Brazilian Food and Beverages
You're visiting Brazil, and you wonder what the food is like! Is it going to be strange? Spicy? What will you eat?

You won't starve in Brazil! These days, Brazilian cities have wide ranges of restaurants, with many cuisines represented in addition to typical Brazilian food. At a minimum you'll find Italian restaurants, pizzerias, Japanese restaurants and sushi bars in almost every city. These are the product of large communities of Italian and Japanese immigrants in the past. Their culinary heritage has been absorbed into Brazilian culture as a whole. In bigger cities you'll also find restaurants serving German, Eastern European and Middle Eastern food (depending on the origin of the immigrant settlers to a region). Good French restaurants can be found in many cities, as well as trendy restaurants serving "international" or "fusion" cuisine blending European and Asian techniques with Brazilian ingredients. Of course, you'll also find restaurants specializing in traditional Portuguese foods, particularly fish and seafood, including the endless riffs on "bacalhau" (salt cod). You'll also find restaurants specializing in the foods of particular Brazilian regions. For lists of restaurants, go to our Destinations menu item. Click on the city you're interested. On that city's main page you'll see a menu item for restaurants which will give you more information about restaurants in that city.

Of course, on this site we can only list a limited number of places. Other resources are available to you, once you arrive in Brazil. For restaurants in Rio, search any good Rio bookstore for the current year's edition of the bilingual restaurant guide by Danúsia Bárbara, one of Rio's most respected food critics. For São Paulo restaurants, look for the current year's edition of the similar restaurant guide by Josimar Melo. The main newspapers publish weekly pull-out entertainment supplements every Friday which include restaurant reviews and listings. A similar supplement is published for Rio and São Paulo by "Veja" news magazine on Sunday. Each of the "Vejinhas" is available with issues of the magazine sold in the named city. Even if you don't know Portuguese, you'll find you can figure out most of the information contained in the listings.

For cities throughout Brazil there's the indispensable "Guia 4 Rodas - Brasil" (available at bookstores and newstands virtually everywhere in Brazil). The 4 Rodas lists restaurants using a Michelin-style star system, and breaks down listings by types of cuisine and areas of the city (for Rio and São Paulo).

Most visitors find Brazilian food intriguing and delicious. Considering Brazil's continental dimensions and its different patterns of settlement and immigration, it's not surprising that there is really no single Brazilian "cuisine." Rather, there are regional cuisines, although some dishes have found their way into menus throughout Brazil and can now be considered "Brazilian." Examples of such dishes are "feijoada," an elaborate black bean stew with various kinds of smoked and salted meats; "churrasco," or Brazilian style "barbecue;" and "stroganoff," which in Brazil has mutated somewhat to a version in a pink to reddish cream sauce with a slightly sweetish flavor ((depending on how much tomato paste was used in the recipe).

In general, Brazilian food is NOT spicy hot. Some dishes from Bahia are a bit peppery, but not excessively so. In Brazil, hot pepper seasoning is served on the side, or found in a dish on the table, and each person can add "heat" to their own taste. The usual kind of "heat" found in Brazil is a mixture of malagueta peppers in oil or vinegar (or both). Malaguetas are small green or red peppers (known as piri-piri in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa) with an intriguingly smoky flavor. They are EXTREMELY hot, however, so be careful. The method is usually not to eat the peppers themselves. Instead, you take a bit of the oil in a spoon and add a few drops to the food you wish to season. Begin with just a few drops and mix them into the food, then taste. You can always add more if you'd like the dish spicier, but if you're too generous in the beginning you may find you've ruined the food for yourself!

Traditionally, Brazilians have been very generous in their use of salt in cooking. NEVER add salt to a dish before you've tasted it first, because it already may be very salty by North American/European standards. On restaurant tables you'll find two shakers: one for salt, the other for toothpicks!!! (Lately it seems that restaurants have been switching to tiny paper packets of salt, which helps avoid the problem of salt in shakers solidifying because of the tropical humidity). Black pepper is rarely seen on restaurant tables. It's almost always available if you ask though. In Portuguese it's called "pimenta-do-reino." Be sure to ask for it that way, because asking for simple "pimenta" will bring you the malagueta type.

