An exciting trip through the flavors

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Golden Brown Brazilian Farofa Recipe

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Mineirinho Valente

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This

They say I pretend or lie
All I write. No such thing.
It simply is that I
Feel by imagining.
I don't use the heart-string.

All that I dream or lose,
That falls short or dies on me,
Is like a terrace which looks
On another thing beyond.
It's that thing leads me on.

And so I write in the middle
Of things not next one's feet,
Free from my own muddle,
Concerned for what is not.
Feel? Let the reader feel!          ( Fernando Pessoa)


São Paulo is a 18 million inhabitant’s metropolis, how many Mexican restaurants are there? (US title)

São Paulo is a 18 million inhabitant's metropolis, how many Indian restaurants are there? ( UK title)

U.S. and Brazil are in many aspects very similar countries; I have reported some of these similarities and differences on my new series “Always on Sundays”. My subject today is not slavery, social or economic development, today we are going to travel through the regional Brazilian cuisine. If in social, cultural or economic aspects are easy to delimitate some similarities between Brazil and U.S., when the subject is food, it is almost impossible. Talking about food everything looks completely different.

Note: I have tried to publish my article on NP using the same format I did on Google, somehow I could not repeat it here, because of that I am highlighting it here. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Well it is time to repond the sub-title question on this article. Nowadays I live in a 98% white community with 16,000 inabitans in Wisconsin called Village of Pleasant Prairie sited 50 miles from Chicago and 50 milles from Milwaukee, a really small city and I have in my neighborhood probably 20 Mexican restaurants. São Paulo with 18 million people that. believe or not, have less than 10, and for the Bristh I can say the same, Indian food is not very prevalent in Brazil. Instead of Mexican or Indian restaurants, in São Paulo you will find a inomerous ammount of Italian, Libanese, Brazilian Regional, Japonese, German, French and hundreds of Churrascarias restaurants.

A special thank you for Johnny Summerton for his colabortation on this article.

Full Article:

The origin of the Brazilian Cuisine

Discovered in 1500 by the Portuguese, inhabited for natives of different ethnical groups, populated by African slaves with multiple origin, invaded by the French and the Dutch, dominated by the Spaniards, hosting waves of immigrants from Italy, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Japan, Lebanon and most recently Korea, Brazil is a truly melting pot. Melting races and ingredients at the same pace, the Brazilian cuisine is authentic, diversified, rich in flavor, colors and aroma. Brazil also has very well balanced day-to-day meals, composed by rice, beans, raw vegetables and animal protein. With a luxurious environment, spectacular bio diversity, this country carry unique fruit flavors, peculiar fish specimens, outstand cattle and everything a major world food producer has to offer.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Brazilian breakfast is lighter than in U.S., usually Brazilians start with regional fruits and juices, go to a source of pudding (mingau) or fresh home made yogurt (qualhada) and finish with black coffee, milk sugar and some toasted bread. The fruits, juices, pudding, bread and maybe some cake will vary from each season and region, but in general that is the formula.

Brazilians rarely eat lunch (a quick sandwich); the Brazilian lunch is the equivalent of the American dinner. One dish recipes are becoming more popular, especially at weekends but normally regardless of region, the daily lunch will have 4 dishes; rice, beans, salad and some source of animal protein, beef or chicken most commonly and fish, pork or lamb depending of the region. Desserts are very common at lunch time.It is normal to drink one pint beer at lunch time even if it is a business meeting. Fruit juices and guaraná (Amazon rain forest fruit pop soda) are common options.

Dinner is the most diversified habit in Brazil; some families will have a full meal again, with rice, beans, salad and meat while others would prefer a light meal, with soup, cheese, ham, bread, some source of cake, coffee and milk.

In most of Brazilians States pizza would be acceptable as a meal at dinner time only. At lunch time in São Paulo, most of the pizza places will remain closed.    

