Quintessential Brazilian Foods

Brazilian foods. There are a couple other things I could include in this post. However, I'm sticking to the special foods, the ones that are spent with friends and family. There are a lot of options for our starting meal of Brazilian BBQ. The city is littered with places to go. I don't recall exactly why Mel and Gabe said this was the place to go, but I'm along for the ride. I made sure that I was going to eat light before this. This, is basically Fogo De Chao in the states. We went to Prazeres de Carne. Which could translate to "pleasures of meat" (or flesh...). Like Fogo, you are treated to a really elaborate and large salad bar with a lot of options. Here this also meant sushi, but I opted to avoid filling up on such.

However, you can see here that I did not skimp on exploring the options. In the foreground, the white cylinder is a palm heart, and some olives next to that. I think an artichoke heart behind the palm. Some sun dried tomatoes, and salmon. Lots of cheese, some mozzarella, and a quail egg. Some fried potato types (probably manioca) and mini pastels. It was all great. The cheeses particularly.

I apologize for not getting many pictures. Its quite difficult at a restaurant like this. For the uninitiated, what happens is, you sit at your table, and people walk around with skewers with different cuts of meat. As long as you have your little token "green side" up, people walking around will cut off meat and it goes on your plate.

 You can of course request not to have some meats, but they really won't stop unless you flip your coaster over.

So, pictures aren't easily accomplished, I did grab a picture of the only non-skewer cuts. The 'steak' cuts are not at all like cuts in the US. Particularly since they have Brahma bulls they have the shoulder hump. The particular slices we had of this cut weren't great, a bit dry. But its taste is phenomenal. Like a long roast, super flavorful.

The dessert pictures I have from that meal did not come out great, out of focus and fairly unidentifiable. So, Rascal Guava pie. It's really good, has a side of mascarpone cheese. Seriously...this is one of the best things available. I now feel I might need to make some.


Here is some grilled chicken. Again, I did poorly grabbing pictures. We took it home, it is very similar to Peruvian chicken in Maryland. I was actually already quite full, I had a piece or two, but it really just looks quite appetizing here grilled up.

Next up. Feijoada. This is a traditional Brazilian food. In Sao Paulo it is a "Wednesday" food. Unless you go to a place that specializes in Feijoada places will only have it available to order on Wednesdays. As with most "traditonal" foods in the colonies, it comes primarily from the poorer sections but it is enjoyed throughout Brazil.


 Feijoada is a black bean stew with pork, can come with additional cuts of pork, farofa the manioca based 'bacon sand', kale, some bananas and rice. Then we also have the potato with pork and herbs. Which was really good. Baked, gooey. The stew was delicious and the pork falls apart as you pull it out of the pot. It's really good, its the best kind of comfort food. Warms you up, and falls apart in your mouth.

Dessert here is fruit compotes. Which were really quite good. Top right is a pumpkin, top left is a coconut compote, and uh, I don't remember what the front one is. I don't fully recall what separates each of the compotes exactly either. This will likely get a mel and gabe edit. I remember really liking the front one, but letting my sister convince me to try the coconut and it was milder than I was expecting and kind of creamy. Really good. 10/10 Would Feijoada again.