A common accompaniment to many Brazilian dishes that will be new to visitors is "farofa." In its simplest form, this is toasted manioc meal, usually found in a dish on the table and sprinkled on food the way one does with Parmesan cheese on Italian dishes. Other times, farofas are more elaborate and seasoned, and are served as a side dish. In its simplest form, farofa is rather neutral and gritty; very similar to farina/cream of wheat. It provides a bit of crunchy texture and helps to soak up the liquid in soupy dishes like feijoada. For non-Brazilians, farofa is something of an acquired taste. Some visitors love it, others are indifferent to it. Try it for yourself, though. Some of the more seasoned versions (like one in which the farofa is fried with onions, eggs and other seasonings) can be quite tasty.

Manioc (mandioca) is a major ingredient in Brazilian cooking that can be unfamiliar to visitors. In the Spanish-speaking countries it's known as "yuca." Manioc is a large white-fleshed tuber. There are two varieties, "sweet" and "acid." The "sweet" version can be used as is, but the "acid" version is poisonous until it's gone through an involved process that makes it fit for human consumption. You'll find manioc referred to by different names in different regions of Brazil. In Rio and in other central and southern parts of the country it's referred to as "aipim." In the northern and northeastern regions it's often called "macaxeira." In addition to being turned into farofa, manioc is often seen in roles filled by potatoes in other climes. It's common to encounter manioc in the form of french fries, home fries, or mashed into puré. In its flour or puréed form it can become the basis of doughs for many Brazilian baked goods and fried savories, like cheese bread ("pão de queijo"), chicken croquettes ("coxinhas de galinha"), and cakes ("bolo de aipim").

Brazilians aren't exactly crazy about cooked green vegetables. A typical Brazilian plate would drive most northern hemisphere nutritionists crazy, because it usually consists of a serving of meat, chicken or fish with 2 starches! (Rice and french fries, for example.) One of the few commonly used vegetables for cooking is "couve," or collard greens (a form of kale). Brazilians shred them finely, then saute/stir fry them with plenty of garlic and perhaps some crumbled bacon or salt pork just until the couve is more tender (but still has some crunch) and brilliantly green. Shredded couve is also the ingredient that gives Portuguese "caldo verde" its name. "Caldo verde," popular throughout the Portuguese-speaking world, is a filling potato soup enriched with the addition of sliced linguiça or chouriço (Portuguese sausages) and the shredded couve.

Okra ("quiabo") is seen on occasion, as is "giló," a small green ovoid that's a relative of eggplant but with a more bitter flavor. Otherwise, most vegetables available will be familiar to people from the northern hemisphere, although their names may not be immediately obvious!

Brazilians seem to like their veggies more in the form of salad. At typical a-la-carte restaurants there won't be a large selection, as a rule, but extensive and imaginative salad choices are available at most of the "por kilo" restaurants, which almost all feature tempting salad bars.

Rice and beans ("arroz e feijão") are ubiquitous, and the standard basic meal throughout Brazil. Most Brazilians don't feel it's been a meal if there isn't a serving of rice and beans on their plate. The combination is a highly nutritious form of "peasant food" because the rice and beans together provide complete vegetarian protein, so it's healthy as well as tasty! In Rio the preferred beans are black beans, but different regions prefer other varieties. They're all good!

"Feijoada" is a more elaborate version of rice and beans. Brazilians consider it a heavy, pig-out kind of affair best served on a Saturday afternoon so there's time for a post-prandial nap brought on by the feast. (The traditional caipirinhas that accompany the meal may contribute a lot to the drowsiness!) Feijoada consists of black beans cooked with a rich array of salted and smoked meats and sausages, as well as some parts of the pig we "northerners" might not appreciate (like ears). The feijoada is traditionally served with white rice, couve, farofa and sliced oranges. At restaurants, the black bean stew will often be served in a crockery pot. Just spoon the feijoada over the rice, sprinkle farofa over it, add malagueta pepper to taste, and mix together to eat! Some restaurants that specialize in elaborate feijoadas serve it buffet style, with the various meats and sausages separated so you can pick and choose which ones you like best. The drink of choice is a "caipirinha," Brazil's national cocktail made of crushed limes, sugar, cachaça (a sugar cane distilled product similar to rum) and ice. Beware! These tasty concoctions can be powerful! Other cachaça/fruit combinations may be available, too. These are usually called batidas, especially if they've been sweetened with some condensed milk. Caipirinhas made with strawberries ("morango"), kiwi, or passion fruit ("maracujá") are also very popular these days.

