New Gastronomic Awareness at the Market

Since it was constructed over 100 years ago, Fortaleza's central food and produce market, the Mercado São Sebastião has grown and prospered, but has never been considered a gastronomic hotspot, even though one can buy all the traditional food stuffs of local regional cuisine as well as eat traditional northeastern food in a number of restaurants and lunch-stalls. Located in a distinctly down-market part of Fortaleza's downtown, the market has primarily served nearby residents and workers in the food industry, whether they are produce wholesalers, restaurant managers, or food producers. The lunch stalls which encircle the central produce section serve hearty, traditional meals from the early hours of the morning to the market's hungry vendors and customers, as well as to a few night owls who are accustomed to stop for a hot bowl of soup before heading home to sleep off the night's festivities.

panelada

The richness of the market and it's gastronomic value have always been underappreciated in Fortaleza, and many of the city's food establishment (produers and consumers alike) have never passed through the market's doors. That's all changing now as Fortaleza (like all of Brazil) is becoming more interested in all aspects of food and agriculture. Savvy consumers are doing their daily or weekly shopping at the market, knowing that the quality is high and the prices are low. Locavores and foodies arefamiliarizing themselves with the lunch stalls in search of the best panelada, galinha caipira or baião-de-dois. Things are definitely looking up at the market in all kinds of ways.

Being aware of the gastronomic and touristic potential of the market, the management of Mercado São Sebastião, in conjunction with SEBRAE, a governmental agency which aids small businesses, has initiated a project at the market to maximize its potential as a gastronomic destination. The market's vendors are being offered a course in local gastronomic history and tradition, standards of sanitation and hygiene, and entrepreneurship. The project includes a new gastronomic logo, which merchants who have completed the course can display at their booths, as well as signage in the market to help tourists and visitors find their way through the aisles and stalls.

In other cities of Brazil, a visit to the market is an essential part of tourists' itineraries. Belem's Ver-o-Peso market is the most visited destination in that city, as is the Mercado Público de Florianópolis in the southern state of Santa Catarina. Fortaleza, fortunately, is waking up to the fact that they already possess a market with similar tourism and gastronomic potential, and this new program is a valuable first step forward in making the Mercado São Sebastião an essential part of Fortaleza's tourist itinerary.

RECIPE - Dona Zena's Meatballs (Bola da Carne da Dona Zena)

First place winner in Fortaleza in the 2012 edition of Brazil's largest national gastronomic competition, Comida di Buteco, Dona Zena's meatballs have been a favorite on Dona Zena's eponymous restaurant in downtown Fortaleza for more than 20 years. They're no flash in the pan - some of the dish's biggest fans grew up on these meatballs, and are now passing their love onto their children and grandchildren.

Previous posts on Flavors of Brazil have highlighted the restaurant and the prize-winning chef, so it's entirely appropriate that we end our series of posts on Dona Zena with her authentic recipe, courtesy of Brazilian food website Receitas & Dietas (Recipes and Diets).

This recipe is very simple, and maybe it's the simplicity itself which makes it appeal to so many people. There are no ingredients that are difficult to source or very expensive. True Brazilian comfort food that deserves a place in your repertory.
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RECIPE - Dona Zena's Meatballs (Bola da Carne da Dona Zena)
Makes 12 large meatballs

2 1/4 lb (1 kg) good quality ground meat - ground chuck is best
1/2 cup ripe tomato, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup  onion, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, leaves only, finely chopped

1 Tbsp garlic, minced
3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
neutral vegetable oil for frying

In a large mixing bowl combine all the ingredients, mixing them together with your moistened hands. Try not to press or compact the mixture.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper or cooking parchment. With moistened hands divide the meat mixture into twelve portions and form each portion into balls by rolling it between your palms. Don't over-compact the mixture - it should be pressed together only enough to make it keep its shape.

In a large deep frying pan, heat a small amount of oil, then fry the meatballs, in batchesof 4, turning them over frequently until they are cooked through and nicely brown on all sides. Remove each batch, reserving and keeping warm, before continuing with another batch, until all the meatballs are done.

Serve 3 or 4 meatballs per person, accompanied by a lettuce and sliced tomato salad and white rice.

Zenilda Lopes Bezerra or Dona Zena or Zeninha - Your Choice

In yesterday's post on Flavors of Brazil, we highlighted the recent coronation of a dish of meatballs as Fortaleza's favorite casual dining dish in the annual national competition known in Brazil as Comida di Buteco. Among the 16 bars, botecos and restaurants that entered dishes in the competition, which is voted on by diners themselves, not by professional judges, Dona Zena was the clear winner with her recipe for meatballs, perfectly seasoned and simply fried.

As mentioned in the earlier post, Dona Zena's triumph in the Comida di Buteco competition wasn't the first recognition this hard-working woman has received. She recently shared her recipe for meatballs with a national television audience in Brazil, and at that time, an extensive interview with Dona Zena was published in Fortaleza's best daily newspaper, O Povo.

Dona Zena with happy customers

Though her full name is Zenilda Lopes Bezerra, she's known to most of her customers as Dona Zena, and that is the name her restaurant has had in all the years of her existence. To her family, and close friends (including many faithful customers of the restaurant) she's simple Zeninha (an affectionate diminuitive meaning "little Zena"). Now 65 years old, she's still at the restaurant every day, where she's assisted by her only daughter, Paula. She's been married for more than 30 years, and tells all that she is "a daughter, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and only then a cook."

In the interview Dona Zena spoke of her joys and sorrows during her life, and what the restaurante means to her and to her customers. Here are some excerpts from that interview (translation by Flavors of Brazil):

On her childhood and upbringing:
I was born in Quixadá (a small town in the interior) in 1947. My story is difficult, we were a humble family. I was the backbone of my family. I am the daughter of parents who separated, and as the oldest child, it was I who raised the younger children. Including me, we were eight children.
When my mother brought the children to live in Fortaleza, my father stayed in the interior, he never took much care of us. He found another woman there and my mother remarried here. Now both of my parents are dead, but of my father nothing remains but the name.

