During his bleakest days, one of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s favorite cooks traveled 800 miles from the capital to the city where he was imprisoned for graft to make him a rabada, a typical Brazilian dish of oxtail.
Maria de Jesus Oliveira da Costa, 68, known as “Aunt Zelia,” had to pay a hotel manager in Curitiba to use the kitchen to prepare the meal. Once it was ready, she put the dish in a lunch bag and sent it to the former president’s cell.
“I didn’t want to see him in jail,” Zelia said at her simple restaurant near the presidential palace in Brasilia, in between serving tables and chatting with customers. “But I sent a letter along with the food.”
