FREVO - Home of São Paulo's Best Beirute

Named after the frenetic dance whose rhythms drive the Carnavals of Recife and Olinda in Brazil's northeastern state of Pernambuco, Frevo restaurant has been a luncheonette institution in São Paulo since it first opened its doors in 1956. Frevo, situated on the city's toniest shopping street, Oscar Freire, has been the restaurant of choice for hungry shoppers for years, and has spawned branches throughout  the city.

Frevo's decor is something to behold. Call it retro-diner mixed with elements of 1950's Brazilian design, all preserved marvelously. There is the obligatory counter, of course, with stools upholstered in red naugahyde. The same material covers the dining chairs in the restaurant's table-service area. On the white walls float wire-and-wood scupltures of frevo dancers, some lifting high the small umbrella that frevo dancers use to balance, just like tightrope walkers. It's worth a visit to Frevo just to see the interior design.

However, the crowds that fill the restaurant daily don't return time after time to admire the decor. They are back because of the food. No restaurant can flourish for 55 years on design alone - only good food merits that kind of success.

The menu at Frevo features pizzas, sandwiches and burgers, plus sundaes, pies and other diner standards. The most popular of Frevo's sandwiches is their take on a beirute, a Syrio-Lebanese pita-bread sandwich that has become a Brazilian favorite. (Click here to read more about the history of the beirute). The restaurant's beirute is so well-loved that it was named São Paulo's best in this years Best of São Paulo competition. The prizes in this competition are awarded based on public votes, not on the votes of food professionals or journalists, as are some other gastronomic competitions.

At Frevo, they serve a classic beirute, without pretention and with no 21st-century additions. It's simply roast beef, melted cheese, sliced tomato and a dusting of oregano, all served in a toasted pita. There are two sizes - the large (enough for two normal eaters) which sells for R$22 (about USD $11) and the small (individual) which goes for R$12.30 ($6.15).

If someday you happen to be shopping in Oscar Freire street's designer stores - Calvin Klein, Cartier, etc. - and suddenly feel a pang of hunger, stop off at Frevo for a beirute and a look at the decor. You'll be glad that you did.

RECIPE - Some Sandubas

If Brazil has a Mecca for the extra-large, extra-delicious sandwich that Brazilians love to call sanduba (click here to read more about the sanduba), it has to be São Paulo's Municipal Market. Specifically the mezzanine with its line-up of restaurants open at lunchtime only to serve the thousands of vendors and shoppers who flock to the market in search of the best of the city's foodstuffs.

Downstairs at the market you'll find the usual selection of individual vendors selling fruits, vegetables, grains, spices, oils and pickles, meat, cheese, poultry and seafood. But if you head upstairs at the back of the market just before the lunch hours, you'll find an assortment of open-air restaurants on the mezzanine, all ready to sate that appetite you gained while grazining through the stalls below.

Each restaurant has its regulars, often strongly partisan and extremely loyal. Some of that loyalty even extends to particular items on the menu, and there are stories of customers who have eaten the same lunch daily for umpteen years. What makes or breaks the reputation of these restaurants, often, is the quality (and dimension) of their sandwiches (the sandubas). All the sandwiches are made on a crusty French bun, all have prodigious amounts of stuffing, and all are tremendously filling. But they succeed in their purpose - keep the customer happy and coming back for more.

Here are three recipes for sandubas from the Municipal Market, courtesy of UOL's Gastronomia & Negocios website.

Salt Cod Sandwich

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RECIPE - Salt-cod sandwich (Sanduíche de Bacalhau)

1 large French bun (or Kaiser bun or similar)
5 oz (150 gr) de-salted salt cod
1/4 cup (50 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
red wine vinegar to taste
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Boil the salt cod for two minutes in plenty of water. Drain, reserve.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, then fry the salt cod until it is golden on all sides, using two forks to shred the fish as it fries - remove any bones or skin. When the fish is golden, add the onion and garlic and heat briefly, but do not cook them.

Remove from heat, sprinkle additional olive oil and red wine vinegar over to taste. Do not season with salt.

Cut the bun in two, pack with the filling, cut the sandwich in half and serve hot.

Escabeche Sandwich

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RECIPE - Escabeche sandwich (Sanduíche de Escabeche)

1 large French bun (or Kaiser bun or similar)

Two large fresh sardines, cleaned and deboned
1/4 cup (50 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
red wine vinegar to taste
salt and black pepper to taste
sprig fresh thyme
--------------------------------------------------------------------------  Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the sardines, plus the chopped onion and garlic. Pour red wine vinegar over, but don't drown the sardines. Cook at medium-low temperature until the onions are soft and the fish is cooked.

