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.

A Contradiction in Terms? Vegetarian, Organic Feijoada Arrives

Properly made, a plate of feijoada, Brazil's most popular candidate for the status of "national dish", is a vegetarian's nightmare. Centered around a bubbling pot of black beans laden with chunks of all the fattest, greasiest parts of the pig, feijoada must seem like the devil's dish itself to someone who eschews animal-derived food. The cauldron that is the centerpiece of a feijoada table is likely to contain, hidden under the glossy, pitch-black surface of the beans, things like fat links of sausage, racks of smoked ribs, salted pig's tails, ears and feet - anything and everything that's full of animal flesh and fat.

But the love of feijoada runs deep indeed in Brazil, and even vegetarians and veganBrazilians can't imagine living a feijoada-less existence. In São Paulo, at least, they no longer have to. A small enterprise called  Comida & Consciência (Food and Consciousness in English), in the city's upmarket Higienópolis neighborhood, has come to their rescue. Every Saturday (the traditional day for eating feijoada) the owners of Comida & Consciência make organic, vegetarian feijoada for their loyal customers, thus allowing those folks to share in Brazil's weekend ritual of feijoada.

Comida & Consciência is in the business of making and delivering home-cooked ready-to-eat vegetarian meals to their customers' apartments, houses or offices. Because many of their customers get their meals delivered every day from the shop, there are no repetitions on the monthly menu - except for feijoada, that is. It, by popular demand, is available every Saturday. Originally started by two friends who shared a common interest in healthy, organic eating and who began sharing their vegetarian dishes with likeminded friends, Comida & Consciência has become a way for the two women to share not only their philosophy of food, but also, as they say, their "consciousness of life."

Comida & Consciência's feijoada contains black beans, of course, but instead of cooking the legume with smoked pork products, their vegetarian version uses smoked tofu, soya cutlets, zucchini, parsley stalks, beets and strips of dried coconut to give the beans depth and richness. The beans are accompanied by traditional accompaniments - rice, sauteed kale and toasted oat flour, which stands in for the traditional toasted manioc flour. All the ingredients are organic, and the dish is completely vegan. Each serving of feijoada costs R$20,00, or just USD $10 at current exchange rates, plus a small delivery charge which varies depending on distance.

Lighter, less heavy and much healthier than traditional feijoada, Comida & Consciência's feijoada might just be the proof (literal in this case) of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

With material from the food section of Estado de S. Paulo newspaper,

RECIPE - Aunt Surica's Feijoada (Feijoada da Tia Surica)

Tia Surica making feijoada

In yesterday's discussion of the role feijoada plays in Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Carnaval, Flavors of Brazil talked about the huge feijoada buffets that the city's many samba schools serve to their members and supporters during the build-up to Carnaval. On Saturdays in January and February, each samba school holds a rehearsal for its parade during Carnaval in Rio's Sambadrome. Rehearsals tend to to be long, hot work and they leave those who participate perilously close to exhaustion.

To refuel the body and rebuild energy for the party/dance that follows the rehearsal it's traditional to serve an feijoada buffet to the attendees. These buffets also serve as an important fund-raiser for the school.

Portela's 2012 poster

One of the most famous feijoadas among Rio's various samba schools is the one served at Portela. Portela is one of the city's oldest (founded in 1923) and most well-loved schools. Based in the lower-class neighborhood of Madureira, Portela, during its long history, has won the samba school championship 21 times, although admittedly the last time was in 1984.

Portela's feijoada is under the supervision of a long-time member of the school, known to all as Tia Surica (Aunt Surica). Now 71 years old, Tia Surica's career with Portela goes back to the first time she paraded with the school - when she was 4 years old, leashed to her mother's belt for safety. One of the members of the school's board of director, Tia Surica is in charge of the school's buffet and it is her recipe which the batallion of cooks use when preparing the feijoada.

