Next Stop Brazil!

Ever been to a Brazilian Churrascaria? My first (and only, I think) experience with this unique form of dining was - of all unusual places - in Bentonville Arkansas. There is a fantastic little churrascaria there called Brioso Brazil. My husband and I had never had churrasca before and we adored it!

If you are not a meat eater – beware! Churrasca-style food is ALL about meat! Fortunately, for the Midwesterners in our Dinner Club, basically everyone is keen on meat in general. Here’s a bit of background on the type of cuisine I’m referring to, in case you’re lost at this point.

According to my friend www.wikipedia.org, a churrascaria is a Brazilian steakhouse. “Churrasca is the cooking style, which translates roughly from Portuguese as “barbecue”. Distinctly a South American style rotisserie, it owes its origins to the fireside roasts of the gaúchos of southern Brazil traditionally from the Pampa region, centuries ago.” ⁽¹⁾

“In modern restaurants rodízio service is typically offered. Passadores (meat waiters) come to your table with knives and a skewer, on which are speared various kinds of meat, be it beef, pork, filet mignon, lamb, chicken, duck, ham (and pineapple), sausage, fish, or any other sort of local cut of meat. A common cut of beef top sirloin cap is known as picanha. In most parts of Brazil, the churrasco is roasted with charcoal. In the south of Brazil, however, mostly close to the borders of Argentina and Uruguay, embers of wood are also used.” ⁽¹⁾

According to another online source, www.copacabana.info, “Churrascarias are remarkable restaurants where you pay a sum to eat as much and for as long as you want! You typically pay…to enter the churrascaria and get showed a table by a waiter. Once at the table, usually there is some sort of sign with either a green “go” or a red “stop”, indicating if you are full or not. While the sign is a green “go”, waiters come around with meat on skewers offering different kinds of barbeque.” ⁽²⁾

This “go” or “stop” signage is exactly as our experience was at Brioso Brazil. You simply indulge until you can’t possibly want any more; a more upscale – and more artful – form of the all-you-can-eat concept!

Again, according to www.copacabana.info, “…in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro, the Copacabana district, there are several churrascarias to enjoy. Some also have entertainment with samba dancing while eating.” ⁽²⁾ Sounds amazing to me! A trip to Brazil is definitely on my list, however, for the time being I will settle for our February “Brazilian Churrascaria” Dinner Club! (See below for our menu for this month)

We, as always, plan to be as authentic as we can with the food. Several couples will be providing meat entrée (churrasca) options – although the aforementioned “rodízio service” will likely be absent as I’m not sure any one of the twelve of us will be volunteering to work as a “Passadore” for the night! We are having traditional Brazilian side dishes and dessert, as well as sampling the national drink of Brazil, the caipirinha! More blog posts later on the cocktails and recipes for this Dinner Club – stay tuned for some interesting new things to try out yourself!

(1) Denotes quoted directly from www.wikipedia.org

(2) Denotes quoted directly from www.copacabana.info