Obrigado Brazil!
Thank You Brazil!
Attention NYC Folks! Our 1st Meet + Eat will be May 7th - 5pm at the Queens Night Market! If you’ve never been you will be in for a treat. It happens at Flushing Meadows near the NY Hall of Science (super accessible off the 7 train line). Dozens upon dozens of stalls with food from all over the world are at the market. Entrance to the market is FREE, but I do suggest bringing cash for food although many vendors nowadays have credit card readers. To RSVP + receive more info closer to the event just sign up here!
Brazil must have to be one of the most requested or talked about countries on my list of Eating A-Z in NYC. I’ve gotten emails from readers telling me how much they enjoy reading the series and how much they cannot wait for Brazil. I think what makes Brazil such an appealing country to eat from is that its food is approachable + familiar yet still alluring + foreign. Something about Brazil gives folks a shiver of excitement. Maybe it's the jazzy rhythm of bossa nova or the images of colorful dancers at Carnival or maybe it’s just how easily cool + effusive the country seems to be. Whatever it may be Brazil doesn’t hold back when it comes to its unique cuisine either.
Brazilian cuisine is a mix of African, Portuguese + Indigenous influences. The country was one of the first to be colonized and the last to abolish slavery in 1888. More than 4 million enslaved people arrived at the ports of Brazil, that’s ten times the amount that came to the United States. Currently, Brazil has the largest population of Black people outside of Africa (Nigeria has the most) and it is visible in every aspect of their culture. Africa permeates through its music, food, and religion.
There are quite a number of Brazilian restaurants in New York so I had a hard time choosing one but ultimately decided on giving Rice X Beans a try. Rice X Beans is an inviting and cozy restaurant located on the neighboring borders of Astoria + Woodside, Queens. I went with two friends to partake in the epic feast (one of them threatened my life if I went for Brazilian without her…you’re a subscriber and you know who you are!). So much of what we see in Brazilian cuisine is churrascaria, which are huge piles of meat on skewers served tableside or slabs of nearly rare steak brimming with its juices. I wanted to avoid that for this meal because if I wanted that I could have been lazy and just gone to the Brazilian chain restaurant Fogo de Chao.
We started off with drinks and appetizers for the table. I’m a sucker for foreign sodas + juices so I ordered a Guaraná. Guaraná is a very sweet ginger ale looking soda that tastes like a better version of Red Bull without the medicinal syrup aftertaste. I used to drink these A LOT as a kid (my cousin is half Brazilian + his dad’s family would drop off cases of these for us) and now I’m wondering how I didn’t lose all my teeth to cavities. They’re tasty but drink sparingly!
We ordered pao de queijo and Brazilian style empanadas for the table. The pao de queijo are the tastiest lil’ cheese puffs that are made from tapioca flour. They’re great for folks with an intolerance to wheat flour. The puffs are super soft + airy inside and have a nice crusty cheesy top. I think I gorged on way too many of these, but life is meant to gorge yourself full of bread before three main entrees.
The empanadas had cheese, beef, and chicken inside. They were fried empanadas and tasted like the many I’ve made at home and eaten all my life. The only one that really stood out was the cheese one. The cheese was very mild and tasted like something I had never had before so I couldn’t quite identify it.
The first main dish that we dug into was the picanha grelhada no alho, which is a grilled top sirloin with garlic. Our steak was cooked medium and had a hearty garlic flavor, but other than that it was your average cut of steak served with fries, rice, beans, and farofa. The rice served with all the dishes was really delightful. The rice grains were fluffy, light, and cooked with garlic.
We also ordered stroganoff chicken, which is a traditional dish found on many Brazilian menus. The stroganoff was like nothing I’ve had before. Strips of chicken breast were cooked in a creamy sauce that reminded us all of a pink vodka sauce for pasta. It was a bit sweet from the tomato sauce, but that still worked really well with the chicken. It was served with a side of the crispiest matchstick fries. Those lil’ fries were super addicting and hard to stop eating. I was almost embarrassed to show my true colors by hoarding all the fries for myself because fries make me weak in the knees and I can’t stop eating them EVER if they’re in front of me, but luckily I have some self-restraint left in me.
La pièce de résistance of the whole meal was the mini feijoada. Feijoada is a casserole of slow-cooked black beans with Portuguese sausage, bacon, pork ribs, and prime-aged beef chunks. It comes with a side of white rice and farofa which is yucca flour seasoned with garlic and onions. I’m not sure how these stewed beans were considered the mini version because for the three of us it was so much food that I took home leftovers. The mini is meant for a single person which is kinda nuts to me.
These beans were the best black beans I’ve ever had in my life and I do not say that lightly. I’ve had black beans since birth and these really are the best I’ve ever had. I could taste the smokiness of the meat in every single bean. It was like I was eating strips of bacon but in the form of beans. My mind was B L O W N 🤯. The farofa is not to be eaten on its own because you can choke (it’s like a texture between sawdust + sand), but instead, it’s to be mixed in with the beans to add a bit more texture with each bite. The flavor of the beans was so overpowering I almost couldn’t taste the farofa.
There was also a side of shredded collards which were cooked thoroughly but still had a good crunch to them. They were great at breaking up all the meat + beans we were eating.
With each bite, I could feel the percussive rhythm of the drums, the warmth of the sun hitting the hot pavement, and the mélange of flavors developed over centuries of time. Each mouthful was Brazil speaking to the soul of my tastebuds and I’m ever so glad that I didn’t have to take a plane to enjoy it.
Cook. Eat. Repeat.
Natalie 💗✨
I used to live in Brazil. I was 17 and was living with my mum's friend's family in Canavieiras, a tiny city in the North-East. My mum's friend was so happy to cook vegetarian dishes for me; she introduced me to carne de soja long before TVP (texturised vegetable protein) was in the supermarkets! I also lived off farofa, pure de patata and vegan feijoada. The food was just delicious and I miss it every day.
Not to mention the cheap açai bowls that would make the health nuts here in Australia pass out - they were smothered in condensed milk and honey!!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. <3
This food all looks amazing! Hope you went for a long run or a long nap afterwards!! ;-)