This seems like a good place to mention wine! Brazilian wine has improved considerably over the past couple of decades and some very good wines are now produced both in Southern Brazil and in the northeastern São Francisco river valley. For the most part the grapes used are familiar European varietals, but one unfamiliar one you may want to look for is "tannat," which produces a big, robust red wine in Rio Grande do Sul and in Uruguay, where it produces some extraordinary wines. Brazil also produces quite a bit of sparkling wine ("espumante") which is very good and much less expensive than imports. It's hard to go wrong with Brazilian made Chandon, but there are some other good local producers. In general, though, the finest wines in South America are produced in Chile and Argentina, and you will see them featured on restaurant menus and supermarket shelves. The best are superb, and priced to match! Again, the varietals used are mainly familiar European ones, but in Chile the carmenère grape has recently been used to yield some very fine wines, and in Argentina the malbec grape also produces some great reds. The torrontés grape in Argentina yields some fine white wines, and there are some delicious Chilean sauvignon blancs. Wine consumption is on the upswing in Brazil, and visiting oenophiles will enjoy visiting the Expand wine stores in Rio or São Paulo. In Rio the store is on r. Barão da Torre in Ipanema, facing the Nossa Senhora da Paz square.

Beer ("cerveja") is a favorite drink and accompaniment to meals, too. Best known national brands are Brahma, Antarctica and Skol (the most popular at the moment). There are good regional brands and specialty beers, and even some microbreweries. An excellent regional brand is Cerpa, from the Northeast. Xingú is an inky dark beer worth trying. Draft beer is "chopp."

The usual soft drinks ("refrigerantes") are available, but you can't miss trying "guaraná", Brazil's own delicious contribution to the world of soft drinks. Made from a caffeine-laden Amazon berry, "guaraná" soft drinks are refreshing beverages somewhat reminiscent of ginger ale in color and taste. It's available everywhere, including in "diet" form. The best and most traditional brand is Antarctica and most Brazilians turn their nose up at the competition, including Coca-Cola's version "Kuat". So go for Antarctica whenever it's available! The chic way to serve it in the past few years is with a slice of orange in the glass; it particularly improves the flavor of the "diet" version!

The water is big cities is purified and usually safe to drink and brush your teeth with. It often isn't very good tasting, though, because of heavy chlorination. At home, most middle class Brazilians have extra filter systems installed to provide water for drinking and cooking, which provides extra purification and greatly improves the flavor! Bottled mineral water ("agua mineral") is available inexpensively absolutely everywhere, with carbonation ("com gas") or without ("sem gas").

"Churrasco" is perhaps the other Brazilian meal best known abroad, now that many Brazilian churrascarias have opened in other countries. Churrasco is actually a word meaning broiled/grilled meat. In Brazil, more upscale churrascarias are essentially steak houses, with a-la-carte service. Portions, as in most typical Brazilian restaurants, are usually humongous, intended to be split between 2 or more diners. Popular cuts include filet, of course, contrafilet (strip steak), fraldinha (skirt steak), and picanha (a particularly Brazilian cut from the hind quarters usually served sliced and planked in a-la-carte churrascarias). More familiar to foreigners are the churrascarias that serve "rodízio" style. These are all-you-can eat affairs that can also be quite upscale. In these restaurants, the meal begins either with an array of small, tapas-sized dishes being served at your table, or a visit to a groaning buffet of salads and hot and cold delicacies. Beware! If you overdo at the buffet, you'll never have room for the main attraction, which is a never-ending parade of "barbecued" meats, poultry, sausages, seafood, etc. brought to your table on a spit by a waiter, who will slice off portions directly onto your plate. (You will usually have to help catch the slice with your fork or with a pair of tongs the waiter will provide.) Most of the rodízios have coasters or other markers with a red and green side at each place. Turn up the green side to let the waiters know they're welcome to serve you. For a break, or when you're stuffed to the gills and can't eat another bite, turn up the red side. At most rodízios drinks and desserts are in addition to the price for the buffet and parade of meats, so you may want to be clear about that at the restaurant you're patronizing. Churrasco is an invention of the gaúchos on the pampas of Brazil's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, but it has become popular everywhere in Brazil. The rodízio system has also been adopted at some pizzarias and there are some seafood rodízios, too. The fish and seafood version tends to be more upscale and expensive, but it's a great way to gorge on your favorite frutas-do-mar!