Around the Table

Brazil's social life revolves around the table, family Sunday lunch, Churrasco parties, Feijoada parties, Caruru celebrations, it is always easy to find a food parade to get in if you have a good network of friends. These parties, commonly with 40-50 guests are the central social point for Brazilians, usualy with music, food parade, beer, caipirinha ( local coktail made with cachaça, a sugar cane liquour) and lots of desserts. Brazilians celebrate almost everything with food, Christmas, New Year, Holy Sunday, Birthdays, soccer matches ( always a good reason), Saint John's, weddings, baptism, and the list goes on and on.

Business around the dinner table is also common, usually Brazilians will spend a lot of time in restaurants while negotiating a contract and a big food parade is expected after the conclusion of the selling process to celebrate the new contract, as a rule the vendor will be responsible for the expenses and alcoholic beverages will not be excluded from. It is highly recommendable that sellers when budgeting for Brazil to pay attention to that, these dinners celebrations are usually expensive.

Regional Roots

Brazil has 26 States and the Federal District, each State has different typical dishes, but we can in a general way divide that in five principal segments, according with the region.

North – Brazilian Native Influence

At the rain forest, because of the big rivers and the Indian native influence the food is heavy in fish dishes,natural amazonic plants, and fruits. An example is the Tacacá, a kind of soup made with jambú leaf (a native plant) and tucupi (a broth made with wild yucca), as well as dry shrimp and small yellow peppers. It must be served extremely hot in deep bowl, Tacacá is not to eat, is to drink, not spoon is required, you take that directly from the bowl. The tucupi has some sort of anesthetic effect, so you can “drink” the hot soup and don’t feel the burning as well the yellow pepper hot spicy effect. Both Manaus and Belem, the forest metropolises have river front markets that are interesting and unique. Ver-o-peso market in Belem has a huge diversity in fruits and grocery articles that rarely a person form other region could ever imagine that exists. The fruits of the Amazonic region are so different that even  Brazilians from the south have never seen them in Rio de Janeiro (see slideshow) or São Paulo. Some examples are cupuaçu, buriti, açai, guaraná, and pupunha.                                                                            

Northeast – African Influence

The northeast region has a great diversity of foods; the most known is the African, especially in Bahia State. The other Northeast States have a quite different cuisine, the seashore is green, fertile, and abundant as well as the food, a typical party meal would encompass more the 40 dishes using several local ingredients and unique colorful and aromatic spices (not hot spice), the culinary influences of the area can be traced to a dynamic assortment of cultures:  The Dutch, Spanish, Moors, Africans and Indians. Many dishes come with a delicious coconut sauce, and feature corn, yucca, fresh seafood, and native fruits.  Grilled meats are also common, especially goat and beef dishes. Inland, in the drought stricken, arid cattle growing and farm lands, foods typically include ingredients like dried beef, rice, beans made at butter sauce, goat charcoal grilled, yucca and corn meal. Sarapatel is an example of African influence in the northeast regional cuisine.

In Bahia the predominant cuisine has African influence, which evolved from plantation cooks improvising on African, Native, and traditional Portuguese dishes using locally available ingredients.

Typical dishes include  vatapá ( a shrimp cream) , seafood moqueca ( stew), and acarajé (a kind of snack made with white beans, onion and fried in  palm oil (dendê) which is filled with dried shrimp, red pepper and caruru (mashed okra with ground cashew nut, smoked shrimp, onion, pepper and garlic).  Salvador has a ocean front food market that is amazing, boats from a fertile region called Reconcavo Bahiano make a stop there to sell amazing fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fishes, oysters, crab, shrimp, goat, local cheese, unique spices and much more. 

Modelo market in Salvador and São José market in Recife are mandatory touristic points in Bahia and Pernambuco States.

Southeast – The Melting Pot

The Southeast is the locomotive of Brazil, three out of four States are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd economies of Brazil, being São Paulo alone, responsible for 40% of the national GDP. The culinary also varies a lot from State to State.