Obviously, Tia Surica's recipe feeds a crowd - a large, hungry crowd. But should any of our readers wish to make feijoada for a large party, we're publishing her recipe courtesy of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, where it appeared this week. At Portela's feijoada buffets, this recipe is increased by several hundred percent, but with these quantities, it should feed up to 40 people.
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RECIPE - Aunt Surica's Feijoada (Feijoada da Tia Surica)

4.5 lb (2 kg) dried black beans
1/2 cup olive oil
2 fresh pork hocks, split
4.5 lb (2 kg) carne de sol - dried and salted beef
4.5 lb (2 kg) pork baby back ribs
6 large garlic sausages, kielbasa or similar
4.5 lb (2 kg) pork loin, salted if available, if not fresh will do
2.2 lb (1 kg) linguica or chorizo hot sausage
4.5 kg (2 kg) tripe
1 kg fresh beef brisket
8 bay leaves
6 onions, chopped
4 heads of garlic, cloves peeled and smashed
8 bunches kale, de-stemmed and cut into thin strips
1/2 lb bacon, cut into small cubes and fried until crisp
bacon fat from the cooked bacon
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onion
10 oranges
4.5 lb (2 kg) farinha (manioc flour)
4.5 lb (2 kg) white long-grain rice, cooked and kept warm
oregano, salt and black pepper to taste
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All the salted meats (carne de sol, salted pork etc) must be soaked in cold water for at least 48 hours before beginning to cook. During that time change the water at least six times.

Soak the black beans in plenty of water for at least 12 hours before beginning to cook.

Wash the pork hocks very well, and boil them separately in a large pot. When completely cooked, remove them from the pot, let them cool, then reserve them.

Cut all the meats and sausages into large bite-sized pieces. Do not include the tripe. Separate the ribs. Put all the meats in a large stockpot or kettle, cover with cold water, bring to a boil and let cook until very tender. Reserve.

Drain the beans, cover with lots of fresh water and cook over medium heat until tender, about 45 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the beans. Begin to sample for doneness after 45 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve in cooking water.

In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil, add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is just beginning to brown. Add oregano, salt and pepper to taste then add the beans with some of their cooking liquid, just enough to keep them very moist. Stir to mix, then add the tripe. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for about an hour, adding more liquid from the bean pot from time to time.

Add the reserved meats and sausages to the beans, stir to mix, and cook for about 30 minutes more. Add more liquid if needed - you want the beans and meat to have a thick broth, not a soup. The dish should not be allowed to go dry, however.

Meanwhile, in another large pan heat the bacon fat, add the bacon bits and onion and cook until the onion is transparent. Add the kale, and stir-fry, cooking only until the kale takes on a bright green color. Reserve.

Cut each orange into 8 wedges lengthwise. Chop the cilantro and green onions (green part only), mix them together and put into a bowl.

Mount the feijoada on a large buffet-style table. Serve the beans and meat in bean-pots or large deep dishes. Serve the white rice at the side of the beans. Next, place bowls or serving platters of stir-fried kale, then bowls of orange wedges and chopped cilantro and green onions for garnishing. Make sure to serve a good quality hot sauce for those who want. The obligatory drink to accompany a plate of feijoada is a caipirinha.


Recipe translated and adapted.

Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval Feijoada

Feijoada, the black beans and rise dish (or rather the meal) that has long been enshrined as Brazil's unofficial national dish, is eaten year round every where in Brazil, but normally only at mid-day or early afternoon, as it's just too heavy and filling to be eaten just before going to bed, and only on the the weekends, as even the thought of returning to work after a plate of feijoada is exhausting. (Click here to learn more about feijoada.)

Surprisingly, for such a rich and filling dish, in Rio de Janeiro feijoada is strongly associated with the Carnaval season and especially with the city's traditional samba "schools". During the build-up to Carnaval season, every samba school holds weekly rehearsals in the large hall that they call their home, normally on Saturday. The dancers, the chorus, and especially the approximately 200-strong percussion section expend hours and untold calories going over and over that particular year's samba until the rhythm, the lyrics, the samba steps and the melody are literally drummed into the brain and the body.

After the exhausting rehearsal it's party time at the samba school. Traditionally, in all the samba schools, the party starts with a massive feijoada buffet which feeds the revenous multitude, and continues late into the night with lots more samba music and plenty of free-flowing beer.

