48 Fun Facts About Brazilian Food

Which bean-and-meat stew is considered Brazil's national dish?

Feijoada, a stew of black beans with pork and beef cuts, is Brazil's national dish, served with rice, farofa, collard greens and orange slices.

What is Brazil's national cocktail?

The caipirinha — cachaça, lime, sugar and ice — is Brazil's national cocktail; a 2003 federal decree fixed its legal definition as a drink made with cachaça, lime and sugar.

Cachaça, Brazil's native liquor, is distilled from what?

Cachaça is distilled from fermented fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses, which is what separates it from most rum; Brazil makes more than a billion liters a year, nearly all consumed at home.

Brigadeiros are chocolate truffles made from cocoa powder, butter and what?

Sweetened condensed milk cooked with cocoa powder and butter makes the fudge, which is rolled in chocolate sprinkles and served in paper cups at every Brazilian birthday party.

The brigadeiro was created to promote the presidential candidacy of which man?

Supporters of Brigadier Eduardo Gomes, the air force officer who ran for president in 1945, sold the sweets at campaign events; confectioner Heloísa Nabuco de Oliveira is credited with the recipe.

Pão de queijo gets its chewy, elastic texture from the flour of which root?

Cassava starch (polvilho), used in both sour and sweet forms, gives pão de queijo its stretch and makes the rolls naturally gluten-free.

Pão de queijo originated in which Brazilian state?

Pão de queijo comes from Minas Gerais, where 18th-century mining settlements had little wheat and cooks made rolls from manioc starch and the region's fresh cheese.

Coxinha, the teardrop-shaped chicken croquette, literally means what?

Coxinha means 'little thigh' (coxa is thigh); the dough is shaped like a drumstick, and legend ties it to a son of Princess Isabel who would eat only that cut.

Moqueca is a Brazilian stew built around what?

Moqueca is a slow-simmered stew of fish or shrimp with tomatoes, onion, garlic, lime and coriander, cooked and served in a clay pot.

Bahian moqueca is distinguished by coconut milk and which oil?

Moqueca baiana gets its color and flavor from dendê (red palm oil) and coconut milk; the capixaba version from Espírito Santo uses neither, coloring the stew with annatto instead.

Açaí na tigela, the açaí bowl, originated in Pará and which other state?

The bowl of frozen, mashed açaí palm fruit comes from Pará and Amazonas in the north; the sweetened version topped with granola and banana spread from Rio's beaches in the 1990s.

The word guaraná comes from the language of which Amazonian people?

The Sateré-Mawé of the lower Amazon domesticated guaraná and gave it its name (warana); their origin myth has the first plant sprouting from a buried child's eyes, matching the split fruit's eyeball look.

Picanha, Brazil's most prized beef cut, is known in the UK as what?

Picanha is the rump cap, the triangular muscle over the top of the rump, called top sirloin cap or coulotte in the US and cooked with its fat cap left on.

Traditional churrasco picanha is seasoned with just what?

Only sal grosso, coarse sea salt, goes on picanha; the meat is curved onto a skewer, fat side out, and roasted over charcoal.

In which service style do waiters circulate with skewers of meat for one fixed price?

Rodízio ('rotation') means one fixed price for unlimited rounds: waiters circulate with skewers until you flip your table card to red; pizzerias and sushi bars use the same system.

Pudim de leite, a staple Brazilian dessert, is a version of which classic?

Pudim de leite is a crème caramel made with sweetened condensed milk, eggs and caramelized sugar, baked in a ring mold and turned out so the caramel runs down the sides.

What is farofa?

It is toasted with butter or oil, bacon, onion or olives, and sprinkled on for crunch.

Vatapá's name derives from words in which African language?

Vatapá takes its name from Yoruba, the West African language of many enslaved people brought to Bahia; the paste blends bread, dried shrimp, coconut milk, ground nuts and palm oil.

Acarajé, the Bahian street snack, is a fried ball of which legume?

Acarajé is a fritter of peeled, mashed black-eyed peas fried in dendê oil; Bahian baianas split it open and fill it with vatapá and dried shrimp.

Which Bahian spread of okra, dried shrimp and nuts in palm oil goes inside acarajé?

Caruru is the Bahian okra stew: sliced okra cooked down with dried shrimp, ground nuts, onion and dendê oil until it is thick enough to spread.

Pastéis are believed to have evolved from which dish adapted by Asian immigrants?

Pastéis are thought to descend from fried spring rolls, adapted by Japanese and Chinese immigrants to sell at Brazilian open-air street markets (feiras) in the 20th century.

Which drink is the classic partner to a pastel at a Brazilian street market?

Pastel and caldo de cana, fresh-pressed sugarcane juice, are the classic pairing at Brazilian feiras, where pastel stands set up beside the cane presses.

The dessert Romeu e Julieta pairs cheese with a paste made from which fruit?

Goiabada, a firm guava paste, sliced with fresh Minas cheese is the classic Romeu e Julieta; the sweet-salty pairing also fills pastries and pizzas.

Quindim is a glistening yellow custard of sugar, egg yolks and what?

Ground coconut, folded into sugar and egg yolks, gives quindim its chewy base under the glossy custard; baked in a large ring mould it becomes a quindão, served in slices.

The word quindim comes from dikende in which Bantu language?

Quindim comes from the Kikongo word dikende, describing the charms and gestures of adolescent girls; Kikongo was spoken by many enslaved Bantu people brought to Bahia.

