Posts

Tasty Little Thighs

/7 Comments/in

Title got your attention didn’t it? Well sorry to disappoint, but the thighs I’m referring to belong to chickens. The word Coxinha [co-SHEEN-ya] means little thigh and this is the name of one of Brazil’s tastiest and most popular snacks.

The Portuguese word for snack, lanche [lansh], originated from the English ‘lunch’ but at some point lost the original meaning and came to mean any quick bite.  Dotted all over the city are lanchonetes [lan-shon-ETCHES] or snack bars and these are great places to grab something quick, tasty and satisfying.

The much-loved coxinha, found in almost every lanchonete in Rio.

 

Read more

Farofa – Tasty Sawdust

/4 Comments/in

When I was young I used to look at the map of the world and want to grab South America in my left hand, Africa in my right,  and push them back together. It would be satisfying wouldn’t it? One of the legacies of the slave trade is that the people who now live so far apart – in the hollow of West Africa and the pointy nose of Brazil – have many cultural similarities: religion, music and, you guessed it, food.

 

Pangea – continental snuggling

 

Read more

Pão de Queijo – cheesy goodness

/6 Comments/in
When I visit a new country, one of the first things I do is get involved with the local foods. Regretfully not in a particularly methodical or scientific way, but by taking a more haphazard approach. I go to the places that look ‘local’, ask the taxi drivers about their favourite food, look for anything that looks interesting on street stalls and markets and generally just eat!
Some of my favourite Latin American foods: Arepas from Colombia…

…Tacos from Mexico…

Feijão – beans!

/7 Comments/in

[Whilst reading this entry you should listen to this topical tune from Chico Buarque]. 

 
When thinking about typical Brazilian food, the first thing that springs to mind is rice and beans. Here the name for beans is feijão [pronounced: fay-zhow] and they are eaten with almost every meal. If you come to Brazil and don’t like beans then you are going to end up hungry (in fact I found this to be true in most Latin American countries with the exception of Argentina where you can very happily live solely on the sublime steaks).  
Of course there are many different varieties of bean:

Here are some amazing coloured beans I saw in a market in Xela, Guatemala

Read more