Top 10 Best Brazilian Dishes to Try!

 

One of my FAVORITE things about Brazil is the COMIDA!!!! (FOOD!!!!) 

YUMMY AND HEALTHY! You can’t beat that!

  Be sure to double click on the video I made below with all the dishes I ate on my trip to Pirenopolis

These top 10 dishes are typical of Brazil, some are more specific to different places in Brazil, so I will also tell of the place where they are mainly found!

 FYI: It was really hard to narrow it down to 10! I might even do another post with 10 more dishes!

So, here are some dishes you CAN’T go to Brazil without eating! (By the way, it’s not a Brazilian dish if there are no rice and beans on the side! Brazilians will ask you were the rest of lunch is if you make a plate of food with no rice and beans!)

1.      1. Feijoada- A little different than the classic rice and beans that go with any dish because it is a big pot of black beans and meat, like a stew, that’s cooked over a long period of time. You get rice on the side, like every other dish you eat. It was traditionally the scrapes left over from the pig and usually fried with that and garlic. DELICIOUS. 

2.     2. Moqueca – It is like a fish stew, originated from Bahia, a state in Brazil. It is soooo tasty! They use a special oil to cook it in, called Dede, which is mainly only made and sold in that state! So, I feel special every time I eat it.   It takes a lot to make the sauce since tons of veggies are thrown together and also "farofa" is mixed in on the side, as you can see in the other pot in the picture below. Farofa thickens the sauce, which is made of the potato flour type thing I mention below.

3.  3. Brazilian Churrasco (BBQ) - way better BBQ than the US, in my opinion! If you are not ready to throw you bland hotdog in the trash, then you are not ready for this. It is a lot of steak and sausage! They also make a lot of side dishes to go with it and also but some garlic bread on the grill.

4.    4. Frango caipira – literally translated as redneck chicken, but it really means free-range chicken, since someone raised it on their farm for example, and went and freshly prepared it. One time, my Brazilian grandma had a chicken in her backyard

5.     5. Pastel com Vinagrete – literally translated as Pastry with vinaigrette, the best combo ever, hard to describe but it is a long rectangular dough stuffed with a filling of your choice and then deep friend. I get chicken and cheese, just cheese, sometimes pizza filling, or ground beef and cheese. Vinagrete is chopped up veggies soaked in juices which adds a nice bright, acidic component to balance out the fried pastel. By the way, the cheese is yummy kind from Brazil, not just any old cheese.

        Every place that serves pastels in Brazil has its own version and varieties. Here in Pirenopolis, Goias, for example, they have a bitter vegetable called “gairoba" that they put inside it, which is also a typical vegetable of the Cerrado. Don't let "vinaigrette" fool you either, it is not what you think, it is better! It goes nicely when you add it in your pastel, which some areas don't do. In Minas Gerais, a large state on the west coast of Brazil, almost always has vinagrete. In Goias, I found it in some place but not all, so you don't see it here in this picture.

7.     6. Galinhado (I keep calling it frangolado) the chicken but cooked is “frango” but the actual live animal, chicken is galinhada. So translation’ galinha=chicken, frango = chicken. It is cooked together with rice and other veggies, also very yummy!

8.    7. Charuto – meat stuffed cabbage. These are so good, and healthy! I helped roll these up! In the Brazilian culture, it is very common to cook together, especially women of the family. Men too, but I have usually 

9.     8. Feijao Tropeiro- Brazilian beans mixed with pork, collard greens, sausage and tapioca flour (potato flour), but depending on the state it is made differently. The one I ate in Pirenopolis did not have the greens in it. Also, when you think of potato flour, it is NOT what first comes to mind, like baking flour. Take a look at the picture to see.

I     (I had to go ahead and zoom in on the side dish, Quiejo Coalho! Because, listen here! One of my favorites!!! I ate this on the beach in Salvador! They grill cheese sticks over coals/fire and get them nice and crispy. They top it off with honey.)

9. Bacalhao- The big ball of fish! Add some lime, and I am in heaven! Sometime you find them in small ball sizes.

10. Fricassee- here you can see the dish on the side. It is an awesome baked chicken dish with a creamy sauce made with corn in it. They throw other things in there like olives. The orange stuff on the side is one of my favorites, 

 

 

Here is are some cool recipes if you are interested:

 

For Moqueca:

https://www.feastingathome.com/brazilian-fish-stew-aka-moqueca/

For Charuto:

https://www.tudogostoso.com.br/receita/16214-charuto-de-repolho.html

For Feijao Tropeiro:

https://www.oliviascuisine.com/feijao-tropeiro/

A few more things I love but didn't fit in the top 10!

Sometimes when you go to pastelarias, you find other goodies like kibeh and esfirra, as you see below. This stuff is awesome, I'll have to post another 10 Brazilian food types in the future!

Esfirra

Kibbeh:

  The historic town of Pirenopolis, where I ate all this awesome food!