Feijoada - Othon Palace Hotel

 

But it's not only in the samba schools where one finds Carnaval feijoada. On the Saturday of Carnaval, which this year is tomorrow, February 18, restaurants all over the city serve a huge mid-day fejoada buffet to the city's Carnaval-crazed residents as well as to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who flock to Rio every year at Carnaval time. Local botecos will serve a simple feijoada for their regulars, more upmarket restaurants will offer a more luxurious version for their clientele, and the city's five-star hotels will present massive, and expensive, feijoada buffets featuring luxury ingredients and often a floor show of samba music. The price varies with the venue of course. In this Wednesday's Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, the journal listed some typical prices for feijoada during Carnaval 2012. The bohemian bar Mineiro, in artsy Santa Teresa district charges only R$30 (USD $17) for their all-you-can-eat buffet. A traditional restaurant in Rio's historic Lapa district, has two different prices. Men are charged R$120 (USD $68) and women R$80 ($42), again for all you can eat, which explains the price differential. The luxurious Rio Othon Palace hotel on Copacabana beach charges R$270 ($150), but their feijoada includes a floor show featuring the percussion section of the Salgueiro samba school. That's still not the most expensive Carnaval feijoada in Rio, however. At the tony and exclusive Jockey Club, local tycoon Ricardo Amaral hosts his annual Carnaval feijoada party/ball. There feijoada will set you back a cool R$500 (USD$300) per person - that is, if you can get in. The party is one of the most "desired" events of the year and is always sold out well in advance.

Feijoada - Bar Mineiro

So if you can't figure out how to get in to Amaral's ball, take the R$500 that you just saved, take a taxi to the Mineiro Bar and treat yourself and fifteen friends to feijoada. You'll be treated like a king or queen and will still have R$20 in your pocket for the cab ride home.

INGREDIENTS - Torresmo

The ice-cold beer and salty-snack bar culture of Brazil is an important part of that nation's food culture - something any tourist returning from Brazil can tell you, and something that faithful readers of this blog have heard before in a number of posts. Whether the bar be a few rustic tables covered by a palm-thatched roof on a deserted beach in Brazil's northeast, or a concept-laden ultra-chic lounge in Leblon or Jardins, there will be plenty of sub-zero lager beer and crunchy snacks with a high levels of sodium and fat. It's inevitable and unavoidable (even if one might want to avoid it). When Brazilians go to a bar most of them want beer to drink, and most of those beer drinkers want to wash their beer down with something crunchy, fatty and salty.

This combination isn't something the Brazilians invented, or something unique to Brazil. As one of my oldest friends philosophized way back in our university days, at the end of a long afternoon sitting at a bar in Burlington, Washington, contemplating the the free popcorn in front of him, "Where there's beer, there's salt." Absolutely true. Popcorn, unshelled peanuts, potato chips, nachos, fries, onion rings - they all fit the bill.

In Brazil, and particularly in the state of Minas Gerais, the most common bar snack is likely to be something called torresmo. Torresmo is the Portuguese word for pork skin that has been fried at high temperature to melt away the fat, then salted and dried. In other words - at least American words - pork rinds. I say American words because in the UK they're generally known as cracklings or scratchings. This snack, in fact, seems to have a huge number of colorful regional names. In Newfoundland they have a lovely onomatopoeic word for them - scrunchions. In Quebec they've been baptized, colloquially, as oreilles de chrisse - Christ's ears. In Mexico and the US Southwest they're called chicharrón. And in case you'd been wondering, the Hungarians known them as either tepertő or töpörtyű . Personally, when in Budapest, I always call them töpörtyű  - wouldn't you?

Torresmo is part of the Portuguese contribution to Brazilian food culture, with a few seasoning touches contributed by African slaves. Originally, pork skin and the fatty subcutaneous layer beneath it were cooked to melt the fat and obtain lard - the only way that this cooking fat could be obtained. Somewhere, sometime a clever devil decided to sample the crunchy bits of pork skin that remained once the fat had been drained off - probably with a salt shaker in his or her hand - and the torresmo, the crackling or the pork rind was born.