How her restaurant got its name:
[At the beginning] it had no name, it was just a corner bar... Then its name became Zen. One day a man stormed into the restaurant shouting, "Look, didn't you know there's a restaurant named Zen on Barão de Studart Avenue?" It turned out even though my restaurant was older than the other Zen, he had registered the name and I hadn't. I was so sad, but a customer of mine said to me, "Just put an -a on the end of the name and turn Zen into Zena." So I did, and now we've had this name for 20 years.



Her recipe for meatballs:
It was a gift from God, really. One my customers, pregnant at the time, worked nearby at Teleceará. One day she said to me, "Zeninha, I had a dream that you made meatballs for me made this way..." and told me the recipe. I replied, "Woman, I've never made anything like that in my life. Are you crazy? I only know how to make steak. I've never tried anything like that recipe." But then Chica, my assistant in the kitchen, picked up some ground meat and finely chopped up the vegetables just like in the dream. Man, it was pure love on a plate. If you put your trust in God, it'll work out. Making meatballs without eggs, without breadcrumbs, nobody cooks that way. Just here at Dona Zena.


Her hopes:
For peace, no? For my daughter to be happy. I don't ask for anything for myself, no. I live through and for my daughter. Everything I have belongs to her. Money is good, for sure, but it's not everything. I know how to make money. My only worry is being the best at what I do.

Unadorned Jewel - Dona Zena Restaurant in Fortaleza, CE

Restaurants that become beloved local institutions aren't always the most luxurious, the most creative or the most expensive restaurants in town. In fact, they're likely to be exactly the opposite - comfortable and homey rather than luxurious, traditional and non-changing rather than creative and avant-garde, and a bargain rather than expensive. These are the restaurants that stay open for 30-40 year or more, often without ownership changing hands. These are the restaurants that locals began frequenting as children with their parents and now continue to frequent with their grandchildren. These are the restaurants that neighbors point to with pride and say, "I've known the owner of that restaurant for twenty-five years and I've never come here and not seen her (or him)".

In Fortaleza, Flavors of Brazil;s hometown, most people would tell you that Dona Zena, a small lunchtime-only restaurant located downtown, is exactly that kind of institution. Since Dona Zena opened more than 20 years ago, in a distinctly down-market street located between the commercial and university districts in the center of Fortaleza, the restaurant has filled to the rafters daily with diners eager to eat one of Dona Zena's PF's (PF = prato feito = blue plate special) or if it's a Friday or Saturday, her feijoada, generally conceded in Fortaleza to be among the city's best.

Owned, managed and operated by a 65-year old woman named (as you might guess) Dona Zena, the restaurant has recently begun to be noticed outside the neighborhood and indeed outside Fortaleza. In the 2012 edition of Comida di Buteco, a Brazil-wide celebration of boteco culture, one of Dona Zena's signature dishes, her meatballs, was voted the best dish in Fortaleza, beating out candidates from more than 15 other boteco-style restaurants. The same dish was featured on a national daytime TV show, Mais Você, hosted by Ana Maria Braga, Brazil's nearest equivalent to Martha Stewart. Dona Zena herself was flown to Rio de Janeiro to appear on Mais Você, where she shared her recipe with TV viewers from across the country.

Her new-found fame hasn't changed Dona Zena - the restaurant or the person. The restaurant's menu is unchanged, the prices are unchanged, and the loyalty of its customers is unchanged. As for Dona Zena herself, she's unchanged too. In a recent interview in one of Fortaleza's daily newspapers O Povo, Dona Zena talked about the difficult times of her childhood, the hard work that went into the creation and operation of her restaurant, and about her three loves - her family, her restaurant and her customers.

Tomorrow, we'll publish some highlights from that interview.

RECIPE - Crab in Coconut Milk (Caranguejo ao Leite de Coco)

In yesterday's post, we discussed Fortaleza's Thursday night ritual of heading out to a beach bar or casual restaurant for a crab feast. Every beach bar along Fortaleza's principal beach, Praia do Futuro, touts their own recipe as the best, but in fact, almost anywhere you go the basic recipe is the same. The recipe is so closely associated with Fortaleza and surrounding beach communities that it's sometimes called Caranguejo Cearense, meaning "Crab from Ceará" the state of which Fortaleza is the capital.

At its simplest, and most traditional, the recipe calls for cooking/steaming the crabs in a broth of rich coconut milk seasoned with garlic, onions, and tomatoes and garnished with lavish amounts of chopped cilantro. During the cooking process, the coconut milk is infused with the juices of the crabs so that when the dish is presented the aromas of the coconut milk and of briny seafood combine into a mouth-watering invitation to pick up the hammer, grab a crab and begin to smash and nosh the night away.

In Fortaleza, this recipe is made with local caranguejo-uçá crabs but can be successfully be made with whatever species of crab is available in your local market - with the possible exception of Alaska king crabs which are better suited to other treatments due to their enormous size.
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RECIPE - Crab in Coconut Milk (Caranguejo ao Leite de Coco)
Serves 4 - 8 depending on size of crabs

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups (500 ml) coconut milk
1 tsp. annatto powder or oil (can substitute sweet paprika)
1 bunch cilantro, large stems removed, finely chopped
8 small crabs, thoroughly washed
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In a large saucepan with a lid, heat the olive oil, then add the garlic, tomatoes and onion and fry until the onion and garlic are softened and the tomato is breaking up. Stir in the coconut milk, the annato or paprika and half of the cilantro. Cook a few more minutes or until the tomato has completely broken up. Bring the liquid to the boiling point.

Add the crabs plus just enough water to cover them. Reduce heat, cover the pan and let the crabs cook/steam for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Put the crabs in a deep serving bowl, pour the cooking liquid over, then sprinkle the remaining cilantro over all. Serve immediately, to be eaten by hand.

Hometown Crab - Caranguejo-Uçá

For thousands of local residents Thursday night in Fortaleza, Ceará, Flavors of Brazil's hometown, means only one thing - crab. On Thursday nights, beachside and downtown bars restaurants alike serve up thousands of crabs to hungry diners. On Tuesday almost no one orders crab, nor on Wednesday or Saturday, but on Thursday the first question a waiter will ask you is likely to be "How many?" rather than "What would you like?". You give him a number and off he goes. He sets the table with small wooden chopping boards and wooden hammers, lots of paper napkins, a plastic bowl for empty shells and hot sauce. Then he brings the feast - small crabs steamed/cooked in a rich broth of coconut milk seasoned with onion, tomatoes and cilantro. A crab goes on the chopping board, you rip the legs off, use the hammer to open them, and the feast begins. And to accompany the crabs? Plenty of icy cold beer, or soft drinks. That's all.

