Hi Daniella! Welcome you to our weekly show Culture Rendezvous. First can you tell us what is the most popular dish in Brazil?

I would say in general what people know about Brazilian food is our Barbecue. Brazilians love meat and we do have tons of barbecue places in Brazil. They serve differently, even in Chicago you can go to those Brazilian steak houses and they serve meat in a big stick and then they slice to pieces for you at your table. There is a card on the table saying “Yes, Thank You” or you flip it when you want to say “No, Thank You”. They will keep serving you until you flip the card to the side saying “No, Thank You” because you are full.

Brazilian Barbecue (Photo: Internet)

Wow! That sounds very interesting. And when do people in Brazil usually enjoy barbecue?

Most of the time, Brazilians eat barbecue on Sunday. All year around, and normally it happens on Sunday, because it is barbecue day in Brazil. It doesn’t matter what time of the year, even when it is rainy or sunny, we do barbecue. We can do that around the pool, or on the beach, or at the restaurant with the whole family.

Are there any side dishes served with a traditional barbecue?

We do have many side dishes. We can eat with salad, or we can eat with Farofa, another traditional side dish you’ll commonly find in a Brazilian steakhouse. This dish features a toasted flour mixture with a smoky and slightly salty taste. My husband personally loves this so much. And I do cook a lot Brazilian dishes in my house. I introduce them to my children. We also eat white rice, mashed potatoes. We also shave barbecue with Vinaigrette, a salad with tomatoes, onion, vinegar, salt and pepper. It is a little tart but a good combination for all the side dishes. And the meat can be with chicken, sausages, and it is a mix of all the proteins and we eat that way.

Brazilian Fadofa (Photo: Internet)

I am quite curious. What is so special about Brazilian barbecue, making it different from other barbecue around the world?

And the difference between the regular barbecue and the Brazilian barbecue is because we only cook our meat with sea salt but nothing else. We don’t do spices. We don’t do sauce. We don’t add anything. We like meat as it is, so we just buy a bag of sea salt, which is a little crumblier and bigger pieces. And we rub the meat and let it cured for a little bit. We put it in the stick and we put it in the grill. You may say that it tastes horrible but it tastes delicious. Brazilian cooking can be very simple or it can be very heavy. It depends on the area that you come from.

Now I’ve learned a new way to cook meat with only sea salt. Besides barbecue what other food is Brazil famous for?

And another thing not everyone has experienced is a dish called Feijoada. Brazilian Feijoada is a black bean and pork stew that is often served with Farofa, toasted cassava flour. This comfort food is sometimes called the national dish of Brazil.  It is very flavorful. It is very heavy but delicious. As I am talking, I am making myself hungry. It is very good. It is funny because when you do Feijoada, you always want to have live music. It is like when you throw a party in your backyard in your house, when you have friends over, and you do a big pot of Feijoada. It doesn’t matter if it hot weather or cold weather, there are different side dishes too but we want this big hot meal even in a very hot weather. We then love to dance Samba. We are weird people but we are fun. Those are what I would say the two main dishes that everybody knows.  But I can go on and on with you about things we eat.

Brazilian Feijoada (Photo: Internet)

Thank you very much Daniella for talking to us today about Brazilian cuisine. Hope to have you back on VOV24/7 Culture Rendezvous with more interesting stories.