Brazil tourist information

The cuisine of Brazil, like Brazil itself, varies greatly by region. This diversity reflects the country's mix of native Amerindians, Portuguese, Africans, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Poles, Syrians, Lebanese and Japanese among others. This has created a national cooking style marked by the preservation of regional differences.

North - Acre, Amazonas, Amapa, Para, Rondonia, Roraima, and Tocantins

The region is known as Amazonia for it includes a large part of the rain forest, and tributaries flowing into the Amazon River. Culturally, the Amazon basin is heavily populated by native Indians or people of mixed Indian and Portuguese ancestry who live on a diet of fish and root vegetables such as manioc, yams, and peanuts, plus palm or tropical fruit. TP The cuisine of this region is heavily influenced by indigenous cuisine. Popular dishes include Picadinho de Jacare (a meal made from alligator meat), turtle meat, Tacaca and Acai.

Northeast - Alagoas, Bahia, Ceara, Maranhao, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Piaui, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe.
Geographically the region comprises a narrow, fertile coastal plain with abundant rainfall where much of the population is found, an equally narrow transition zone called the Agreste, and a large semi-arid region called the Sertao, which is dominated by large cattle ranches.

All kinds of tropical produce are grown on the coastal plain, with sugarcane and cacao being particularly abundant. Within the state of Bahia the predominant cuisine is Afro-Bahian, which evolved from plantation cooks improvising on African, Indian, and traditional Portuguese dishes using locally available ingredients. Typical dishes include vatapa, moqueca (both having seafood and palm oil), and acaraje (a salted muffin made with white beans, onion and fried in palm oil (dende) which is filled with dried shrimp, red pepper and caruru (mashed okra with ground cashew nut, smoked shrimp, onion, pepper and garlic).

The main staple is a plate of white rice and black beans but other common foods include farofa, pacoca, canjica, pamonha and quibebe. In the remainder of the coastal plains there is less African influence on the food, but seafood, shellfish, Coconut and tropical fruit are menu staples. Commonly eaten tropical fruits in the Northeastern region include mango, papaya, guava, orange, passionfruit, pineapple, sweetsop, "hog-plum", Soursop, and cashew (both the fruit and the nut).

Inland, in the arid, drought stricken cattle-growing and farm lands, foods typically include ingredients like (sun) dried meat, rice, beans, goat, manioc and corn meal. A popular dish is called Caruru do Par. They use every part of the bull.

Southeast - Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo.
The Southeastern region is the industrial heart of Brazil, and is home to several distinctive cooking styles for which Brazil is probably best-known. In Espirito Santo, there is significant Italian and German influence in local dishes both savory and sweet. The state dish, though, is of Amerindian origin, and is called Moqueca Capixaba (a tomato and fish stew prepared in a clay pot). The cuisine of Minas Gerais is also strongly influent there, with many restaurants serving that fare. Farofa (a dish of toasted manioc flour with small amounts of flavoring ingredients such as pork, onions, hardboiled eggs or different vegetables), polenta, couve (collard greens), chourico (a type of sausage that is less spicy than its cousin chorizo), tutu a mineira (a paste of beans and manioc flour) and fried bananas are examples of popular dishes from Minas Gerais.

In Minas Gerais the regional dishes include maize, pork, beans, chicken (including the very typical dish frango com quiabo, or "chicken with okra") and local soft ripened traditional cheeses. In Rio, feijoada (a black bean and meat stew rooted in the ingenuity of African slaves working in the plantations of colonial Brazil), is popular especially as a Wednesday or Saturday lunch. Also consumed frequently is feijao com arroz, or rice and beans.

Traditionally, black beans are prepared in Rio de Janeiro, rajadinho or carioquinha (brown) beans in Sao Paulo, and either in Minas Gerais. Another typical food in Sao Paulo is the Virado a Paulista, that consists of rice, tutu de feijao (a paste of beans and manioc flour), sauteed collard greens (couve) and pork chops, typically bisteca, the pork equivalent of the T-bone steak. It is usually accompanied by pork rinds, bits of sausage, a fried egg and a fried banana.

The cuisine of Sao Paulo shows the influence of European and Middle Eastern immigrants. The majority of immigrants in Sao Paulo arrived from Portugal, along with many from Italy, Japan, the Middle East, Spain, and other nations. Hence, it is possible to find a wide array of cuisines. In the city of Sao Paulo, pizza is a popular dish, and sushi has entered the mainstream and can be found in regular, non-Japanese restaurants.

South - Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
The gaucho (cowboy of the pampa) contributed to the national cuisine with dishes made with sun- or salt-dried meats and churrasco (a Brazilian counterpart of the barbecue), a meal of flame grilled fresh meats. The traditional food from the state of Parana is the barreado, boiled meat, made in ceramic pans, often put under the soil to boil with the sunheat. The European immigrants (primarily from Germany, Italy, Poland and Portugal) that account for 92% of the ethnicity in this region were accustomed to a wheat-based diet, and introduced wine, leaf vegetables, and dairy products into Brazilian cuisine. When potatoes were not available they discovered how to use the native sweet manioc as a replacement.