Late last year, when we introduced some friends visiting from Canada to the Thursday night crab ritual, they exclaimed in shock when the bowl of crabs arrived at the table - "Yech! Their legs are hairy!!" And true it was. But once we explained that the hair doesn't come off and that in fact if you dip one of the legs into the delicious broth the hair helps to bring the broth to your mouth they began to relax and to enjoy the meal. But it was a definite culture-shock moment, that first sight of the hirsute crustaceans.

Mangrove swamp

The overwhelming majority of crabs served on these Thursday night blowouts is a species called (in Portuguese) caranguejo-uçá. Caranguejo is the Portuguese word for crab - any crab - and  uçá is a Portuguese adaptation of the species' taxonomic name (Ucides cordatus). Uçá crabs are small, about the same size as an adult human hand. The species is one of two known as mangrove crabs, as their unique habitat are muddy mangrove swamps. The animals live on and in the mud, burrowing in when the tide is high and scuttling about when the tide is low. They are very important to the ecology of mangrove swamps, which are plentiful along the northeast and north coasts of Brazil.

crabs on a string

Most of the supply of crabs for Fortaleza's restaurants and bars comes from the area around delta of the Parnaíba river, about 250 kms. away, in the neighboring state of Piauí. In the city of Parnaíba, located near the mouth of the river and within close distance to miles of coastal mangrove swamps, the harvest and merchandising of crabs are the prime local economic activity. Crabs are commonly sold by the string - each string containing four crabs. Each week during crabbing season about 65,000 strings of crabs are sold in Parnaíba. A crab fisher received 25 centavos (R$0.25) for a string, a price which by the time it reaches a restaurant or bar in Fortaleza sells for R$10. In most beach bars and casual restaurants in Fortaleza, each crab sells for about R$4. Ask a crab fisher how easy it is to catch crabs in their muddy habitat and whether he thinks he's being fairly compensated - the answer is like to be a firm NO. And he'd have a point. The retail price in Fortaleza, which is still only about USD$2 per crab, is 60 times what the fisher receives.

For tourists coming to our city it's essential to try the Thursday night crab feast at least once - it's an important part of local gastronomy. Leaving Fortaleza without eating Caranguejo-Uçá is as heinous a gastronomic crime as leaving New Orleans without eating a Po' Boy sandwich, Naples without sampling pizza in the land of its birth or Vancouver not having indulged in wild Pacific sockeye salmon. Don't do it!

Living without a Hot Water Tap

If someone were to ask you what was the one feature of your kitchen that you just couldn't live without you might reply, "I have no idea." But if you really thought about it a good guess might be that it was running water - specifically hot and cold running water coming right out of the tap, or feeding the dishwasher, or even automatically filling the ice cube tray in your freezer. How could a modern kitchen operate without water - without water that's cold and without water that's hot?

One of the surprises that met me when I moved from Canada to Fortaleza, Brazil, a modern, relatively well-to-do, progressive city of about three million, was that the kitchen sink only had a single tap and  faucet. So did the bathroom sinks and the showers, and the washing machine, but this is a blog about food, so we'll leave that aside for now. There was no hot water tap and there was no cold water tap, there was just a tap, and what came out of it was water of a temperature that could best be described as tepid. This one-tap situation is almost universal in Fortaleza. It's not just in the favelas and small apartments that you find only one temperature of running water - in multi-million dollar and multi-thousand square feet penthouses on Beira-Mar, Fortaleza's oceanfront drive, there's still only one tap and one temperature of water.

Because the climate in this part of the world is relatively changeless in terms of temperature and because that temperature is hot (average daily high of 86F or 30C all year round), it's natural that the reservoirs that furnish municipal water here won't be pouring out ice-cold, barely-liquid water like the reservoirs that serve Vancouver, my previous home base. In Canada cold water means COLD, really COLD. Here, no.

At first, I thought that not having access to hot water from the tap would really change the way I cooked. In particular, I thought it would have a tremendous impact on how I cleaned up after cooking. Granted, not having a dishwashing machine for the first time in many years was a big change, but actually getting pots and pans, dishes, cutlery and glasses clean turned out not to be a problem. Because no one has hot water, it seems the dish detergents sold here are specifically formulated for tepid water, because they work very well, even on greasy pots and pans. Clean-up is a breeze.

For most other kitchen tasks, such as washing fruits and vegetables, I found that tap water worked just fine. In Canada, I used to have to mix cold and hot water to get water that I could stand plunging my hands in - here, it's not an issue. Water for use in cooking also creates no problems - straight out of the tap and onto the stove.

What turned out to be a more serious issue than the lack of hot water was the lack of cold water. Not for drinking, as the kitchen has a refrigerated water cooler, but for cooking. Some kitchen tasks require cold water - making pastry and shocking vegetables, just to name two. No longer can I just open the cold tap when I need to do one of these things. Having only tepid tap water means using ice cubes from the freezer to "create" cold water when I need it.

I've become so accustomed to one tap that I don't really even notice the lack of hot and cold water anymore. Expatriate life teaches one to be adaptable - if you're not adaptable you'll make a miserable expat. I just chock it up to one more thing that makes living away from one's native country all that much more of an adventure - a daily adventure.

Comida di Buteco - Fortaleza's Best Bar Food

Earlier this month, Flavors of Brazil reported on Brazil's Comida di Buteco promotional contest to find the best bar food (comida di buteco) in each of a number of Brazil's major cities. (Click here to read more on Comida di Buteco.)

In Fortaleza, the contest ran from April 15 to May 01, and within the past few days, the Comida di Buteco website announced the winning bars (botecos) and the platters which won them their accolades. Winners were chosen based on ballots filled out by diners during the contest period, on which each plate was scored on a number of factors, and the restaurant as well, on such things as cleanliness, quality of service, noise levels etc.

