Feijoada

Smile for the Camera!

(yes, that's a pig head)

Fabi, one of my Deloitte Brazilian buddies, offered to take me out for a traditional Brazilian lunch on Saturday and I could not refuse. In fact, eating feijoada is listed in 1000 Places to See Before You Die. There are four other American interns at the Sao Paulo office and Laura, a tax intern from Detroit, was in town as well and joined us for lunch.

Fabi took us to a nice restaurant and told us about the origins of feijoada. Feijoada started as a food made from leftover pig parts, rice, and black beans by the Brazilian slaves. In fact, it reminded me a of lot our soul food here in the US. They even had greens. Feijoada is also only served on Saturdays and Wednesdays. It was a great start to my Brazilian adventures.

Me, Laura, Fabi

Here we have some pork back, beans, dried pork, greens, fried bananas, pork rinds, sausage, and this really good thing I don't know the name of. It was like a coarse grain flavored with dried pork.

At feijoada we also tried caipirinha, the national drink made from crushed lime, sugar, and cachaca, a liquor made from sugarcane. It was quite strong but while in Brazil one must drink like a Brazilian. They also make caipirinhas with sake and Fabi said that those are lighter and just tast like juice, but I wanted to go the authentic approach. She was right about them being strong. I might opt for the sake one next time unless Brazil wants to see my signature table dancing.

Note the live band in the background playing sambas

For dessert they had all these fruits and dipping sauces. I asked Fabi if all the fruits were from Brazil and she thought that was a very odd question because for her, of course the fruits were from Brazil. She was very surprised that we import almost all of our fruit. They had guava and it is usually paired with this white cheese and called Romeo and Juliet. I tried it and it was pretty good!

Feijoada was the perfect way to start my time in Brazil. It was great food with great company and atmosphere. I hope I get a chance to have it one more time before I leave.