Brazil Essentials

🇧🇷Brazil

Feijoada

Hearty black bean and pork stew slow-simmered for hours, the ritual Saturday lunch of Brazilian families.

🇧🇷Minas Gerais, Brazil

Pão de Queijo

Cheesy tapioca dough puffs, crisp outside and chewy, eaten warm from Minas Gerais bakeries.

🇧🇷Brazil

Brigadeiro

Glossy chocolate fudge balls rolled in sprinkles, the essential sweet at every Brazilian birthday party.

🇧🇷Brazil

Caipirinha

Cachaça muddled with fresh lime and sugar, the bright, tart drink of Brazilian sidewalks and beaches.

🇧🇷Brazil

Moqueca

Coconut and palm-oil seafood stew bubbling in a clay pot; try it Baiana-style in Salvador.

🇧🇷Bahia, Brazil

Acarajé

Crisp black-eyed pea fritter filled with vatapá and dried shrimp, an Afro-Bahian street staple.

🇧🇷São Paulo, Brazil

Coxinha

Tear-shaped fried dough stuffed with seasoned chicken and cream cheese, the iconic Brazilian party snack.

🇧🇷Brazil

Cachaça

Sugarcane spirit, the clear, fiery base of caipirinha, best sipped cold with lime.

🇧🇷Pará, Brazil

Açaí na Tigela

Thick frozen açai pulp with granola and banana, the purple breakfast bowl of the Brazilian Amazon.

🇧🇷Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Churrasco

Skewers of beef and sausage slow-roasted over embers, the soul of gaucho barbecue.

🇧🇷Pará, Brazil

Tacacá

Amazonian manioc broth with dried shrimp, jambu, and tucupi—a distinctive food of northern Brazil.

🇧🇷Bahia, Brazil

Vatapá

Salvador’s creamy Bahian stew of bread, coconut, peanuts, shrimp, and dendê.

🇧🇷São Paulo, Brazil

Pastel

Crisp Brazilian market pastry filled with cheese, meat, or palm hearts and eaten straight from the fryer.

🇧🇷Brazil

Sweet Porridge

Mungunzá

Sweet corn pudding cooked with milk, coconut, and cinnamon, especially associated with Brazil’s June festivals.

🇧🇷Brazil

Quindim

Glossy baked coconut-and-egg-yolk sweet, a bright signature of Brazil’s Afro-Brazilian dessert tradition.