Remove from heat, sprinkle with additional olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add fresh thyme (leaves only) if desired.


Cut the bun in two, pack with the sardines and vegetables, cut the sandwich in half and serve hot.

Fresh Ham Sandwich

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RECIPE - Fresh Ham Sandwich (Sanduíche de Pernil)

1 large French bun (or Kaiser bun or similar)

6 oz. fresh, (not smoked or cured) ham

2 thick slices large tomato
4 slices medium red or white onion
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp fresh oregano chopped
3 bay leaves
salt to taste

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Twenty-four hours in advance, combine the wine, the oregano and bay leaf in a medium Zip-loc type bag. Add the ham and let marinate in the refrigerator until the next day.

Remove the ham from the marinade and drain thorough. Put the ham in a small roasting pan and cover with aluminum foil. Roast the ham in a preheated 375F (200C) over,for about 20 - 30 minutes, or until the juices run clear. If desired, you can baste once or twice with the left over marinade.

Remove the ham from the oven, place on a cutting board and cover with the aluminum foil. Let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the tomatoes, onions and green peppers and cook until the tomato is breaking up and the onion and peppers are softened. Season with salt.

Slice the ham. Cut the bun in half, fill with the sliced ham, then top with the tomato/onion/pepper sauce. Serve hot.

BRAZILIAN FOOD SLANG - Sanduba

In the English-speaking world there seems to be extremely diverse reactions to the term "sammich", meaning sandwich. On websites like Yahoo Answers internauts debate the origins, the appropriateness and the coolness of the term, using such language as "[People] say sammich rather than sandwich because they have never been taught to speak or enunciate correctly," or "Just try saying it, it makes me laugh". Some people love the word, others hate it.

On the "authoritative" website Urban Dictionary, you'll find a number of definitions for sammich. All of them, of course, note that sammich means sandwich, but most of the definitions also restrict the use of the word sammich to particularly elaborate, large or extra-delicious sandwiches. For example, "A sammich is not just a sandwich, it is not just a meal. Sammich is a term reserved for only the holiest and mightiest of all sandwiches. A sammich is a true work of culinary art; a feast on a bun, if you will," or "Sex in sandwich form. An orgy of flavor. A god among sandwiches."

We here at Flavors of Brazil deny ever having used the term sammich, and don't find it particularly cute. But the word comes in very useful when trying to translate the Brazilian Portuguese word sanduba into English. Sanduba is a Brazilian slang term for sandwich, but like sammich it carries connotations of being an extra-special sandwich, something above and beyond the norm. It's likely to be big, have a number of ingredients and is likely to have engendered enthusiastic reactions among those who've eaten it.

As is often the case with trying to use slang in a second or third language, if you're not Brazilian it's probably best to leave the word sanduba to the locals. Slang often carries connotations that unknown to foreign speakers and it's very possible that you might use the word in the wrong context, or with the wrong people, or at the wrong time. So, just to be on the safe side, if you're a tourist in Brazil, stick to the word sanduíche (pronounced san-du-EESH-ee). You'll be understood and you won't make Brazilians laugh at your or think you're rude.

The Beirute - A True-Blue Brazilian Sandwich Classic

Just as French toast didn't really originate in France, the sandwich known universally in Brazil as a beirute wasn't invented in the Lebanese capital. It was invented, created or put together for the first time in Brazil's largest metropolis, São Paulo.

French toast's anonymous creator chose the name he (or more likely, she) did not because the dish came from France, but more as an homage to France and French cooking, a recognition that the dish was inspired by French cooking techniques and ingredients. Brazil's beirute sandwich was given its name for similar reasons.

Levantine immigrants, Brazil, early 20th century

In the early years of the 20th century, burgeoning São Paulo received a large number of immigrants from the Old World, and among them were significant numbers of immigrants from the Levant, specifically from Syria and Lebanon. They prospered in Brazil and their community grew to be one of the most important ethnic communities in the giant melting pot that is São Paulo. In fact, at present both the mayor of the city of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, and the governor of São Paulo State, Geraldo Alckmin, have Lebanese background. Current estimates of the number of Brazilians who identify as purely or partially of Lebanese of Syrian stock is between 10 and 13 million.