In Brazil, torresmo is primarily considered a snack to eat with drinks - most likely a beer or a shot of cachaça. In mineiro cooking (the cooking of the state of Minas Gerais) torresmo is an essential part of the panoply of dishes that all together constitute feijoada and it's also served with the bean and manioc dish feijão-tropeiro.

For those adventurous enough, or crazy enough to want to make their own torresmo at home, the next post here at Flavors of Brazil will provide a typical Brazilian recipe.

Brazil in Canada - Brazilfest 2010

I'm currently vacationing in my Canadian hometown, Vancouver. During the summer months of July and August the weather in Vancouver isn't significantly cooler or wetter than in my Brazilian hometown, Fortaleza, so the adjustment to Canada has been very easy for me. Maybe the beaches here aren't quite as tropicalas in Brazil, and certainly there are no beach bars serving cerveja and caipirinhas (Canada's strict alcohol laws prohibit the public consumption of alcoholic beverages on beaches) but when the sun shines, you can almost imagine that you're in Brazil.

This past weekend, Vancouver became significantly more Brazilian during the annual Brazilfest, sponsored by a number of commercial enterprises, the city administration, the Consulate General of Brazil in Vancouver, and the tourism department of the federal government of Brazil, and organized by the local Brazilian community here in Vancouver. This community has grown significantly in the past decade, and Brazilian culture has become part of the rainbow of cultures that makes up Vancouver. On the Brazilian social network site Orkut, one community for Brazilians in Vancouver numbers over 9000 members, and there are other Vancouver-based Brazilian social networks around the web. Vancouver annually hosts thousands of Brazilian students who come to Canada to learn English. During the summer in the center of the city one constantly hears Portuguese spoken in shops, on rapid-transit and in parks.


Brazilfest took place on one of Vancouver's principal downtown streets, which was closed for the duration of the festival. There was a large music stage at one end of the street (video above), and the street was lined with booths and stands. Some were selling Brazilian clothing and crafts, come were advertising tourism in Brazil, but by far the most popular, and to me the most interesting, were the food stands. One stand featured plates of Brazil's "national dish", feijoada, and for most of the afternoon, the line for feijoada stretched back a full city block. Other stands sold Brazilian pastries and sweets, like cheese bread (pão de queijo) and doce de leite, or snacks such as coxinha and pastel. The popular Brazilian soft drink guaraná was available at the exorbitant price of $3.00. All that was lacking to make it truly a Brazilian festival was beer. Oh well, that's Canada for you.

I spoke to several people who were lined up to buy feijoada. Whether they were Brazilians who immigrated to Canada long ago or students here for a summer of English language instruction, they all said they were lining in order to "matar saudades" of Brazil. They meant that they were trying to assuage homesickness for Brazil and Brazilian culture through eating one of it's most traditional dishes. Feijoada isn't easy to make for one or two persons, or in a small kitchenette, so these folks didn't mind lining up in the hot sun for up to an hour just to eat a plateful of "home." Over the years, I've attended numerous cultural festivals, in Vancouver and elsewhere, and one constant element of these fairs is "food from home." It's interesting proof of the centrality of traditional foods and recipes in creating cultural identity. Food from back home shrinks time and distance and brings one back to one's culture with each bite. Certainly that was the case for those Brazilians in Vancouver this weekend who ate feijoada and other Brazilian dishes. They all exclaimed how the tastes of Brazil connected them once again to their homeland, or even if they said nothing, the look of satisfaction on their faces as they ate told the same story.

RECIPE - Feijoada (Classic, Traditional Recipe)

In my previous posts about feijoada, I mentioned that this meal contains numerous possible additions, modifications, substitutions and deletions. Consequently, there is no single definitive recipe for feijoada. Cookbooks and food magazines, Brazilian and foreign, newspapers and the internet offer up thousands of recipes for making this dish.

