Hi, guys! Today I will talk about what I think you should eat in Brazil or Rio de Janeiro. We are well-known for our good food and our variety.  I would venture to say that in Brazil you will find any kind of food, our land is amazing for vegetables, fruits, grains and and my country welcomed immigrants from all over the world in its history so is easy to find typical food from other countries as our own. But today we will talk about the food we eat in our daily life in Rio and I think you should try once in here.

Oh, each state in Brazil has a different kind of food, I will talk about  the food from Rio or from other states in Brazil that we eat here, but know it has much more, Brazil is giant :)

BISCOITO GLOBO

Biscoito Globo is a icon of Rio de Janeiro, is really popular among us and became one of the “faces of Rio”, you will find it on patterns and souvenirs. I love it! Eat biscoito globo is almost an obligation if you are on the beach, especially with Mate (we will talk about it on “what should I drink in Rio” post). I don’t know how to describe it so you will have to taste and help me, ok? haha. Top #1 in Rio’s way of life.

BROWNIE DO LUIZ

Ok, this is just a brownie and I’m not even sure if it’s the best I ever ate but for some reason we always eat Brownie do Luiz. You will find it in lots of places in the city, but you can go to the stores, one of them close to Largo do Machado tube station (the same one you will have to take the bus or van from to go to Corcovado), address Rua das Laranjeiras 103-A, and the other one in Leblon, address Rua Cupertino Durão 79-B. My favorite flavor is Nutella so be sure you eat it, comes in the black packing (but because of patent etc it says “creme de avelã”, hazelnut cream, on the label).

 PÃO DE QUEIJO

One of my favorites. Pão de queijo means cheese bread and is exactly it. Can’t go wrong. This is typical of Minas Gerais state, but we eat a lot in here. It’s cheap and you can find everywhere. They can be small, so you buy a portion of 100g in general, or big and you buy it by unit.

FEIJOADA

Soon you will find out we eat rice and black beans a lot and Feijoada is a better version of that. It is a heavy food (so prepare to relax after it) and consists of black beans with different kinds of meat, rice, farofa, kale, orange and whatever comes to mind. If you want to eat an amazing one in one of the best neighborhoods in Rio, you can try to go to Bar do Mineiro in Santa Teresa on Sundays. Highly recommend you to go early, and by early I mean be there before noon. Bar do Mineiro gets packed every sunday with locals and some tourists that are finding one of our favorite spots.

FAROFA

I LOVE FAROFA, haha. It is toasted manioc flour and you can improve it by adding eggs, sausage, bacon. I always introduce Farofa to my foreign friends and they usually love it, but some of them find the texture strange. Give it a try, you can find it everywhere!

CHURRASCO

Churrasco means barbecue. Our barbecue is different from the American one. You can find it everywhere too and we eat with farofa, fries, rice and molho à campanha, a sauce with vinegar, onions, peppers and other vegetables. Tourists love to go to our churrascarias, steak houses, because we have a system that works this way: you pay a fix price and waiters circle through the tables with skewers of meat asking if you want a slice. You can eat as much as you want for the same price. They serve salads, sides (rice, fries, pasta…), chicken, pork, fish and sometimes even Japanese food, all included on the price. When I travel, I have difficulty understanding the cuts of meat from other countries so my tip is: ask for picanha, picanha nobre, baby beef e alcatra. One good steak house that works in the way I explained is Fogo de Chão (with an amazing view of the sugar loaf).This one is expensive (around R$120 or U$40/person) but you will be able to find cheaper ones.

TAPIOCA

This is tapioca! We eat a lot on the streets with different filling. Tapioca is kind of a street food. Gluten-free and taste really good.

SALADS AND FRUITS

As I said, we have an amazing land and our vegetables and fruits are great. Please don’t take it personal but the vegetables and fruits in the US or Europe look and taste like plastic. You won’t have this problem in Rio, I promise :)

If you like juices, we have amazing juice houses in every corner where you can have a fresh juice made with one fruit or a mix, you just have to ask.

If you like salads, I will recommend you the restaurant Delírio Tropical, it has amazing salads, it’s amazing and not expensive. You can find Delírio Tropical in the centre of the city, Rio Sul mall, Barra Shopping mall, Ipanema… Here is the website where you can check the addresses (look for “lojas”): www.delirio.com.br/.

MOUSSE DE MARACUJÁ

I never thought of mousse de maracujá as a Brazillian thing until some friends  from Bolívia saw a picture of it on a label in my house and asked us to take them where they could eat it. Is super easy to do and we made it for desert that day and they loooved it. So try it, maracujá is a tropical fruit, maybe you have never tasted it and is really good. Mousse de maracujá is sweet, made with condensed milk, and perfect for desert.

BRIGADEIRO

The ultimate Brazilian dessert. Made with powered chocolate, condensed milk and butter, you can’t leave Rio without taste it. Cheap, easy to find and reaaally good. One of our best memories from school is to cook brigadeiro with our friends at home to see a movie or just eat while chatting. Brigadeiro is a dessert that is really part of our life.

PUDIM

Another classic Brazillian dessert. This is condensed milk pudding. Never heard of anyone who tasted it and didn’t like.

* Tourists tends to find Brazillian desserts too sweet so I recommend you to share them.

Hope it helps you. If you want more posts like this or have questions/suggestions just leave a comment below. And sorry if I wrote something wrong, as you may know, English is not my mother language (oh, in Brazil we speak Portuguese, NOT SPANISH! haha common mistake).

*Escrevi esse post há muito tempo e esqueci de adicionar os créditos das fotos que não vieram com elas. Se uma das fotos for sua, por favor, avise aqui nos comentários para que eu credite corretamente.