One of the foods that these immigrants from the Levant brought with them from their homeland was the round, often pocketed flatbread called pão sírio (Syrian bread) in Portuguese and best known in English as pita bread. Variations of this bread can be found throughout the Balkans, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East, and in Brazil, pão sírio is now considered an integral part of Brazilian food culture.

No doubt it was the Levantine bread used that caused the sandwich to be called beirute, because it's the one essential ingredient of a beirute. The meat, cheese and everything else that goes into the filling can vary from place to place and from restaurant to restaurant, but if it's not served on pão sírio, it's not a beirute.

Most typical recipes, however, do include some sort of cold meat and slices of cheese, making the sandwich a member of the Brazilian meat/cheese sandwich family along with the Bauru and the misto quente. The classic beirute is filled with sliced cold roast beef, sliced cheese, a fried egg, plus lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. In a beirute, the filling goes between two whole pieces of pão sírio, not into the pocket, making the sandwich a true meal in itself. This is not finger food - a good beirute will fill the whole plate and requires nothing else to make a complete and satisfying lunch.

Brazil's Rank in the Big Mac Index

For years now, the influential English weekly newspaper The Economist has annually published something called The Big Mac Index. Basically, the magazine plots the local price of a Big Mac in a number of countries (expressed in US dollars) and uses their ranking to indicate which countries have over-valued or under-valued currencies. Countries in which the Big Mac costs more than in the USA have, according to The Economist, over-valued currencies and countries which have a cheaper Big Mac have under-valued currencies.

In their most recent edition of The Big Mac Index, the Economist has ranked Brazil as having the fourth most expensive Big Mac in the world, indicating a severe over-valuation for Brazil's currency, the Real (pronounced hay-aww). The sandwich is more expensive only in three countries traditionally known for being very pricy - Switzerland, Norway and Sweden. The average price for a Big Mac in Brazil is USD $5.68, which is 32% higher than the US average of $4.20, indicating that the Real is over-valued by that same percentage.

Because Brazil is a South American country, many people not familiar with the Brazilian economy assume that it's an expensive country and a cheap place to visit. The Big Mac index shows that not to be necessarily true. Brazil can be very expensive, especially in the big cities and in areas that host a large number of tourists. And certainly, Big Mac are expensive here, as is everything at McDonald's. We here at Flavors of Brazil have never quite been able to figure out how McD's gets away with charging what they charge. Part is the allure and appeal of American culture, which Brazilians are not immune to. Eating in McDonald's is seen as an exotic treat, even a sophisticated one, not as a cheap and cheerful stomachful of fast food.

But Brazil, fortunately, is more than McDonald's and a tasty and well-made meal in an unassuming but clean restaurant can cost much less than a Big Mac in a McDonald's. The large Brazilian middle class, particularly the lower middle class, probably doesn't spend much of their discretionary income on Big Macs. When they eat out, they're far more likely to go to a homestyle restaurant where they can get rice, beans, salad and a piece of meat for the same price.

Here's a graph of the latest Big Mac Index. It's in Portuguese, but it's quite understandable for the most part. Try to figure out the countries by their Portuguese names (some help on lookalike country names Suíça and Suécia- they are Switzerland and Sweden respectively). Note that in India McDonald's doesn't sell Big Macs, as the eating of beef is prohibited by law. The Indian price is for something called a Maharaja Mac, made with chicken.

RECIPE - Hot Hole Sandwich (Sanduiche Buraco Quente)

This Brazilian snack-bar and luncheonette classic is Brazil's answer to the Sloppy joe. A mixture of seasoned ground beef inside a french roll, the hot hole sandwich is a perfectly packaged quick meal or between meal snack. The somewhat suggestive name (it's just as suggestive in Portuguese as it is in English) in fact is nothing more than a quick description of what the sandwich is and how it works.

To make a hot hole sandwich you need the filling (recipe below) and a good quality french roll, about the right size to fit comfortably in your hand. Brazilians eat french rolls by the bazillions every day, and most Brazilians wouldn't consider sitting down to breakfast unless there are some fresh french rolls on the table. Although Brazilians agree that they all love these rolls, they can't agree on what to call them. In Ceará, Flavor of Brazil's home state, they're called pão carioquinha (little carioca bread). In Rio de Janeiro, where the real cariocas live, they call them simply pão francês (French bread). Elsewhere, they are variously pão de sal (salt bread), pão massa grossa (thick dough bread), pão careca (bald bread) and cacetinho (little club).

