Victoria  Stanham  Celio                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2014/01/30  

CULTURAL SCAVENGER HUNT 1

Interesting aspects about Brazilian food, restaurants, meal traditions.

Brazil is the most populous country in South America occupying nearly half of its territory. It lies in all the East

Coast of South America and it is really well known for its paradisiac carnival, beaches, music, and food culture.

Besides, it is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the area due to the Portuguese colonization back in 1500.

In Brazil you can find an interesting crucible of races, being its society made up of people from different

origins, such as Europeans, Native Americans, Africans, and Arabs, among others. All these cultures have

brought their culture and therefore, their food culture and tastes, some of their ingredients and recipes to Brazil.

All this has influenced and had a big impact on Brazilian cuisine.

Since Brazil is a large country, made up of a crucible of cultures and has lots of different ecosystems. All around

its territory, particularly in every region, you can find a particular dish, being some of them greatly influenced

by other-countries ingredients or cuisine. However, there is something that you can always find in every

Brazilian family diet or in restaurant menu: rice, beans and “farofa” (manioc flour mixture). These three side

dishes are used to accompany mostly every meat, salad, etc. For example, if you order as a main course a dish

composed by meat, poultry or fish in a Brazilian restaurant, it will always be served with these three side dishes

apart from the salad or french-fries you regularly ask for as a side dish. However, when talking about Brazilian

food, the most genuine typical dish is the well-known national dish called “feijoada”, the only traditional dish

you can find anywhere you go in Brazil even the smallest restaurants.

Feijoada: def. a Brazilian or Portuguese stew of black beans with pork or other meat and vegetables, served with rice.

(2014 01 26 - http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/)

If we go back to the origins of the traditional dish called “feijoada”, we should get back to the origins of the

Portuguese colonization where many Africans were brought to Brazil as slaves to work in the large plantations.

African slaves did not have much things to eat and could not afford to buy food so they used to smuggled the

left overs of their masters and made a kind of stew. In those hard times, they used every part of the pork to cook

the dish, but nowadays it is a very elaborate dish in many chef restaurants, mostly cooked with pork ribs and

shoulder. In other words, it is a much more refined dish and everybody, regardless of his or her background, eats

Victoria  Stanham  Celio                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2014/01/30  

“feijoada”. As it was mentioned before and it is the tradition in Brazil, this dish is always served with rice and

“farofa”. The importance of this dish is that you can see the influence of various cultures and how these varied

cultures can get together and define another one. Why? “Feijoada” was created by the mixture of African slaves

bean stew, then the Portuguese added the sausage and Native Brazilian Indians complemented it with their

recognized ingredient “farofa”. Bringing all ingredients together makes the perfect combination of flavors,

colours and textures that you can find in most of Brazilian dishes. Every Brazilian dish has a mixture of

textures, flavors and aroma that identifies it.

An interesting fact about the “feijoada” is that, although you can ask for it regularly in restaurants and

Brazilians may have it regularly at their homes, there is a special week day for this dish: Wednesdays and

Saturdays. Most restaurants serve this dish as the “special of the day” these two days, regardless of the fork

rating. You will also feel very homey when going to restaurants because waiters are most times very nice and

friendly, as it will be mentioned afterwards the meal-times is one of the most important time of their day. The

environment that surrounds Brazilian restaurants is most times really colorful and reflecting their culture

through music either live or not.

The “feijoada” works also as a celebration all around Brazil, some families and friends get together in informal

meetings and prepare “feijoadas”, word usually used to name the event. They do it usually on Saturday. As they

gather together to prepare “feijoadas”, family and friends, are used to join specially at lunch and dinner, using

food as an artifact to catch up with things, sharing and caring. At Brazilians’ homes you can always find

·feijoada” or any food prepared for that meal leftover in their fridge as they usually prepare in excess in case

someone joins the meal later or comes around without advice.

To conclude, food is one of Brazil’s artifacts, especially the “feijoada” that is the main national dish recognized

not only by natives, but also worldwide. Brazilian cuisine is very diverse and depending on the region the

typical dish you can try, but the one described above can be found throughout the country. Mealtimes are very

important for people in Brazil because they consider it as the optimal occasion to share with family and friends.