Brazilian eating habits are somewhat different from those in North America (in particular). Most Brazilians eat very spare "continental style" breakfasts at home: a roll, perhaps with some ham and cheese, washed down with café-com-leite (café-au-lait). Brazilian hotels, however, usually set out fairly elaborate breakfast buffets, which are usually included in your room rate except at the most expensive 5-star establishments. These buffets will always feature an array of breads, including French rolls and "pão de queijo" (Brazil's addictive cheese bread), a variety of sliced cheeses and cold cuts, cakes and sweet rolls, cereal, yogurt, sliced fresh fruits, juices and coffee. At the better hotels there are also usually a few hot dishes, including scrambled eggs.

Lunch is often the main meal of the day, usually eaten a bit later than in North America, around 1:00 p.m. Supper is usually lighter, and served somewhat later than in North America, around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.. To tide themselves over, Brazilians will have late afternoon savory snacks ("salgados") washed down with beer, or maybe cake and coffee during "tea time," around 5:00 - 6;00 p.m.

In the biggest cities the dinner hour can be quite late, especially at restaurants, not beginning until 9:00 - 10:00 p.m., at the earliest. Restaurants usually open for dinner earlier, around 7:00 p.m., but will usually be deserted until later in the evening. On weekends hours can be even later.

Regional cooking varies. In southernmost Brazil, in addition to churrasco you will find many dishes from the Italian, German, Polish or Ukrainian immigrants who settled in the region. "Dobradinha" is a rich tripe stew that is commonly found in the South. "Barreado" is a Paraná specialty consisting of a rich stew baked under a dough crust, somewhat like a large pot-pie. Particularly in Rio Grande do Sul, you'll observe people drinking "chimarrão" or maté tea from a special cup made from a large gourd. The custom of drinking maté spills over to the neighboring countries of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, where the maté plant is native.

In Rio and São Paulo it's hard to identify much of a truly local cuisine because both areas have been the magnets for immigration from abroad as well as from other parts of Brazil. Here you can find just about anything and everything!

The cooking of Minas Gerais is often thought of as representative of "typical" Brazilian food. An inland state, Minas dishes focus on beef and pork, with some game dishes thrown in for good measure. Some traditional dishes include "tutú à mineira" which is a rich form of mashed beans (somewhat like Mexico's refried beans) served with couve. "Lombo de porco à mineira" is delicious roast pork loin that's been marinated in lime juice and seasonings, usually served with beans and rice and couve. Minas is a dairying state, famous for its cheeses, too. You'll also find many old-fashioned desserts in Minas, usually fruit based jam-type preparations served in small dishes and meant to be eaten with a spoon.

The cooking of Bahia is probably Brazil's most distinctive and original cuisine, celebrated in song, poetry and prose! Salvador was Brazil's first capital, for more than two hundred years, and developed a vast and inventive repertory of dishes melding Indian, African and Portuguese foods and cooking styles. Travelers who are familiar with (and enjoy) the cooking of New Orleans will love Bahian food and be struck by many similarities in ingredients and cooking styles. Bahia's food differs from that of New Orleans in that its European influence was Portuguese and not French, and it has some tropical ingredients available to it that weren't available in Louisiana. In addition to ingredients like tomatoes, okra, and seafood, Bahian cooking also uses coconut and coconut milk, as well as "dendê" (West African red palm oil). It would be impossible to list all the Bahian dishes here, but among the most famous are "moqueca de peixe," a delicious fish stew in a sauce made with coconut milk and dendê (there are also moquecas of shrimp and other seafoods, or "mixed" ones of fish and shrimp); "bobó de camarão," a shrimp stew in a thick sauce-like base made from manioc and coconut milk and colored with dendê; and "vatapá," a dish made of ground cashews, shrimp, and many other ingredients that traditionally is served as a very thick sauce-like preparation but is often served nowadays over fish filets in a style more familiar to northern tourists. "Acarajé" is Bahia's most famous street food, sold all over town on street corners by vendors (mostly women) in typical dress of the colonial period. Acarajé consists of a large fritter made of a batter including mashed black-eyed peas and dried shrimp, fried golden in dendê oil, then split and filled with vatapá and a very spicy sauce including peppers and dried shrimp. Some of the vendors are famous for their superb acarajés; ask locally who's currently considered the best and where s/he can be found!