Whatever they are called, these rolls (pictured at right) are the basis of a hot hole sandwich. A Brazilian french roll normally has a hard, crunchy crust and a very light, fluffy interior. To compile a hot hole sandwich, the roll is cut in two down the middle vertically. The halves are hollowed out, leaving only the crust (this is the hole in the hot hole). Then hot crumbled ground beef is packed into the halves (this is the hot in the hot hole) and the sandwich is served, ready to eat in the hand.

Good quality french rolls are almost universally available, so this recipe is easy to make and is very family- and kid-friendly. Almost nobody doesn't like a hot hole sandwich, with the obvious exception of vegetarians and vegans. It's also something that's easy to make for a crowd and the recipe can be doubled, tripled or more. A perfect picnic food, just as long as you can reheat the filling or keep it hot, and you make sure that the rolls are fresh and still crunchy.
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RECIPE - Hot Hole Sandwich (Sanduiche Buraco Quente)
Makes 4 sandwiches

1/2 cup stuffed green olives, chopped
1 Tbsp Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 hard boiled egg, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
12 oz (3/4 lb, 300 gr) good-quality lean ground beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
4 crusty french rolls, heated in the oven to harden the crusts if necessary
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In a small mixing bowl combine the olives, the parsley and the chopped egg. Reserve.

Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan, add the ground beef and cook, breaking up the lumps with a wooden spoon, until all traces of pink have disappeared. Drain excess fat if desired before continuing.

Add the onion, garlic and tomato to the ground beef in the frying pan and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is transparent and the tomato has begun to break up. Remove from heat and stir in the olive, parsley and egg mixture. Mix thoroughly, then add the grated cheese and mix again. Reserve, keeping hot.

Cut the rolls in half, pull out the interior crumb with your fingers, then pack the crusts with the reserved ground meat mixture. Serve immediately, two halves per person.

RECIPE - Francesinha Sandwich

This recipe for Portugal's extravagant francesinha sandwich, which has crossed the South Atlantic in recent years and can now be found in thousands of Brazilian bars, lunch counters and restaurants, is courtesy of Brazilian food-writer Ailin Aleixo's food blog Gastrolândia.

The francesinha, with a delicate and feminine name, is decidedly a masculine sandwich. It's a dieter's nightmare, and and glutton's pipedream all in one. As mentioned in yesterday's post about how the sandwich came to be invented and how it arrived on Brazilian shores, one of these sandwiches represents well over a thousand calories - half of the daily total recommended intake for men and more than half of women's recommended intake.

Most people eat the sandwich in a commercial establishment. It's not something to throw together at home and preparing a home version involves making a relatively complex gravy as well as constructing the sandwich itself. But for those brave (foolhardy?) readers of the blog who want to try one out without having to travel to Brazil or Portugal, here's how it is done:
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RECIPE - Francesinha Sandwich

For the gravy:
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
6 oz (150 grams) flank steak (fraldinha) cut into medium-sized cubes
1 bay leaf
piri-piri hot sauce to taste (Tabasco sauce can be substituted)
2 Tbsp corn starch
3 Tbsp tomato paste
2 oz (60 ml) Port wine (optional)
2 cups (500 ml) Pilsner-style beer
salt to taste


For the sandwich:
1 slice good-quality smoked ham
1 small sausage of your choice (chorizo, linguiça, andouille, wurst, etc.) , sliced lengthwise and fried until nicely browned
1 slice Italian mortadella
3 slices mozzarella cheese
1 small boneless steak, grilled or fried
2 thick slices rustic peasant bread at least 1 in (3 cm) thick
1 fried egg (sunny-side-up is traditional)
gravy to taste
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Prepare the gravy: In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, the garlic, the cubes of meat and the bay leaf and fry them, stirring frequently, until the onion and the meat have nicely browned. Add the Port wine, if using, and the tomato paste and mix them in thoroughly. Pour in the beer and hot sauce, and correct for salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook for at least one hour or until reduced by about half. Dissolve the corn starch in about 4 Tbsp cold water, then stir it in. Let cook for about 5 minutes or until the corn starch is transparent and has thickened the gravy. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve, pressing down on the solid ingredients. Reserve, keeping warm.