The first-place winner for 2011 in Fortaleza was a long-established favorite bar in Aldeota, one of Fortaleza's more upmarket neighborhoods. The bar is called Bar do Papai (Daddy's Bar) and is known for the quality of its live music as well as its food and drink. Bar do Papai took home the gold with a charmingly-entitled dish called Pedacinho do Céu (Little Piece of Heaven). The dish consists of rolled, breaded chicken cutlets stuffed with cheese and ham and served with a mayonnaise and ketchup sauce. In other words, rolled-up chicken cordon bleu. The bar has been known for this dish for years, so it's likely that a number of voters were already predisposed to vote for Pedacinho do Céu even before they sat down to eat and vote.

Bar do Papai - Pedacinho do Céu

A Bahian-style restaurant called Cabana da Negona (Big Mama's Hut) took second place with a dish of chunks of smoked pork loin on the grill, covered with roasted onion sliced, and accompanied by a sauce made from mayonnaise and manioc flour. Interestingly, there is nothing particularly Bahian about their winning dish, though it does sound (and look) delicious. Flavors of Brazil has reviewed Cabana da Negona previously, and the review can be seen here.)

Cabana da Negoa - Carne do Fumeiro na Chapa

A surprising (to us anyway) dish from a bar called Flórida Bar received the third highest score during Comida di Buteco. Their offering was Figado Acebolada - or in English, liver 'n' onions. Not that the dish doesn't have its fans, but liver is hated by as many people as those who love it, so we'd think that it wouldn't be a contest-winner. Clearly, Flavors of Brazil was wrong, and the fans of Flórida Bar's liver 'n' onions are legion.

Flórida Bar - Figado Acebolado

Of the three bars, only Flórida Bar is unknown to us here at Flavors of Brazil. But it won't remain that way for long - we intend to visit it soon, even if we don't order the liver! Which is the whole point of the Comida di Buteco program - to locate and identify good bar food, and to encourage diners to try out some of the best bar food in the city.

RESTAURANT REVIEW - Alpendre (Fortaleza, Brazil)

Inside Alpendre

Yesterday, May 1, was the last day of an annual celebration of boteco culture in Fortaleza and a number of other Brazilian cities. Botecos are a Brazilian institution and well-loved by millions of gastronomic patriots. They are casual bars, often loud and raucous, that serve, in addition to beer and cocktails, a variety of comestibles - from snacks and nibblies to full meal portions. Flavors of Brazil has, in the past, covered boteco culture in a number of posts, including this one.

The annual celebration of the Brazilian boteco is simply and directly called Comida di Buteco (an alternatively-spelled way to say "Boteco Food." It began a few years back in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, considered by many Brazilians to be boteco heaven, and under the sponsorship of a nationally-distributed cachaça distillery, Ypioca, has branched out to a number of other Brazilian cities. This is the first year that Fortaleza has been a part of the festival. For two weeks, from the middle of April to the first of May, participating botecos enter one item from their menu into a city-wide contest for the best boteco dish. Diners who order that particular dish are givien an evaluation form to fill out and deposit into a ballot box. Once the festival is over, evaluation numbers are calculated to determine which boteco (and which dish) is the highest rated in the city.

It its first year, Fortaleza had 17 botecos which stepped up to the plate and presented a dish to contest for the championship. On Friday night of last week, Flavors of Brazil visited a boteco called Alpendre to try their dish and to cast a yea or nay vote for its dish, oven-roasted pork tenderloin served with seasoned manioc farofa and mango chutney . We chose Alpendre (the name means shed or shack) because it had already been named the city's best boteco in the 2010 edition of Veja magazine's annual food and drink ranking Comer & Beber, and we'd been waiting for an excuse to try it out.

Outside Alpendre

Alpendre started out five years back as a small shop selling local and artisanal foods and drink. Local cheeses, conserves, hot-pepper sauces, soft drinks and cachaça - that sort of thing. And during the day, that's still what Alpendre is. However, in the evening, they put plastic tables and chairs on the sidewalk and patio in front of their shop, fire up the kitchen and turn themselves into a boteco. They've done that so successfully that now they've even begun putting up tables and chairs on the sidewalk across the street and opened another "shack" for service on that side of the street. Alpendre has become a boteco with a street down the middle - you might even say "A street runs through it", if you wanted to describe the place literarily.

During our visit the place was packed (both sides of the street). We arrived about 9:30 pm, which was lucky as we soon learned that the kitchen closed at 10, even though drinks are still available later into the night. We ordered the pork tenderloin so that we could enter our votes into the contest along with a bottle of Devassa beer - just one of a very extensive list of beers. The dish cost R$18, about USD $12, and was large enough to satisfy two of us. It consisted of about half of an entire pork tenderloin, roasted under a layer of almost-melted onion rings, sweet, moist and tender, served with a lightly seasoned and non-greasy farofa. Farofa is toasted manioc flour which has its own particular love-it-or-hate-it texture, and Alpendre's version is one of the best we've had recently. Alongside was a dollop of locally- and artisanally-produced mango chutney (available for sale in the shop). Our evaluation sheets, needless to say, gave the dish very high notes.

Oven-roasted pork tenderloin

Although we only ate the one dish, a look at the menu gave us incentive to return to Alpendre in the future. The menu is heavy on local cuisine and local dishes, including those innard-based dishes which are so loved here in Fortaleza - dobradinha, panelada and buchada. One very helpful feature of the menu is that most dishes are available in three sizes - small or large portions, or on a per-kilo basis for take-out. There is a very interesting cheese list on the menu, and a huge number of small-distillery cachaças, both local and national.

It's easy to see why this place was chosen the best boteco in the city by Veja magazine. It will be interesting to see how it ranks in the Comida di Buteco festival rankings, and whether patrons themselves agree with the food professionals who vote in the Veja rankings. I have a feeling that Alpendre will do very well - not having tasted all 17 dishes in the contest it's impossible to say if Alpendre deserves first place - but Flavors of Brazil will be very surprised if they end up near the bottom of the rankings.

The Cost of Meat in Brazil - Some Interesting Changes

Compared to the cost in North America or Europe, the price charged for animal protein in supermarkets and butcher shops in Brazil is very cheap - both in actual cost and in percentage of the cost of all food purchases. As Brazil's export market for meat, particularly beef, grows the trend has been over the past few years for a gradual increase in the cost of meat.

