Brazilian cuisine
Brazilian cuisine is the set of cooking practices and traditions of Brazil, and is characterized by European, Amerindian, African, and Asian (Levantine, Japanese, and most recently, Chinese) influences.
For instance, the European immigrants (primarily from Portugal, Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, and Ukraine), were accustomed to a wheat-based diet, and introduced wine, leafy vegetables, and dairy products into Brazilian cuisine.
The foreign influence extended to later migratory waves; Japanese immigrants brought most of the food items that Brazilians associate with Asian cuisine today,[4] and introduced large-scale aviaries well into the 20th century.
In Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Espírito Santo, and Minas Gerais, feijoada is popular, especially as a Wednesday or Saturday lunch.
The strong Portuguese heritage also endowed the city with a taste for bolinhos de bacalhau (fried cod fritters), one of the most common street foods there.
São Paulo is also the home of pastel, a food consisting of thin pastry envelopes wrapped around assorted fillings, then deep-fried in vegetable oil.
It is a common belief that they originated when Chinese and Japanese immigrants adapted the recipe of fried spring rolls to sell as snacks at weekly street markets.
In Minas Gerais, the regional dishes include corn, pork, beans, chicken (including the very typical dish frango com quiabo, or chicken with okra), tutu de feijão (puréed beans mixed with cassava flour), and local soft-ripened traditional cheeses.
In Southern Brazil, due to the long tradition in livestock production and the heavy German immigration, red meat is the basis of the local cuisine.
[13] Besides many of the pasta, sausage and dessert dishes common to continental Europe, churrasco is the term for a barbecue (similar to the Argentine or Uruguayan asado) which originated in southern Brazil.
The most typical dishes of Rio Grande do Sul cuisine are churrasco, chimarrão, arroz carreteiro, fried polenta, galeto, cuca, and sagu, among others.
The consumption of vegetables preserved in water, vinegar, sugar, salt and spices, such as beets and cucumbers, is also typical of the Southern Region.
The vatapá is a Brazilian dish made from bread, shrimp, coconut milk, finely ground peanuts and palm oil mashed into a creamy paste.
The acarajé is a dish made from peeled black-eyed peas formed into a ball and then deep-fried in dendê (palm oil).
Examples include baião de dois, made with rice and beans, dried meat, butter, queijo coalho and other ingredients.
Tapioca flatbreads or pancakes are also commonly served for breakfast in some states, with a filling of either coconut, cheese or condensed milk, butter, and certain meats.
The dish is made with tucupi (yellow broth extracted from cassava, after the fermentation process of the broth remained after the starch had been taken off, from the raw ground manioc root, pressed by a cloth, with some water; if added maniva, the manioc ground up external part, that is poisonous because of the cyanic acid, and so must be cooked for several days).
The characteristics vary between the different states of the country, mainly depending on the climate, type of soil and cattle diet, which causes subtle changes in the quality of the milk.
Some of the country's most famous cheeses are:[31][32][33] Cachaça is Brazil's native liquor, distilled from sugar cane and it is the main ingredient in the national drink, the Caipirinha.
Other drinks include mate tea, chimarrão and tereré (both made up of yerba maté), coffee, fruit juice, beer (mainly Pilsen variety), rum, guaraná and batidas.
This is common in churrascarias, pizzerias and sushi (Japanese cuisine) restaurants, resulting in an all-you-can-eat meat barbecue and pizzas of varied flavours, usually one slice being served at a time.
Although many traditional dishes are prepared with meat or fish, it is not difficult to live on vegetarian food as well, at least in the mid-sized and larger cities of Brazil.