Pamonha, a festa junina staple, is a sweet or savoury paste boiled inside what?

Pamonha is grated fresh corn and milk wrapped in corn husks, tied and boiled; savoury or sweet, it is sold everywhere during June's festas juninas.

Pinhão, boiled and eaten in southern Brazil's winter, is the nut of which tree?

Pinhão is the seed of Araucaria angustifolia, the Paraná pine; it is boiled in salted water and eaten through the southern winter, especially around June's festas.

The Center-West's signature rice dish is seasoned with which Cerrado fruit?

Pequi, the pungent yellow fruit of the Cerrado, flavours arroz com pequi, the signature dish of Goiás; eaters gnaw the pulp carefully because the stone is covered in fine spines.

Chimarrão, the drink associated with the gaúcho, is made from what?

Chimarrão is hot yerba mate sipped through a metal bomba straw from a gourd called a cuia; tererê is the cold version favoured in Mato Grosso do Sul.

Pato no tucupi, Pará's famous duck dish, is linked to which Catholic celebration?

Pato no tucupi is the traditional lunch of the Círio de Nazaré, the huge October procession in Belém; the duck is boiled in tucupi and topped with jambu.

Tucupi, the yellow Amazonian broth, must be cooked for days to remove what?

It is pressed from raw ground manioc; the poisonous maniva makes the long cooking essential.

Tacacá and pato no tucupi both use jambu, a native variety of which herb?

Jambu is Acmella oleracea, known in English as paracress or the toothache plant, whose spilanthol numbs and tingles the mouth; tacacá is served hot in a cuia gourd with dried shrimp.

Barreado, Paraná's slow-cooked stew, is named for its sealed pot; what does the name mean?

Barreado comes from barro, mud or clay: the lid of the clay pot is 'muddied' shut with a paste of manioc flour and water, and the meat cooks sealed for 12 to 24 hours.

Catupiry, the creamy cheese used on pizzas, is traditionally sold in what?

Catupiry was created in Lambari, Minas Gerais, in 1911 by Italian immigrants Mario and Isaira Silvestrini and is traditionally sold in a round wooden box, spooned onto pizzas and into pastéis.

Queijo coalho is typically eaten how on Brazilian beaches?

Vendors on Northeastern beaches sell queijo coalho grilled on skewers over little charcoal braziers, often brushed with oregano or molasses; the firm cheese browns without melting.

The loaded Brazilian sandwich known as 'X-Tudo' literally translates as what?

'X' is pronounced 'shees', a Brazilian spelling of 'cheese', so X-Tudo is 'cheese-everything': a burger loaded with straw fries, corn, peas, olives and quail eggs.

Brazil's national cocktail is believed to have been invented around 1918 in which state?

Piracicaba claims it; Rio nonetheless declared it intangible heritage in 2019.

Paçoca, the crumbly sweet likened to Spanish polvorones, is made from which nut?

Paçoca is roasted peanuts ground with sugar and a little salt into a crumbly block; pé-de-moleque, peanut brittle set with rapadura sugar, is its chewier cousin.

In Brazil, suco de maracujá is juice of which fruit?

Maracujá is passion fruit; its tart pulp is blended with water and sugar for one of Brazil's most popular juices and the base of mousse de maracujá.

Which of these is a nickname for cachaça?

Pinga ('drip') is the everyday nickname for cachaça, along with cana, caninha and branquinha; chopp is draught beer and quentão a hot winter punch.

The first sugar cane cuttings reached Brazil in 1532 from which Atlantic island group?

Martim Afonso de Sousa brought sugarcane cuttings from Madeira to São Vicente in 1532, along with the know-how for mills and pot stills; cachaça followed within decades.

Tutu de feijão, from Minas, is puréed beans thickened with what?

Tutu de feijão is mashed beans thickened with manioc or corn flour, then sautéed with bacon, onion and garlic; it also appears beside virado à paulista.

Virado à paulista, São Paulo's signature plate, is built around which meat?

Virado à paulista centres on a pork chop (bisteca), with beans mashed with manioc flour, rice, sautéed collard greens, fried plantain, pork sausage and a fried egg.

Rio's filé à Osvaldo Aranha is grilled beef fillet famous for being topped with what?

Filé à Osvaldo Aranha, named for the Vargas-era politician who ordered it at Rio's Café Lamas, is a fillet steak buried in crisp fried garlic slices, with rice, farofa and 'batatas portuguesas'.

Bolinhos de bacalhau, a Rio street food of Portuguese origin, are fritters of which fish?

Bolinho de bacalhau is a fritter of salt cod (bacalhau) mashed with potato, egg and parsley, a Portuguese inheritance sold in Rio's bars and botecos.

At New Year's Eve, Brazilians traditionally swap the daily beans for which legume?

Lentils, an Italian-immigrant custom, are eaten on New Year's Eve to bring money in the coming year; rice and beans with a garlicky refogado is otherwise the base of almost every lunch.

The national bean stew is a traditional Southeastern lunch on Saturday and which weekday?

Farofa, rice and orange slices are the usual company.

Moqueca capixaba is traditionally cooked in a clay pot from which district of Vitória?

The black clay pots come from the paneleiras of Goiabeiras, a Vitória neighbourhood whose craft IPHAN registered as intangible heritage in 2002; the capixaba moqueca uses olive oil and annatto, not dendê or coconut milk.