In an article in today's O Povo, one of Fortaleza's daily newspapers, the increasing cost of meat has had an unanticipated and interesting twist added to it. The article is primarily concerned with beef prices in Fortaleza, and indicates that while the cost of what are called "secondary cuts" - cuts similar to chuck, brisket, round - continues to rise, there has been a dramatic fall in the cost of "noble cuts" such as filé-mignon, sirloin, and tenderloin.

What has happened, apparently, is that the price for noble cuts rose dramatically in the second half of 2010, sometimes by close to 100%. As a result, consumers turned their attention to the lower-priced secondary cuts. Sales of noble cuts dropped, and sales of secondary cuts rose. As a result of this change in consumer behavior, there is currently an excess quantity noble cut meat on the market, and a deficit of secondary cut meat. So, as will happen according to the law of supply and demand, prices have gone down for noble cuts, and up for secondary cuts.

For example, consider the case of filé-mignon. According to the article, in December of 2010, this cut of beef was retailing for between R$45 and R$50 per kilo (equivalent to USD $12 - $14 per pound). This past week, it has been selling for half of that - R$22 to R$25 (equivalent to USD $6 - $7 per pound). Conversely, the cost for patinho (similar to bottom round steak) during the same period of time has increased from R$12 to R$14 per kilo. In other words, in December filé-mignon was twice as expensive as patinho and today they are equally priced.

Whether the Brazilian consumer will now reverse their pattern of consumption once again and start buying more filé-mignon and less patinho remains to be seen. That would, naturally, increase the cost of the more noble cuts again to what they were historically. But in the meantime, I'm planning to visit my neighborhood butcher and stock up on bargain-basement-priced filé-mignon while it lasts.

If this post has you dreaming of a tender, lean filé-mignon, the next here on Flavors of Brazil will provide you with a perfect recipe for that marvelous cut of beef.

Marie Anne Bauer - Fortaleza's Chef of the Year

Marie Anne Bauer

Every November, food enthusiasts in Fortaleza eagerly await the publication of Veja magazine's annual guide to food and drink in the city, called Comer & Beber. Covering food retailers, bars and restaurants, the guide uses a cadre of locally-based judges to indicate best-of-group prize winners in a number of categories - for example, best ice cream, best bar with live music, best beach bar, best Japanese restaurant, best seafood restaurant, etc.

One of the most highly anticipated awards is for the city's chef of the year (Chef do Ano). This year, for the second time in three years, that award went to Marie Anne Bauer, executive chef of the newly established (opened September 2010) Restaurante Âncora on the city's seafront promenade. When she won the prize in 2008 she was the chef of another restaurant and so this year's award makes her the first chef in Fortaleza to have been named chef of the year from two different restaurants.

As her French first name and German-looking surname might indicate, Marie Anne was born and raised in Alsace, and received her first training there. She came to Brazil in 1990 and, after passing briefly through Fortaleza, cooked at a number of restaurants and hotels in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. She returned to Fortaleza in 2007, and according to interviews in the local press, intends to remain here.

At her restaurant, which seats up to 400 persons, she commands an all-male kitchen staff of 14 cooks. She is intensely involved in menu development and is one of the most locavore-minded of the city's chefs. Her menu makes use of many local ingredients such as cashew nuts, manioc, and native fruits. One of her favorite pastimes, according to an interview she recently gave to a local newspaper, is haunting local markets and street-fairs, on the hunt for something new, exotic and delicious to add to her repertoire.

Like other Franco-Brazilian chef-compatriots of hers here in Brazil, Marie Anne Bauer has managed to combine classical French chef training with a love for Brazilian food traditions to create something special and unique. Flavors of Brazil is definitely looking forward to its first experience dining at Ancora and promises to tell the blog's readers all about it afterward.

RECIPE - Risi e Bisi of Crab (Risi Pisi de Caranguejo)

This dish, which was recently featured at Fortaleza's Prazeres da Mesa Ao Vivo gastronomic trade-show and exposition, is a creation of European-Brazilian chef Bernard Twardy, one of Fortaleza's most successful and highly-regarded chefs. Sr. Twardy was born in Germany and grew up in France, where he was classically trained as a chef.  Many of Brazil's most famous chefs share a European background with Twardy. At some point in their lives these European chefs arrived in Brazil as tourists or immigrants, and for any number of reasons decided to make Brazil their home. As a unofficial group, they combine classical European techniques and dishes with Brazilian ingredients, techniques and dishes to create food that in many ways marries the best of the Old and the New Worlds. I hesitate to call it fusion cuisine, but it is a re-imagining of European gastronomy in a specifically Brazilian context.

Sr. Twardy's recipe for Risi Pisi de Caranguejo is an excellent example of this bi-continental style of cooking. His opening point of reference is the classic Venetian dish risi e bisi (rice and peas) - a risotto-style combination of Arborio rice and fresh green peas. Substituting orzo pasta for the rice and adding locally-caught crab, Brazilians herbs and spices, and livening the dish with coconut milk, he has created something that certainly is not Venetian, but not entirely Brazilian either. Whatever else it is, though, it's absolutely delicious.
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RECIPE - Risi e Bisi of Crab (Risi Pisi de Caranguejo)
Serves 4

1 pound picked-over fresh or thawed crab meat
2 cups (500 ml) coconut milk
3 cups (750 ml) cooked orzo pasta, al dente, cooled to room temperature
2 cups (500 ml) ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 cup (250 ml) mixed green and yellow bell peppers, finely diced
1/2 cup (250 ml) strongly-brewed lemon balm infusion
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 cup (250 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp habanero chile, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
crab claws to decorate
salt to taste
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Heat half the olive oil in a large sauté pan, add half the garlic and all of the onion, and sweat them for a few minutes. Add the chopped bell peppers and habanero chile and continue to cook the mixture for about three minutes, or until the peppers have softened. Add the tomatoes, the the coconut milk and the lemon balm infusion and cook for about five more minutes, or until the tomatoes have softened, but not dissolved. Remove from heat and reserve.

