Bites from Brazil

Caranguejo 
Caranguejo or crabs are popular in both, the north and north-east of Brazil. While, the best and biggest ones are from Piauí, an interesting tradition is followed in Fortaleza–crabs  are eaten every Thursday. You’ll find them in almost all restaurants in the city. Typically, three crabs are served in a basket with a light soup ($10). You can choose from different types of gravies (coconut-based or not) and you don’t have to order all three crabs as one dish. You can order one or two ($3 per crab) depending on your appetite. Although nobody is sure about the tradition’s origin, most restaurants serve it the same way–crabs in a basket with a light soup. But Chico do Caranguejo’s soup is thick and some other eateries serve it with coconut milk or a green sauce (mixture of coconut milk and green pepper). Wherever you go, there will always be forofa, the flour of cassava (a root like tapioca), a side dish that is sprinkled over the crabs. Due to the warm weather, an ice-cold beer (SKOL and BRAHMA are the most famous) usually accompanies the crabs.While some prefer the Brazilian national cocktail–Caipirinha, ice-cold beer usually wins!

Baião-de-Dois
Another must-try is Baião-de-dois (Baião for two), a tasty  rice dish with cheese (creamy, like ricotta salata) and beans. It is a side dish (usually ordered separately) that goes really well with seafood and meat. It tastes like a creamy version of congee (rice porridge). It’s Incredible!

Churrasco
The heavenly aroma of fat burning on coal is bound to tempt you to try churrasco, the  Brazilian barbecue. Also called Carne de sol de Picanha, it is traditionally prepared using beef sirloin, which is seasoned with salt, sun-dried and then grilled, giving it a rubbery texture. It tastes like beef jerky and comes with thin, crispy batata fritats (French fries). You’ll find churrascarias (restaurants serving grilled meat) almost everywhere. Cooked on open-pit charcoal barbecues, churrascos comprise a variety of grilled meats, including organ meats, which are served with an assortment of sauces—yellow salt seasoning as well as hot, barbecue and sweet—that can be mixed and matched as per preference. Churrasco buffets are common. You’re given a plate and while waiters carry the meat around on skewers or long swords, you can choose the cuts you want.  Our first round was Piri-Piri or Brazilian Chicken, which was perfectly cooked–it wasn’t dry and the flavour of the marinade was just right, it didn’t overpower the taste of chicken. Next came swords with linguiça (Brazilian sausages);  it was dry and its flavour–fatty and spicy–was a very mild version of Goa sausages. Then came curacao (chicken heart) and fígado de galinha (chicken liver) wrapped in bacon. If you are not into organs, this dish will change your mind! The liver was cooked rare, but the bacon flavour and the fat infused with the liver was delicious. We also got some perfectly grilled camarão (shrimps) skewered on swords and beef slabs. The picanha (steak) was cooked medium-rare and juices oozed out from the beef. It was tender and full of overwhelming flavours. The Brazalians sure know how to grill beef!

Tilapia
All-you-can-eat buffet lunch and dinners are famous across Brazil with food ranging from salads and barbecues to rice dishes and fish. It’s heaven for fish eaters; here fish is cooked in several different ways—dried, fried, boiled, grilled and more. They typically offer Tilapia, which is sun-dried and then pan-fried or fried directly. The whole fish is served with a dressing of lime, French fries, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers (yellow, green and red). Not too many spices are used; Brazilians prefer the taste of the sea, so the fish is lightly marinated with salt or vinegar and served with lime.  The fish that was not sun-dried was better–it was fresh, tender and just fell off the bone. 

Pão Francês
Breakfast on the streets, for one dollar, is pão Francês (Brazil’s French bread) with stuffed meat. Made  of wheat flour, pão Francês is an oval shaped bun, also called the eyelash bread because the top of the bun has a cut, which opens up like an eyelash when baked. It tastes similar to India’s brun pav, but it’s not that hard and dark. The meat stuffing reminded me of beef kheema. So basically it’s Brazil’s version of kheema pav. But it’s less spicy and slow cooked with herbs and tomatoes. They wrap it in paper before handing it to you.