban philosophy. A sign on one of them is typical of this style of street-smart advice: "Cuida da sua vida e deixa que Jesus cuida da minha" ("Take care of your own life and let Jesus take care of mine"). But with all the jeito on display, the vendors of Rio seem to know just how to take care of themselves.