Prepare the sandwich: Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Place one slice of the bread in an ovenproof dish or casserole. Top the bread with one slice of the mozzarella, then the ham, mortadella and grilled steak. Add one more slice of cheeze and the second slice of bread. Top with the final slice of cheese. Place in the oven for 5-10 minutes, or until the meats are hot and the cheeze has melted and browned. Meanwhile, fry the egg. Remove the sandwich from the oven and place it on a deep plate, using a spatula and taking care that the sandwich remains whole. Pour the warm gravy over all, making sure there is plenty at the bottom of the plate. Top with the fried egg and serve immediately, accompanied with french fries if desired.

São Paulo's Municipal Market - A Mountainous Mortadela Sandwich

The mezzanine floor of São Paulo's Municipal Market houses a number of restaurants, open only for lunch, whose clientele ranges from shoppers in the market to market employees to discerning diners who come to the market solely because of the quality of the food. They all share a large open space and their tables extend in front of their bar/counter and are easily identified by color, table linen or by ropes dividing the space. All of the restaurants have menus posted and available to peruse, so it's easy to pick the restaurant that suits your mood, your appetite and your budget.

One of the most well-known dining establishments in the market isn't on the mezzanine, however. It's on the main floor and is called Bar do Mané.  Its fame rests largely (and I do mean largely) on one particular menu item - a mortadela sandwich. Mortadela is the Brazilian version of the Italian cold cut mortadella which dates back to the romans, and which Italian emigrants have carried around the world. A specialty of Bologna, mortadella evolved in the USA into the famous American bologna (or baloney) sausage. In Brazil, where it's hugely popular, it has remained basically unchanged from its original Italian recipe.

What makes the mortadela sandwich at Bar do Mané such a culinary celebrity is its bulk. The sandwich, served in a French roll, packs 250 gr - over half a pound - of thinly-sliced mortadela between its two halves, guarnished with tomato and lettuce. The mortadela is folded and stacked in the roll, making a mountainous mouthful.

Legend has it that the sandwich was created one day when a regular customer complained that his mortadela sandwich was somewhat lacking in mortadela. Someone in the kitchen staff decided to call the diner's bluff and loaded the sandwich to the ceiling with mortadela. When the diner was served his sandwich his eyes popped out of his head, but within a short time he'd finished the sandwich. The next day he returned and ordered a sandwich "just like yesterday's." Other diners saw this beast of a sandwich passing by and asked for the same thing. Eventually the bar had to put the sandwich on the menu, and it remains their most popular menu item to this day.

Other Municipal Market restaurants now offer the same sandwich, but when something is as closely identified as the mortadela sandwich is with the Bar do Mané, go for the original. See if you can polish one off. Depending on the options chosen (like cheese) the price for the mortadela sandwich ranges from R$11 to R$15. That's about USD $7.00 to $9.50. It won't break the bank, but it just might ruin your diet!

Brazil's BLT - Sanduiche Bauru

In Brazil, the sandwich called Bauru hold the place of honor that is saved for the BLT in North American cuisine. It's almost universally available in cafes, roadhouses, and lunchspots. It has numerous variations, and has been reinvented numerous times. And it has a similarly long history to the BLT.

Last week the prominent São Paulo newspaper Folha de S.Paulo featured the Bauru in an article celebrating the sandwich's 87th anniversary. It is an interesting bit of Brazilian gastronomic history, and it reveals that today's Bauru is far removed from its progenitor, created in 1922 in São Paulo.

The original Bauru was created by a radio host named Casemiro Pinto Neto who was a frequent customer at a simple restaurant called O Ponto Chic (The Chic Spot) on São Paulo's Largo do Paissandu. The restaurant was a hangout for journalists and politicos, and Casemiro created a sandwich from ingredients already available at the lunch counter. The original recipe called for a crusty french bun, cut open and hollowed out, thin slices of cold roast beef, slices of cucumber pickles and tomatoes, and a combination of three cheeses melted in a double boiler.

Casemiro was born and raised in the small city of Bauru, in the interior of São Paulo State, and his nickname was "Bauru". His sandwich quicly became a favorite with other patrons of O Ponto Chic, who would order one by asking for "Bauru's sandwich." Eventually, it became simply a Bauru.

Over the years, the ingredients of a Bauru changed and simplified, and today's typical Bauru is basically a grilled cheese sandwich with a slice of tomato. Some Baurus are excellent, but most display the lack of care of most fast food kitchens. But it's still one of the most popular and commonly ordered sandwiches in Brazil.