Top-7 simple foods you have to try in Brazil

I have long given up tasting various traditional dishes in different countries and pay more attention to try the everyday menu: simple dishes and street food. And this is my personal list of must-eat in Brazil!

1. Paçoquinha

These are such halva candies from peanut butter. A few years ago I bought a package as a gift and ate everything in the plane. These are so tasty.

2. Asai

Asai is such berries growing in the Amazon forests. They are full of antioxidants and are the best natural energy.

In Brazil they make a frozen Asai puree and add it to the smoothie or consume as an ice cream. In every Brazilian supermarket there is a huge stand with Asai products. And in Rio there are many cafes with asai bowls menu with all sorts of topping to choose from.

Of course, Asai is exported and you can try it all around the world, but the taste of Asai powder and even Asai-smoothies in the fashionable European cafes of is so much different from the one you eat in Brazil.

3. Tapioca crepes

Tapioca is a grainy starchy product obtained from the roots of maniacs. High calorie and easily digestible food, widely used in tropical countries. In Brazil using tapioca they cook tortillas. It looks like as a crepe or sandwich. But non-gluten. My favorite topping is a cheese with ham.

4. Pao de Quiejo

Cheese balls from the flour Manioca. Gluten-free. You can buy it almost everywhere in every cafe. The most delicious I have eaten in Starbucks. Especially tasty with Brazilian coffee for breakfast.

5. Mate

Mate in the north and south of Brazil are 2 different drinks. In the south of Brazil it is a hot drink that people drink from calabaza (traditional pumpkin cup for mate), sipping through a special tube. The taste is similar to herbal tea.

In the north of Brazil they drink cold and sweet Mate. You may buy this beverage in every supermarket. Restaurants cook their home versions of cold mate. The taste is very similar to the cold home tea with sugar that grandmother cooked you in the childhood.

6. Meat

I have to confess I am in love with Brazilian meat. And the best place to try it – Churrascaria, this is a special restaurant, where the whole process of eating meat is more like a show.

What it looks like: You enter the restaurant, choose a table. You can eat how much you want and what you want for the fixed price, for drinks you need to pay separately. The menu is divided into 2 parts: the first – buffet (it is a buffet). Where you can choose snacks, salads, hot, soups, pasta, desserts and use them in unlimited quantities.

The second part is meat. They way it is served called “rodizio”. Every couple of minutes a waiter walks into the hall with a tray of meat. Visitors on the table have red and green card. If you put a green card on the table, then the waiter will come to your table, if you put the red one a waiter passes by.

7. Coconuts

Coconut water is a universal drink in Brazil. Kiosks with coconuts in Rio can be found on the embankment every 50 meters. Interesting fact, unlike Thailand in Brazil it’s not common to open the coconut to eat the flesh. People just drink the coconut water.