I'll post a few feijoada recipes here in Flavors of Brazil, but I thought it would be proper to start out with a very traditional recipe from 's Rio de Janeiro . As it's from Rio de Janeiro, it is called "Feijoada Carioca" in Portuguese. Carioca is a Portuguese word that means someone or something that is from Rio de Janeiro. Although feijoada is enjoyed everywhere in Brazil, it is most closely associated geographically with Rio de Janeiro.

This recipe is for a very traditional feijoada, and I'm posting it, even though not all the ingredients are likely to be available outside of Brazil, as illustrative of a classic feijoada. Fortunately, feijoada is infinitely flexible, and can be altered to suit taste, budget and availability, so don't hesitate to try this recipe even if you can't find everything that's in the list of ingredients. Just improvise!

You'll note that this recipe is high in saturated animal fats, and it is consequently highly caloric and probably not the most healthy recipe from Brazil. However, the final product is quite rich and most people do not eat a large quantity at one time, nor is feijoada eaten frequently. Just like the Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner, this is a meal for special event or celebration, and as such, rules of healthy nutrition go out the window.
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RECIPE - Feijoada (Classic, Traditional Recipe)
Serves 6

1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pork ribs, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's tail, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's foot, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's ear, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pork loin, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) carne-do-sol (click here for instructions on how to make your own carne-do-sol)
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) beef brisket
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) Linguiça sausage, or other smoked sausage
1/2 lb. (250 gr.)  Linguiça sausage, spiced, or pepperoni
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) Kielbasa sausage, or other garlic sausage
1 1/2 cups dried black beans
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onions
5 bay leaves
1/2 cup cachaça
1 unpeeled orange, scrubbed and quartered
1 lb. (400 gr.) pork lard
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) thick sliced smoked bacon, cubed
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
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The day before cooking the feijoada, place all the salted,meats in a large pan, and cover with cold water. Refrigerate. Change the water every three hours, for minimum 24 hours. Drain thoroughly.

In a very large kettle or bean pot, place the beans, the meats and sausages, the cilantro and green onions tied together, the bay leaves, the cachaça, and the orange. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue to cook over low heat. As each meat in turn becomes fully cooked and tender (test with a fork) remove from the kettle, let cool, cut into bit-size pieces, and reserve.

When the black beans are fully cooked and soft (about 1.5 - 2 hrs.), remove 1 cup of beans and cooking liquid, and blend until smooth in a blender. Return 1/2 cup of this mixture to the beans in the kettle to thicken the cooking liquid.

In a large frying pan heat the lard, and cook the bacon in it until browned and crispy. Remove the bacon cubes, and in the same lard, fry the garlic and onion until soft and transparent, but not browned. Remove from heat, then stir in the reserved 1/2 cup of the blended beans. Stir entire contents of frying pan plus the reserved meats and bacon, into the beans in the kettle. Let cook over low heat for 20 minutes for flavors to blend.

Serve accompanied by Mineiro-style kale, thick slices of peeled oranges, white rice, farofa (recipe to follow), and caipirinhas to drink.

The Origins of Feijoada - Another Urban Legend is Debunked

Ever since I first started coming to Brazil, I've heard numerous times of the origin of feijoada, Brazil's "National Dish". The details often varied, as did the sources, but the gist was always the same - that feijoada was a meal that had its origins in the food prepared by the slaves in colonial Brazil's mining districts, on its coffee plantations, and in its sugar cane growing regions. The story was that usually the food given to the slaves was restricted to rice and beans, and that when times were good, or to celebrate a holiday, the slaves were given a bit of the least-desirable cuts of pork (skin, snout, ears, feet, belly) to add to their normal diet. The slaves added this animal protein to the beans they usually ate unadorned, and feijoada was born. From there, it was brought into the kitchens of the plantation houses, made more elaborate and elegant, and in the 19th century became urbanized in the restaurants of Rio de Janeiro. From there it was adopted nationally, and attained it's iconic status.

