If you ask me which dish is typically Brazilian, I could name a few, but some are, in fact, regional dishes. Feijoada, though, is unanimous. Everybody in Brazil has a “prato de feijoada” (a plate of feijoada) once in a while. Gathering friends on a Saturday, and listening to some live band playing samba, oh, its taste seems to become even better! Just a little advice: no calorie counting allowed for the feijoada! It is almost a sacrilege, and if you are on a diet, don’t get even close to it.
In Brazil, we put the feijoada – a black bean stew mixed with different parts of beef and pork (including pork ears, back, feet!) – on top of white rice, and add sliced oranges and collard greens to the plate. We can also include fried plantains, and cassava flour as traditional side dishes to the Feijoada. Some foreigners comment that, when they try the cassava flour, it seems they are eating sand because of its texture. In my case, I just love it all! For me, our feijoada is the perfect fit for a group get-together in a sunny weekend afternoon.
Some Brazilians argue that the origin of our feijoada is Portuguese, but most believe that our typical dish came from our African slavery period traditions. For more information on the origin of our feijoada, take a look here (Wikipedia).
You have to try it! It’s irresistible. Even better with cold beer or caipirinhas, our national drink made of lime. Well, maybe next time I can tell you a bit more of our famous caipirinha and its recipe…
This is Carla Arena’s first post on PocketCultures. Carla is a passionate Brazilian educator and we’re very excited about learning more about Brazil from her posts. If you’re a football fan, look out for Carla’s updates on world cup celebrations in Brazil, starting tomorrow.
Carla also blogs on her own blog, Collablogatorium.
Read more:
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About the author
carla
Oh, wow. I hope I will try this one day. What an interesting combination too. We put oranges in salads sometimes, but usually they are only eaten as dessert! Thanks for sharing a bit of sunny Brazil!
You won’t regret it! Though it seems kind of exotic to have the orange together with rice and beans, the taste is surprisingly good. In some parts of the Norhteast of Brazil, people eat rice and beans with banana! My grandma used to slice bananas and have them together with her lunch plate every day!
Love love love feijoada and caipirinha!! This post makes me want to eat a prato de feijoada right now, as it is rather chilly here 🙂
By the way, this cassava flour is farofa, right?
Carla, you’ve made me hungry!
Mmmm. Caipirinha. I need me one of those.
Dear Ana, I also love feijoada! Today, as I was in recess, I went to the club with my kids and guess what? Feijoada for lunch! As it is a heavy food, there’s no way I could eat it and then go to work. Cassava flour is “farinha”. To make it “farofa”, you just need some butter, fried garlic and if you want some bacon to make the “farofa”. You know we have many kinds. Sometimes with bacon and olives, for example, other with eggs, or just with garlic.
As for the caipirinhas, Sean, I promise to teach you how to do the perfect one in a future post as it is my specialty drink!
Great post! I love feijoada too!!! <3
I first tried it here in Costa Rica when I was studying Portuguese, our Brazilian professor made it for us, it’s yummy! :p
Caipirinhas are sooo good, I also tried the Caipirosas in Brazil (Is that the correct word for the sweet drink?) Ohhh, you need to write about the coxinhas too! I could eat many every day! jiji
Beautifully written, Carla!
I agree Feijoada is the most typical dish from, our country, and I love to eat it on some Saturdays.
Ronaldo
That’s a good one, NĂşria, coxinhas de frango com catupiry! Will have to write this down for another “food of the world” post. So, you tried some caipiroscas in Brazil, huh? Caipirinhas and caipiroscas are the same, except that caipirinhas are made with our sugar cane rum, and caipiroscas are made of vodka.
Feijoada on a Saturday afternoon is always a good choice, isn’t it, Ronaldo?
Carla, This reminds me of the restaurant we visited in Cambridge and the wonderful Brazilian meal Bob, Alice and I had with you. I am going to try and make this and serve it during world cup! I will let you know. Now for a caipirinhas!
Hi Carla
I was trying to explain feijoada for a Canadian friend and I got stuck in some translations like: “farofa e torresmo”….Do you know if there is specific English words for those?
Congrats for the amazing article you made.
Sweet I remember it because we ate it all the time in the orphanages i grew up in. I cant recall if it was good or not just a typical meal like pizza on the weekends. Awesome article!
Dear John, yes, in Brazil, Feijoada is as popular as pizza on the weekends, especially on Saturdays!
Dear Irio, the word for torresmo is pork rinds. Farofa is farofa, but farinha, they call it yuca/cassava flour.
Wonderful article, Carlinha! Parabéns!
I’ve had feijoada only once, and that was at a student pot-luck party several years ago. That feijoada wasn’t particularly good, and I remember that the student said, “My feijoada is only OK. I wish you could eat the feijoada that my mom makes—and my grandma’s feijoada is even better!”
I’d love to taste the “real deal,” especially in Brasil!
Best wishes as always—
Dennis in Phoenix