A Brazilian bakery case and an Argentine street cart, placed side by side, would give you two pastries that look just about the same. One gets labeled empada, the other empanada (just one letter apart), and the two of them are dough wrapped around a savory filling. Even die-hard food lovers get these two mixed […]
The spread at a Brazilian steakhouse covers serious ground. There’s a massive cold bar, a full hot bar, soups, charcuterie and a whole lineup of imported cheeses that runs along the full length of an entire wall. The whole spread makes a statement on its own – well before a single gaucho has even made […]
Brazilian food has earned genuine admiration far outside of South America’s borders. The version most pictures show doesn’t match what actually lands on the table in Rio, Belém or Porto Alegre. Travel guides lean hard into churrasco. Health food businesses took açaí and repackaged it into a photogenic bowl. Steakhouse chains abroad put beef at […]
Two cocktails. Two countries. One long-running mix-up at nearly every bar worth visiting. The Caipirinha and the Mojito have enough in common (citrus, sugar, a base spirit with sugarcane roots) that plenty of drinkers treat them as nearly the same drink. It’s a natural assumption to make and an extremely common one at that. But […]
At any Brazilian table (a weekday lunch, a Sunday churrasco and a holiday feast), a small bowl of warm, toasted crumbs is usually going to make an appearance. Visitors from outside Brazil will see it and go quiet – they won’t be quite sure if they should reach for it or just leave it alone. […]
A trip to Brazil sounds fun until you start to think about what you’re actually going to eat there. Most travelers arrive with açaí bowls and churrasco at the top of their list of dishes to try. But once they get there, they find out that these two popular dishes make up maybe 5% of […]
Order a caipirinha at just about any beach bar and odds are you won’t actually know what spirit is in your glass. Cachaça happens to be Brazil’s national spirit, and it’s actually one of the oldest distillates in the Americas. It’s also one of the most misunderstood spirits you can buy. Most bartenders will just […]
The markets in Bahia have their own scent, and you’ll usually pick up on it well before what’s actually cooking is visible. It’s a deep, earthy smell that seems to hang in the air around street vendors as they fry acarajé in those wide iron pots. Dendê oil is what creates that smell, and it’s […]
The food can get a bit tough if you don’t know the local customs. Brazilians have unwritten expectations about what you should order based on the time of day and how fast you’ve been drinking – even for dishes like coxinha and torresmo that look pretty basic on the menu. Something that would be a […]
When it comes to food, everyone is different. Dietary restrictions are a big part of how we all choose what to eat, and depending on the restrictions, it can be relatively easy or surprisingly difficult. Broadly, dietary restrictions can be grouped into three categories. The first is simply preference. People who don’t like onions, or […]
When you think of Brazil, what comes to mind? Stunning beaches along tropical seas? Rugged mountains and jungle? Cattle-covered prairies? For many, the image of Brazil that comes to mind is one of basking on a beach and sipping a cocktail. Down south, we’re no strangers to alcohol, and some of our iconic cocktails are […]
When prepared properly, ribs can be one of the most flavorful and tender pieces of meat on a cow. There’s nothing quite like the experience of pulling that bone out of fork-tender meat, and enjoying the now-boneless meat you’re left with. Depending on where you are in the world, though, the experience of enjoying a […]