All very romantic, but apparently also all very untrue. Doing some research for these postings about feijoada on Flavors of Brazil, I discovered that what I'd been hearing all this time was basically an urban legend - a very widespread one that is believed by the majority of Brazilians. According to Brazilian culinary historians, such as Carlos Augusto Ditadi, who is a historian at the National Archives in Rio de Janeiro, and Luís da Câmara Cascudo, author of História da Alimentação no Brasil (The History of Food in Brazil), the origins of feijoada are not even Brazilian. Feijoada goes back to the pork and bean stews of Southern Europe, and those of Portugal in particular. It turns out that feijoada and cassoulet are cousins! What these European dishes and feijoada have in common is that they are all ways of cooking the less noble cuts of pork in a thick bean stew. Closer study of the history of feijoada indicates that it is particularly closely related to the stews of the Portuguese regions of Extremadura, Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. The major change that resulted in the "Brazilianization" of feijoada was the use of black beans, which are not typical in that part of Europe. Normally the European stews were made with kidney beans, white beans, or chickpeas.

The reality is somewhat less appealing than the myth, in which the scraps of food thrown to slaves was turned by them into the national dish. But reality it appears to be.

I'll shortly be posting recipes for the various dishes that constitute a feijoada. After that it's up to you readers to create your own Brazilian festa at home.

Feijoada - The Essential Ingredients

Although feijoada is often crowned with the title "Brazil's National Dish" it is not, in fact, a dish at all. Feijoada is a meal, in the same sense that Thanksgiving turkey dinner is not a dish but a meal. Just as one family might serve creamed pearl onions at Thanksgiving, while another family considers that heresy, and serves a broccoli casserole instead, the core ingredients of the Thanksgiving dinner rarely vary - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc. Feijoada is exactly the same - there are a huge number of dishes that have made their way into a feijoada, but there is only a small number of dishes without which one cannot really call the meal a feijoada.

A true feijoada will consist, at the very least of:

Cuts of pork, including hocks, ears, and belly, cooked in black beans

Linguiça sausage cooked in black beans

Boiled white rice

 Peeled slices or cuts of fresh oranges

Farofa

Mineiro-style kale

 And to accompany this enormous repast, the traditional beverage of a feijoada:
Caipirinhas

Together, all these dishes constitute a proper feijoada, but other additional dishes may be added as desired. Note that the first two ingredients, the true core of a feijoada, are pork products cooked in black beans. Although in today's world, with today's sensibilities, vegetarian feijoadas do exist, the traditionalist Brazilian would refuse to call that concoction a feijoada at all. But if the 21st century universal compendium of food has allowed the entry of vegetarian haggis or a vegetarian pasty, then let's allow an exception for vegetarians to allow them to enjoy feijoada. However, truth be told, a true feijoada is a meal for carnivores only.

Feijoada - Brazil's "National Dish"

It was inevitable that sooner or later Flavors of Brazil would come face-to-face with the dish that most gastronomes, culinary historians and sociologists call the national dish of Brazil - feijoada. A blog about Brazilian food without feijoada would be like an Italian food blog missing pizza, or an English food blog without spotted dick. Feijoada is the elephant in the room, so it's time to discuss it here on Flavors of Brazil.

There is no such thing as a "national dish" in Brazil, in the sense that feijoada has no official status in this country. Unlike acarajé and Mineiro cheese, feijoada has not been recognized as part of Brazil's cultural patrimony by IPHAN, the governmental body charged with compiling such a list. (Click here to read about IPHAN and  acarajé.)

Nonetheless, feijoada has been crowned with the status of "national dish" in countless books, newspapers, magazines and web posts worldwide, so I think such status is by now a fait accompli.

In upcoming posts, I'll discuss the history of this dish, it's composition, and a few recipes. LIke many other iconic, traditional dishes there is not a single "official" recipe for feijoada. Every Brazilian's favorite feijoada is the one made by his or her mother, grandmother or childhood maid. Consequently, recipes are innumerable. However, Flavors of Brazil will try to provide a few recipes for readers to create a truly Brazilian experience in their own homes. Feijoada is a great party dish, and is not difficult to make. Ingredients are available almost everywhere, so it's easily doable almost everywhere, by almost everyone.

More to come....