During our time in Rio we ate a lot of delicious dishes but one of the most interesting things we ate there was on our second night in Rio. The Brazilian Feijoada is the national dish of Brazil and traditionally only served on Sundays but we were having none of that. We wanted Feijoada and we wanted it now. Momma’s Brazilian mafia contacts managed to find us the only place in Rio that makes Feijoada all week long and armed with our hungry bellies we made our way there on a…..wait for it…Monday night :O
The Feijoada is a dish that incorporates many different side dishes but the main part of the dish is the bean stew. The name of the dish itself derives from the Portuguese word for beans, “feijão”.
The stew is made from black beans and pork or beef and contains all the different parts of the animals (i.e. the pork trimmings). It originated with the slaves who came to Brazil hundreds of years ago and were always given the unwanted leftovers of the pork (tongue, ears, feet etc.) All those bits are included in the dish today along with the normal sausages and ribs. We were told that some gringos ask for those bits to be removed but not these three wannabe cariocas…no senhor….we tried it all. I knew all those years of being forced to eat lamb brain by my father (it’s a Serbian delicacy according to him) would come in useful one day 🙂 I actually even enjoyed the tongue and went for seconds, while momma munched away happily on the fried pigs skin. Daddy would be proud.
The side dishes were delicious as well. Obviously rice is the main one (God forbid I eat one dish in Latin America without plain rice in it), but there were interesting ones as well, such as kale, orange and fried mandioca as well as ground mandioca. Mandioca, otherwise known as cassava or yuca, is a common root in Brazil. It tastes a lot like potato but a bit more suave and they often have mandioca crisps or fried mandioca as a refreshing alternative to potato (remember I spent one month in Bolivia where I ate potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner).
It was a great introduction to Brazilian cuisine and also the night when Ceca and I fell in love with Bohemia beer (best Brazilian beer ever), and momma’s addiction to Caipirinhas began. We spent the walk back home in true Rio style; oogling the semi-naked men playing volleyball and “exercising”, and witnessing a robbery…as you do 🙂
Momma's first caipirinha
Enjoying the starter of black bean soup
Yummy
Tasty tongue
Fried pig skin...mmmmmm
Brazilian dessert of dulce de leche, banana jam and papaya jam