In a medium saucepan heat the remaining olive oil, then add the remaining garlic. Cook until the garlic is softened, then add the crab meat and mix thoroughly. Remove from heat. Add the reserved tomato mixture, and let stand at room temperature for at least one hour, covered. Combine the crab/tomato mixture with the orzo pasta, and correct seasoning for salt. Mound the mixture into a decorative serving bowl, decorate with a sprinkling of finely chopped cilantro plus crab claws if desired and serve.

Recipe translated and adapted from Prazeres da Mesa magazine - Oct. 2010

Green Crab Iniative - Selo Caranguejo Verde

Last year, Flavors of Brazil wrote about the Thursday-night-ritual crab fest here in Fortaleza, my Brazilian home town. Every Thursday night here in Fortaleza, many thousands of locals and tourists head to outdoor bars and restaurants along the city's seafront and beaches and eat many more thousands of crabs. (Click here for more on Fortaleza's Thursday night crab fest).

Although the crabs become dinner here in Fortaleza, they are not harvested locally. Rather, 95% of the crabs eaten in Fortaleza, according to a recent article in the Jornal do Brasil, come from the neighboring states of Piauí and Maranhão - specifically from the mangrove swamps in the delta of the Parnaíba River, the only river delta in the Americas that terminates in the open ocean. There has recently been a lot of concern about the long-term sustainability of that crab fishery, an important source of income for inhabitants of the region.

Recently an awareness and certification campaign called "Selo Caranguejo Verde" was announced in Fortaleza, thanks to the efforts of Jefferson Legal, a fisheries researcher for EMBRAPA, the Brazilian national agriculture and pisciculture organization, in cooperation with Bernard Twardy, executive chef of the Beach Park Hotel, just outside Fortaleza. This initiative is aimed at raising public awareness of the sustainability issues involved with the crab fishery, and at promoting the sale of sustainable, or "green", crabs in Fortaleza's bars and restaurants.


The iniative has a two-pronged approach. First, making the dining public aware of what makes a crab "green", and second, providing those restaurants that only source sustainable crabs with a seal of certification that they can post on walls, menus and in advertisement. The hope is that the public will begin to favor those restaurants that serve green crabs, which will help ensure the long-term sustainability of the crab fishery.


Sr. Legal developed a protocol and a technique for the capture, handling, storage, and transport of crabs that he says will reduce the mortality rate of the harvest from the current 25-55% to a much more sustainable 5%. After extensive testing, Legal developed a system of stocking and transporting the crabs, without binding their claws, in large plastic containers. In these containers, the crabs are laid between sheets of foam rubber which has been moistened with water from their usual habitat, the mangrove swamps of the river delta. Protected by the foam rubber, and kept moist by the water, the survival rate of crabs improves enormously.

Each year a thousand tons of crabs, about 6 million individual crabs, make their way to market in Fortaleza, and the crab fishery which furnishes them provides the primary source of income to almost 5000 people in Piauí and Maranhão. If the Green Crab Initiative can help to make this fishery sustainable in the long run, it will not only preserve crab stocks and aid the economy in the areas in which the crabs are harvested, it will ensure the continued existence of Fortaleza's Thursday night crab fest.

RESTAURANT REVIEW - Sorveteria 50 Sabores (Fortaleza, Brazil)

Although you can't really call an ice cream shop a restaurant, Flavors of Brazil doesn't have a category for ice cream shop reviews, so I've decided that for the moment Sorveteria 50 Sabores (meaning Ice Cream Shop 50 Flavors) will qualify as a restaurant for reviewing purposes on this blog. The small local chain of ice cream shops in Fortaleza is regularly honored by the well-known Veja Guides to food and drink, and others, as having the best ice cream in Fortaleza. Brazilians are ice-cream (sorvete) mad, and local residents must agree with the guide books, since  Sorveteria 50 Sabores business appears to be booming, even though their ice cream is just about the most expensive in the city. On Fortaleza's waterfront promenade, called Beira Mar, this chain just opened its third location - within 1 kilometer of each of the two other already-existing branches on the seafront. And it already appears to be doing land-office business, especially in the evenings when thousands of residents stroll the promenade in the warm tropical night.

Basically, this chain sells ice cream, in cones or cups, with or without topping, and nothing else. The shops are open to the street, and most customers take their purchases across the street to the promenade where they stroll and eat, or sit and eat, their ice cream - rather quickly, as ice cream doesn't stay solid long in 25-30C (80-88F) heat.

Fortaleza - Beira-Mar

The chain was founded 34 years ago and is still owned by the family of the founder. All the ice cream they serve are made by the company itself, and served only in their own shops. Although the name would seem to indicate that there are 50 flavors available, that is no longer the case. At any one time there are approximately 80-90 flavors for sale, and the current list of flavors they work with is about 110. Some flavors are always available and others come and go. According to Sorveteria 50 Sabores's website, over the years they have developed an archive of nearly 300 flavors that have been offered at one time or another. Many of the flavors of ice cream sold at Sorveteria 50 Sabores would be familiar to ice cream fans around the world, and all the classic chocolate, cream, nut and fruit flavors are available. What makes this chain more interesting and unique is the range of tropical fruit flavors that they offer. Many of the fruits which have been featured here on Flavors of Brazil - fruits like buriti, maracujá, açaí, cacau - are represented on the board which announces available flavors. For someone who is visiting Fortaleza, or Brazil, from outside the region, I'd highly recommend that these are the flavors to try. The chocolate ice cream at Sorveteria 50 Sabores is excellent, but it is nothing new for almost anyone who appreciates good ice cream. Nor is the vanilla or the strawberry. But where else are you going to be able to sample cajá, caju, murici or sapoti ice cream? Not at Baskin-Robbins, that's for sure! Beside the fruit flavors, there are some other distinctively Brazilian flavors that shouldn't be missed - caipirinha, which is made with cachaça and is only sold to persons over 18 years of age, or brigadeiro, based on Brazilian's favorite chocolate treat.

Cashew-nut Brittle Ice Cream

The shops are spotlessly clean, and there are no worries that the ice cream might not be hygenic. The only worry involved with having ice cream is which flavor(s) to have. Fortunately,   has a policy of allowing unlimited sampling before purchasing, and I recommend that everyone take advantage of that - not to excess, of course. But it's a perfect opportunity to try out one, two or three exotic and possibly even mysterious flavors before making a purchasing decision. After all, exactly what it Obama-flavored ice cream?

