By Kieran Dobson
October 3, 2008
Brazil is the land of plenty, the abundance of fertile land and rainfall in most parts means that food should never be lacking and the variety is overwhelming: churrasco, pastel com caldo de cana, açai, bolinho de aipim com carne seca, bobo de camarão, moqueca, pé-de-moleque... What's that? You've either got no idea what you just read or you're drooling from the mouth after being bombarded with an array of delicious Brazilian cuisine.
The effect of 500 years of immigration beginning with the Portuguese colonisation and later influences from around the globe have contributed to Brazilian cuisine. There is a strong African influence in Bahian cuisine due to the slave trade being centred around Salvador, the capital of Bahia. Shrimp, seafood, coconut milk, palm oil are common ingredients in the dishes here. Minas Gerais is a state rich in agricultural production, the white cheese is often referred to as Queijo Minas (Minas Cheese) as a lot of dairy products come from this state. Comida Mineira is also famed throughout Brazil, offering a selection of very filling meat and pork dishes, with rich sauces. It is also renowned for its cachaça production.
A tradition inherited from the Portuguese is the use of dried codfish, dishes such as bolinhos de bacalhau (cod balls, probably balls of codfish sounds better actually), the cod is also a highlight of the Christmas and Easter fare.
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil and probably one of the most culturally diverse; Brazilians know it as the best place to enjoy pizza or sushi, testament to the large Italian and Japanese communities. Arab food such as kibe or esfihas can be found at almost any Brazilian snackbar nowadays.
Açai is a berry found in the Amazon and northern parts of Brazil. It is often enjoyed as a snack or a power booster for bodybuilders and athletes. The basic purple mixture of the mashed berries is usually frozen and often mixed with banana, guarana powder and sugar, eaten cold, the consistency somewhere between ice cream and liquid. To this can be added other enhancers such as tapioca, granola, riceflakes or other cereals. In the regions where açai is harvested such as the state of Para, it is often mixed with manioc flour to form a thick paste pirão and consumed with fish or shrimp.
If you are travelling around the country and staying in the small pousadas a typical breakfast will more than likely consist of the following: coffee, juices such as orange, pineapple, guava, acerola as well as breadrolls with ham and cheese, sweet pastries and some fresh fruits like bananas, mango, papaya and pineapple.
Salt, sugar, garlic, onions, chilli (known as pimenta) are some basic ingredients that are used frequently and abundantly in Brazilian cuisine. Coffee is usually drunk in small servings, yet brewed very strong and taken with a lot of sugar. The standard rice and beans that are eaten on a daily basis, use much salt, garlic and onion in the preparation.
To get an idea of the great variety of foods you can encounter in Brazil, you should experience the comida a kilo or food by weight restaurants that are a popular option especially for workers who have limited time for their lunch break. You select what you want from the buffet and pay for the amount you eat by its weight. A fair solution as you pay exactly for what you eat. Some of these restaurants allow you to pay a fixed price, you serve yourself once, filling up your plate as you wish, however there is usually a restriction on the pieces of meat you can serve yourself.
Churrasco - BBQ Brazilian style
Brazil is the land of plenty... plenty of land, plenty of water, plenty of beaches with plenty of beautiful women, plenty of food and plenty of beef. Brazil happens to be one of the leading beef exporters in the world, so when you go to a BBQ restaurant known as the Churrascaria to eat churrasco you know you will struggle to leave, due to the enormous quantities of prime Brazilian beef on offer.
Some of the cuts you will be offered in the churrascaria include: picanha, maminha, alcatra, cupim (ox-hump) and some other intriguing animal parts like coração de frango (chicken heart). A lot of the beef cuts are different to elsewhere so it's fun experimenting with all that is on offer. Picanha seems to be the cut most favoured by Brazilians, even more so than filet mignon. It's probably the way that it is roasted with the thick layer of fat melting away until it forms a crispy layer that adds to the succulent flavour of the prime beef.
Some interesting things you will notice at the churrascaria: there is usually a ticket on the table coloured red and green. Green is for go and so indicates to the waiters ‘Bring the beef on!‘. If you're a vegetarian and have been dragged along by your carnivorous friends you may have to turn it over to the red which normally is to be interpreted as ‘Stop‘, or ‘I've had enough for the time being‘, or maybe at the end of your session ‘I'm absolutely stuffed, please stop... yes please stop‘. If you do happen to be a vegetarian and don't mind the smell of roasting meat, you will have plenty to choose from at the salad and buffet bar which is an integral part of a churrascaria. Even if you're not vegetarian, you should eat some healthy salad before indulging yourself with the spit roasted fare.
The churrascaria gives you an excellent idea of what there is on offer with Brazilian cuisine. Besides the fine selection of meats which are brought to your table, and a wide array of the standard fresh salad items, the buffet includes offerings such as palm hearts, quail eggs, pastries with savoury fillings known as pastels, fried manioc etc. To go with your meal you might like to try one of the light Brazilian pilsner beers, perfect for the tropical climate or perhaps a caipirinha - lime juice, sugar, cachaça and plenty of ice. If you've still got room in your overworked stomach after all the barbequed meat and salad buffet you might like to try some of the desserts that are wheeled around on the dessert cart, but more than likely you will just look and think about what you might try next time. A lot of the better churrascarias will also have a selection of sushi as part of the buffet. Brazil's largest city, São Paulo has the largest Japanese community in the world outside of Japan.
A lot of the times, the waiters ignore your red signal to stop ‘bringing it on‘ and seem so intent on filling you up until you´re ready to explode like a scene from a certain Monty Python film. You may have to resort to waving your white napkin in surrender before they show mercy!
No article on Brazilian cuisine would be complete without mentioning Feijoada. This creation could certainly be considered THE national dish of Brazil. First and foremost, the main ingredient is a staple of the Brazilian diet: black beans. Black beans also known as black turtle beans (feijão preto in Portuguese) are eaten by most Brazilians on a daily basis with rice and usually accompanied by manioc flour mixed in with some other ingredients to make farofa, an essential accompaniment to black beans any day of the week but also with the feijoada.
So what else do you need to make feijoada? The main ingredients are as follows: the aforementioned black beans boiled in water, garlic, onion, pork ribs, dried meat, pork offcuts, sausage, salt, pepper, bay leaves and other flavourings depending on individual tastes and maybe even pig ears which are easily found in Brazilian butcher's and supermarkets, probably because they are so popular for the feijoada. The story about how feijoada was created is that it was popular amongst the slaves in colonial times. They would be left the undesirable meats such as pig ears, feet etc. which were mixed in with the black beans and this evolved into the feijoada today that you will see at family and social gatherings and restaurants from the lowest to the highest class all around the country. The black beans are left to soak overnight to soften them up. The salted meats should also be left in water overnight to remove the saltiness. The beans are best boiled in a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time. The fried onion, garlic and different cuts of meat are gradually added to the boiled beans and then left to cook together.
A green leafy vegetable called couve accompanies the feijoada. It is usually cut into thin strips and sautéed in butter together with garlic and bacon cubes.
The full feijoada enjoyed on the weekend or any lazy afternoon, would be served with kale as mentioned, rice, farofa, slices of fresh orange and possibly a shot or two (or three?) of cachaça, the Brazilian sugarcane spirit. Relaxing on a comfortable hammock under a palm tree with bossa nova music gently playing in the background would be a perfect finish to enjoying the Brazilian feijoada.
About the author: Kieran Dobson is a travel and language consultant whose websites www.braziltailored.com and www.braziledge.com aim to inform and entertain you with news, travel advice, informative articles, music, videos and other media direct out of Brazil.
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