Espirito Santo is known by its unique seafood steam, called moqueca capixaba made on urucum sauce, a unique red spice, very tasty and aromatic.

 Rio de Janeiro is the land of the Feijoada, the most traditional Brazilian dish, prepared wiith black beans, with a variety of salted cured pork and beef products such as salted pork trimmings (ears, tail, feet), bacon, smoked pork ribs, at least two types of smoked sausage and jerked beef (loin and tongue).This stew is best prepared over slow fire in a thick clay pot. The final dish has the beans and meat pieces barely covered by a dark purplish-brown broth. The taste is strong, moderately salty but not spicy, dominated by the flavors of black bean and meat stew. Should be eaten with orange, farofa, rice and bacon fried collar greens.     

Minas Gerais is a culinary world, a typical “mineiro” self service restaurant will have more than 60 different dishes, most of them from pork, beef, chicken and local vegetables, corn and cheese are prevalent and the cheese bread is now a national snack. In Minas Gerais kitchens are rustic, smoked meat, pork and sausage usually get hanged over the stove dropping fat when heated. Traditional stove still use wood as burners producing distinctive flavors. Traditional Minas cuisine normally uses pig fat instead vegetable oil.

São Paulo is the cosmopolite South American metropolis, Italians and Japonese melted with the local “tropero” tradition and almost everything edible that exists everywhere, can be also found in São Paulo. A great culinary adventure is to visit the Municipal Market (see slideshow) , more informally called the Mercadão. The 135,000-square-foot space is packed with fresh fish, ripe cheese and everywhere fruits, you may try jabuticaba, a purplish-black fruit that looks like a giant grape. The market is also famous for pastéis de bacalhau, fried pastry pockets stuffed with dry cod. To better give you a panorama about São Paulo delight a new article is required and will be written in the future. 

Center-West – The Brazilian Style

Food in center west will vary from fish dishes at the pantanal States of Mato Grosso and South Mato Grosso to native creations at Goias, including chicken with piqui, a local palm orange colored fruit with strong perfume. In Brasilia, the capital, a great diversity of national and international cuisines can also be found. Brasilia has an interesting set of Brazilian regional restaurants like nowhere.

South – The Gaucho Style

South is the most European region of Brazil, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul are the states that received the largest contingent of immigrants, Germans, Italians, Portuguese ( Azoreans), Polish and Ukrainians came in large numbers.

The most known world wide Brazilian meal is the churrasco, (Brazilian barbecue) and comes from the southern States. Almost every big city in the US has at least one Churrascaria (Brazilian Steak House) the most knew are: Fogo de Chão, Texas de Brazil, Porcão, Brazzas, Boi na Braza and Plataforma in New York. The southern style is a food parade, with several cuts of meet circulating for the salon, pork, lamb, beef, sea food, chicken, chicken hearts, javali, crocodile, and other Brazilian animals grilled to perfection are some of the offered dishes.

Another typical meal from south Brazil is the galeto (young chicken) served with fried polenta, home made pasta and arugula salad, this kind of food received a strong Italian influence and is popular at Santa Felicidade, a gastronomic pole located in Curitiba, Paraná State. Barreado is a famous dish form the southern State of Paraná, the meat is cooked on a underground oven for 14 hours and served with banana and yucca flour.                                                                       

Curiosities

To have an idea about how strong is Brazilian diversity, one of the major fast food chains in Brazil is Habbib’s  has a Lebanese oriented menu, Habbib's  is competing side by side with  global corporations like McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut. Habbib’s with its kibes, sfihas, kabobs are in ever corner in São Paulo with a impressive chain of restaurants.

Brazilian churrascarias usually don't serve chickens heart  outside of Brazil, some cultures would consider that a very strange food. In Brazil chicken heart is the favorite option between kids.

There are more fish specimens on the Amazon basin than in all oceans together.