The food along the Northeastern coast of Brazil resembles the food of Bahia, to some degree, with a strong emphasis on seafood and coconut milk. The foods of the coastal regions are in strong contrast to the cooking of the "sertão," the semi-arid interior of the Northeast, where typical dishes depend on rice and beans, and various preparations of dried or salted meats ("xarque" or jerky, or "carne do sol" which is sun-dried beef, often served cooked and shredded like the similar "machaca" of northern Mexico).

The Amazonian region, including the cities of Belém and Manaus, feature the other most original and interesting cuisine in Brazil, strongly based on Indian origins and featuring fish, fruit and vegetables unique to the Amazon basin. One famous dish that has become particularly identified with Belém is "pato no tucupi," or roast duck served in a broth of tucupí (a byproduct of the processing of "acid" manioc so that it's no longer poisonous to eat) and jambú leaves, which have a mild anesthetic effect that will leave your mouth and lips slightly numb and tingling! In the Amazon you will also find game dishes, as well as those prepared from Amazonian fishes, including pirarucu (the world's largest freshwater fish), tambaqui (a flavorful fish that lives off of fruits dropped into the waters from overhanging tree branches!), and even piranha (yes, they're edible!).

There are hundreds of exotic and unfamiliar fruits in the Northeast and the Amazon with untranslatable names. Many aren't great to eat fresh, but make delicious preserves and ice creams. A special treat in these hot, steamy regions near the Equator is to visit the best ice-cream shop in the town you're visiting and treating yourself to a sampling of endless unique flavors you're never likely to encounter again unless you make a return visit!

Last but not least is the food of the Center-West. This resembles the food of Minas Gerais, with perhaps more emphasis on beef because this is also cattle-raising country, and dishes made from the region's plentiful fresh water fish.

Tropical fruits are superb in Brazil, so try as many as possible. Particularly common are passion fruit ("maracujá") which, because it is usually very tart, is used to make a lemonade-like fruit drink, or to flavor ice cream, mousses or other desserts. Papaya is known as "mamão" in Brazil, where there are many varieties. "Papaia" is just one of the many varieties you will find there. As well as being eaten fresh, papaya is now also the basis of a popular dessert called creme de papaia, which is a delicious mousse-like dessert served drizzled with crème de cassis. Bananas come in several sizes and varieties, all with flavors more intense and vivid than the bananas we know in the northern hemisphere. Guavas ("goiaba") come in several varieties. They can be eaten fresh, but can be very seedy, so they're very popular turned into a thick fruit paste dessert called "goiabada." (Similar pastes are made with other fruits, including quince and figs.) Goiabada is a Brazilian passion, and is often served in a classic combination of sliced goiabada and fresh Minas cheese on crackers (called "Romeu e Julieta" in Brazil). Pineapple ("abacaxi") is delicious in Brazil. Avocados ("abacate") are considered a fruit in Brazil and usually used in desserts rather than in savory dishes. You'll find them turned into ice-cream or a sweetened mousse. It sounds odd to many of us until tasted; it's absolutely delicious! Mangos can be found everywhere, too. "Fruta-do-conde" may be less familiar; it's a green fruit with a somewhat artichoke-looking appearance, known in other parts of the world as "custard apple." After opening, you separate and eat the fruit segments inside, which are white and contain a large dark seed. The cashew fruit ("cajú," from which we get the familiar nut) is eaten, too. This is another fruit that can be quite sour and is most often found used in juices and, lately, in caipirinhas. Temperate zone fruits can be found, too, grown in the mountains of southern Brazil where winters are cold enough for the trees to become dormant, or imported from Argentina or Chile, where winters can be even colder.

