Resilience: there’s a word that annoys me. It has been removed from its original context—it’s about the property of materials that regain their original shape after being deformed—into a corporate and motivational metaphor.
In this context, resilience is the capacity that people, companies and sectors have to react and recover from adverse situations. A concept similar to that overcoming (another little word that has already given what it had to give).
But sometimes you have to give your arm to twist: there is no better word to define the survival of restaurants by the kilo to the Covid-19 pandemic. When I predicted its extinction in the article “Coronavirus will end the restaurant by the kilo” (29/4/20), I was wrong to disregard the formidable resilience of the sector.
I was certainly panic-stricken. I spent the first two months of the pandemic locked up at home alone. I estimated that the plague would bring about permanent changes in habits, in which I was not entirely mistaken.
To stay in the restaurant sector, we still have houses that work with the ill-fated menu in QR code. There are few snack bars that exchanged the hideous sachets of condiments for the good old tubes of ketchup and mustard. The gel alcohol bottle is here to stay, to make romantic dinners and instagrammable photos ugly.
The kilo, however, survived the storm. It is a solid Brazilian institution and must face other storms while paleterias, açaíterias, brigadeirias and tapiocaries go bankrupt due to the expiration of the novelty.
Alive and bouncy, buffets by weight are not quite as they were in 2019. Certain pandemic precautions still persist.
When the pandemic subsided, buffets began to require disposable gloves when serving – my Shrek hands always broke them –, something that has since been relaxed.
A few weeks ago, on a trip to the interior of Bahia, I entered a restaurant by the kilo with the following sign: “Please do not talk while serving”.
Keeping silent is sensible because of the splinters and for so many other reasons. I missed the precious chance to be quiet in April 2020 when I predicted the end of the pounds.
I messed up
Inspired by an initiative by the New York Times, Folha invited six of its columnists to revisit errors and outdated opinions that were published in their columns over the years.
I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years, and my work has been featured on many different news websites. I am also an author, and my work has been published in several books. I specialize in opinion writing, and I often write about current events and controversial topics. I am a very well-rounded writer, and I have a lot of experience in different areas of journalism. I am a very hard worker, and I am always willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done.