If you're interested in seeing the complete list of current flavors, with sometimes charmingly-inaccurate English translations, click this link to the company's website, then choose "produtos" from the menu choices.

RECIPE - Creamy Black-eyed Peas (feijão verde cremoso)

In the last post on Flavors of Brazil, I mentioned that the most famous dish on the menu at Fortaleza's Docentes & Decentes restaurant was a creamy dish of fresh black-eyed peas (feijão verde). It has been chosen a number of times and by a number of critics as the best version of this traditional dish to be found in the city's restaurants. The restaurant's logo even includes the phrase "o melhor feijão verde da cidade", which means "the city's best black-eyed peas."

Although the exact recipe used by Docentes & Decentes is a closely-guarded secret, the following recipe, translated and adapted from the Brazilian website Tudo Gostoso, is a very close approximation. The recipe calls for fresh black-eyed peas, but if you cannot find them, you can use a equal quantity of dried black-eyed peas that have been soaked in cold water for 24 hours to rehydrate them. The quantity of black-eyed peas should be measured from their reconstituted weight in this case, not from their dry weight.
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RECIPE - Creamy Black-eyed Peas (feijão verde cremoso)
Serves 10

2 lbs (1 kg) fresh or rehydrated black-eyed peas
3 small sausages - linguica or chorizo-style, sliced thin
fried bacon to taste
2 Tbsp. neutral vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 small chili pepper - serrano or japaleno
2 cloves garlic,minced
1 sprig Italian parsley, minced
4 oz. (200 gr) cubed mozzarella cheese
1 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1/2 cup Philadelphia-style cream cheese
salt to taste
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 green onion, green portion only, minced
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In a large heavy saucepan, place the peas and add cold water to cover by 2" (4 cm). Add one or two strips of bacon to the pot, then bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and cook over low heat until the peas are tender (about 30-60 minutes, depending on whether fresh peas are used, or the age of rehydrated peas). Remove from heat, remove the bacon,drain the peans and reserve.

In a small frying pan, fry the sausage slices until cooked through and browned.

In another heavy saucepan, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat, then add the chopped tomato, onion, garlic, chili pepper and parsley . (For a milder dish, leave the chili whole - for a spicier dish, seed the pepper, then chop before adding to the pot.) Saute this mixture until the onions and garlic are transparent but not browned and all the other ingredients are softened. Add the drained peas and sausage slices.

Stir in the sour cream and mozzarella and mix completely. Taste for salt and add if necessary. Remove from heat and let cool.

Put the pea and cheese mixture into a ceramic or glass baking dish. Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Cook for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the mixture is hot, bubbling, and beginning to brown on top. Remove from over, sprinkle grated parmesan and chopped green onion on top, then serve immediately in baking dish.

RESTAURANT REVIEW - Docentes & Decentes (Fortaleza, Brazil)

One of the most popular styles of restaurant in Brazil is a combination bar-restaurant where people can go after work, with a group of friends on the weekend or with the extended family to celebrate a happy event in a large, animated, and often noisy atmosphere. These restaurants serve a variety of drinks, although beer (cerveja) is by far the largest seller, and casual food ranging from finger-food snacks to full course meals of local favorites. In my Brazilian hometown, Fortaleza, these bar-restaurants are all open-air, as the year-round tropical climate allows outdoor dining almost every night of the year. In cooler regions of Brazil, they often have both indoor and outdoor spaces. Such restaurants are often enormous establishments, and some of them seat several hundred customers at a time.

One of the best Fortaleza restaurants of this type is called Docentes & Decentes (which somewhat enigmatically translates in English as "Academicians & Decent Folks). It has been around for 23 years, and has two branches, one on a major commercial avenue, and the other in neighborhood Varjota, which is Fortaleza's "restaurant mecca".

I've only visited the Varjota branch, but I'm told that the menu and ambiance is the same in both branches. Docentes & Decentes is open all day and late into the night - from 10 a.m. until the final client decides to call it a night - and it's busy at almost all times. Evenings there is live acoustic music, usually a group playing Brazilian pop standards. The place has indoor and outdoor dining spaces, though the interior space is usually reserved for family, school or work celebrations. Outside there is space for about 250 people, and there is a large number of tables that seat groups for 6-10 persons. Most of the outdoor space is a large patio space, open to the air, though there is one section that has a roof - perfect for those few nights of the year when it rains.

The all-male waitstaff is very fast and efficient and is kept hopping by the Brazilian habit of ordering additional drinks and dishes throughout the meal. Beer is served in 600 ml (20 oz) bottles, which arrive in thermal covers to keep the beer icy-cold and which are shared by everyone at the table. Docentes & Decentes' customers seem to be of two minds as far as dining goes. There are those who look at the menu, order a complete meal, and leave it at that. They are far outnumbered by those who keep a menu handy at the table, ordering dish by dish as the mood strikes, always to be shared by all the diners at the table. It could be french-fries, pastels, bolinhos and other snack food, or it might be something more hardy, like crabs, a kilo or two of shrimp with garlic, carne de sol, or the house's signature dish - fresh black-eyed peas (feijão verde).

No one would consider Docentes & Decentes a temple of gastronomy - the whole point of the place is to meet friends and family, share drink, food and chat, hear some good music, and have a fun night out. However, the restaurant does put more thought and care into their food than many of its competitors, and there is rarely a dish that disappoints.  In many visits, I've never received cold fries, less-than-fresh shrimp, or warm beer - things which can ruin the experience at some other similar restaurants in Fortaleza. The service is friendly and professional. And the prices are fair - it's easy for a group of four or five to spend an evening at Docentes & Decentes, have several dishes of good food, and more than several beers, and end up paying about R$25 (USD $15) per person.

Docentes & Decentes, being situated away from the beachfront and major hotels, is not a tourist-oriented restaurant. It's a local's hangout. This means that the menu will be only in Portuguese, and the waiter is likely to speak that language only. However, for an authentic Brazilian night out, I'd highly recommend visitors to Fortaleza to try it out. Anyone at a neighboring table will help you out with ordering, even if there is a language barrier, and you'll soon end up a new set of Brazilian friends. Taxis in Fortaleza are safe and not expensive - from the beachfront hotel district to Docentes & Decentes, you can expect to pay R$10-15 (USD $6-10). If you go, remember to do yourself a favor, and order feijão verde - I can guarantee you'll love it.