The main nuts you'll find in Brazil are cashews ("castanha de cajú"), Brazil nuts ("castanha do Pará"), and peanuts ("amendoim").

Desserts in Brazil tend to be similar throughout the country. The traditional ones include cakes, often including coconut and some made from manioc rather than wheat flour, which gives the cakes a heavier, somewhat gluier consistency. There are many spoon sweets made from local fruits, as well as "doce de leite" (the "dulce de leche" milk caramel found throughout Spanish-speaking Latin America). Other traditional desserts are based on the the rich variety of convent-produced sweets from Portugal. It's simply amazing how the basic ingredients of butter, egg yolk, sugar and almonds can be turned into such a dazzling array of very sweet, intensely rich delicacies! Brazil's contribution to the tradition has been the addition (or substitution) of coconut and coconut milk in some of the Portuguese recipes, best typefied by "quindin", a small, cupcake sized, egg-yolk yellow sweet that is now considered the "national dessert." The Portuguese-style desserts are intensely sweet by North American/European standards, but that's intentional. The sweetness and staggering richness (the result of combining butter and egg yolk) are perfect in a very small portion that's intended to provide just a few bites of intense pleasure and luxury to conclude a delicious meal!

Finishing it all off, of course, is coffee. Ordinarily, Brazilians drink their coffee as "cafezinho," a tiny cup of dripped filtered coffee with LOTS of sugar! (Not for nothing is Brazil the world's largest producer of both coffee and sugar!) In the past few years, traditional filtered cafezinho has been replaced in many restaurants and bars by machine-produced espresso, also drunk highly sweetened! You can order cafezinho without sugar ("sem açucar") or with sweetener ("adoçante") in this more diet-conscious world! Cafezinho (and espresso) can be ordered tinged with a bit of hot milk (what the Italians would call a "macchiato" and the Spanish and Argentines a "cortado"). In Portuguese the word would be "pingado." Brazilians don't drink coffee with their meals; it's always the finisher. Gringos can sometimes prevail on waiters to bring them coffee before the end of the meal and in a larger size. You can try ordering a "café americano, grande" if you want your coffee black. If you like it with milk, you can try asking for a "cafe com leite, mas com mais café que leite" (a café-au-lait with more coffee than milk).

Tea is available, too. The word in Portuguese is "chá." Just ordering "chá" alone may get you mate, so you should specify "chá preto" for black tea to be sure. Herbal teas are available, too, including "camomila," "menta," and some local flavors like "cidreira" (somewhat like lemongrass) and "erva doce" (fennel).

You can learn more about Brazilian food and cooking from Brazilian cookbooks, or books like "Eating Smart in Brazil" which describe ingredients, history and typical recipes. A fairly large and comprehensive Brazilian cookbook in English called "Brazilian Cooking" (or is it "Cookery"?) can be found in big Brazilian bookstores, but be aware that it was first published some 40 years ago and hasn't been updated. Aimed at the American market, the author substitutes herbs and seasonings that were unavailable in North America 40 years ago with available approximations, like parsley instead of fresh coriander. The book is still comprehensive, but it's worth comparing some of the recipes with more recent equivalents to achieve the real authentic flavor of many dishes. Some other fairly good Brazilian cookbooks have been published in English (and other languages). Elizabeth Lambert de Ortiz's book on Latin American cooking contains authentic recipes for many of Brazil's best known dishes. In Brazil, the SENAC restaurant training school organization has published a series of beautifully illustrated books covering Brazilian regional cooking, desserts, etc. In the back of the books is a translation of the text and recipes into English. If you're a cooking freak, these are good to have. If you read Portuguese, the two big standard cookbooks are "Dona Benta" (the Brazilian "Joy of Cooking") and "Claudia Cozinha," with recipes from the Claudia magazine. These books contain both Brazilian dishes as well as "international" dishes prepared in their Brazilian versions. Many Brazilian recipes are available on-line, too, certainly in Portuguese and some in English, too.

For practical use while you're traveling, the Berlitz Portuguese phrase book is pocket-sized and has lists of dishes and ingredients you'll encounter. The book covers both European and Brazilian Portuguese; the Brazilian variations on vocabulary are shown in brackets.


Copyright 2005-2011, All Rights Reserved. GayTravelBrazil.com