In the next Flavors of Brazil post, I'll include a recipe for feijão verde Docentes & Decentes style.

Docentes & Decentes
Avenida Santos Dumont 6180
Bairro Papicu
Fortaleza, Brazil

Docentes & Decentes
Rua Ana Bilhar 1445
Bairro Varjota
Fortaleza, Brazil

Prazeres da Mesa ao Vivo - Gastronomic Trade Show in Fortaleza

Fortaleza, my Brazilian "hometown", is a rapidly growing metropolis of about 3 million people, and by most people's count is either the fourth- or fifth-largest city in Brazil. It is, however, a very long way from the cultural and economic centers of the country, which are located in the region called "Southeast" and which revolve around the twin poles of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In earlier times Fortaleza's isolation from the rest of Brazil was extreme, but today, with Rio and São Paulo being only 3 hours away by plane, this isolation is diminishing rapidly.

An interesting example of this was a gastronomic trade show/exposition that I attended last week here in Fortaleza. It was produced by São Paulo's Prazeres da Mesa (Pleasures of the Table) magazine. Prazeres da Mesa has approximately the same media importance and profile as such magazines as Bon Appetit, Saveur, or Food & Wine. Their annual circuit of expositions previously encompassed only cities in the central core of Brazil, but this year they brought the show to Fortaleza for the first time. They had a smashing success of it, too.

Prazeres da Mesa ao Vivo was a two-day event and included cooking classes taught by local and nationally-famous chefs, lectures, a trade show, wine tasting sessions, and two gala dinners. I attended several cooking classes and lectures, and will report in detail about them in the next few posts here on Flavors of Brazil.

I found the quality of the classes, lectures and presentations to be excellent overall. For me, the event was marred only by two problems, which might have been due to the fact that this type of show had never been produced in Fortaleza before. The first was a lack of organization - registering for the show, signing up for individual classes, etc., all required a great deal of patience, persistence, and at times even aggression. The second problem was over-sale of admissions, which meant that many events were sold out within minutes of being open for registration. I'm hoping that next year's event, which Prazeres da Mesa has already promised, will iron out these "opening night" jitters, and that the event will be all that it potentially can be - a glimpse into the rapidly-evolving world of Brazilian gastronomy and food science.

A Weekend in the Country

When the tropical heat of Fortaleza becomes too much to bear, local residents often head for the hills. Nestled in the mountains at an altitude of 2850 feet (865 meters) yet only 60 miles (100 km.) from Fortaleza is the small alpine resort town of Guaramiranga. The weather there is significantly cooler than on the coast, usually in the upper 70s (25C) during the day, and down to the low 60s (15-16C) at night. For residents of Fortaleza, these temperatures are a thrillingly chilly experience, and one to be savored. In and around Guaramiranga there are a number of inns, chalets and small hotels, and in the city itself a variety of restaurants. But many residents of Fortaleza have weekend homes there, or visit the homes of friends while in the mountains.

I spent the past weekend in Guaramiranga at the home of a good friend, taking advantage of the cool weather, in bright sunshine during the day, and under clear, crisp skies at night. On Saturday, we spent the day at the home of another friend, where we were treated to the Brazilian holiday ritual called churrasco. (Click here to read a bit more about churrascos in an earlier post on Flavors of Brazil.) There was a group of a dozen or so people, including three generations of the host family and friends from each of those generations. As is typical, the party started about noon, on a large open deck which has a full barbeque-kitchen at the back and a view over the forest and a small pool at the front. The kitchen includes a full barbeque pit, a traditional Brazilian wood-stove (very different from the North American model), an oven, a brick pizza-oven, two sinks, and a wet bar.

Wood Stove

Wood-burning oven




















Coffee-making utensils

While the fires were lit and stoked, drinks were served around the large antique dining table on the shaded and covered deck, and much talk moved between the table and the cooks (who were also guests) at the grills. Courses were cooked separately, mostly one at a time, and each was served when it came off the grill. Sometimes there might be as long as an hour between courses, an hour filled with chatter, laughter and toasts.

The first course to come to the table was prepared on the wood stove. Chicken drumsticks and small, pudgy pork sausages were cooked over the fire in an enamelled cast-iron pan, then sauced with a sweet and sour sauce using local honey and citrus juices, flavored with home-grown rosemary.

Drumsticks and sausages on the wood stove

Drumsticks and sausages served

While the guests were nibbling (actually more like gobbling) the chicken and sausages, spatchocked quails were grilling in the barbeque pit. Raised just down the road, these little birds were grilled very simply, with just olive oil and salt. They came to the table crunchy and crispy, and most people had more than one.

Quails on the grill

Quails served at table

There was a longish break after the quails, fortunately. While the cooks were preparing the steaks (picanha) and pork loin on the grill, I was given a tour of the garden by the hostess. There were hundreds of bromeliads and orchids, ferns of every type, heliconia and strelitzia, and some beautiful food-bearing trees including avocado, lime, tangerine and palmitos.

Tangerines ripening

I returned to the deck just in time for the main course to be served. Up to this point, the food had consisted entirely of meat, which is typical of a churrasco. For the main course, the meats were accompanied by rice (with carne do sol and fresh bananas from the garden), manioc flour, and home-made hot pepper sauce.

Main course meats being cooked on the grill

Beef steaks - picanha cut

Rice with carne do sol and bananas

By the time the last of the main course was cleared away, it was approaching 5 pm, and since we'd begun at noon, it had already been a five-hour meal. Things slowed down a bit, coffee was made, and about an half an hour later, coffee and aged cachaça were placed on the table, and the meal ended with drinks and a coconut-cashew nut cake. Shortly thereafter, as the sun set, people began making their thank-yous, and all had left by abou 6:30 pm. A churrasco is a daytime event, and rarely goes past sunset.

Although the meal was very meat-heavy, because it was served at such a slow pace, no one became over-full. Just as the appetite reawakened, another grilled meat seemed to appear as if by magic on the table. A beautiful way to spend a beautiful day - lovely surroundings, good friends, and good food and drink.

Enough to make one want to go away every weekend!