Many restaurants serve Brazil's savory national dish on Saturdays, but here the huge pots of the stew simmer every day. You can choose which of the nine types of meat you want in your stew, but if it's your first time, waiters will bring you a "safe" version with sausage, beef, and pork -- and sans feet and ears. The feijoada comes with the traditional side dishes of rice, collard greens, farofa (toasted and seasoned manioc flour), aipim (fried yucca), torresminho (pork rinds), and orange slices (to lower your cholesterol!). Not feeling like the feijoada? The menu has entrées as well, like baked chicken, shrimp in coconut milk, grilled trout, and filet mignon. Desserts include quindim (a yolk-and-sugar pudding with coconut crust) and Romeo and Juliet (guava compote with fresh cheese). The caipirinhas are made not only with lime but also with tangerine, passion fruit, pineapple, strawberry, or kiwi. Be careful -- they're strong.
Posted by adamthomas from Montgomery, Alabama on 8/13/07
In Rio, they have one of the most typical dishes known as the "feijoada", which anyone coming from anywhere outside Brazil MUST try. It´s a black bean stew filled with big chunks of meat, like sausages, pork and beef. And what better place to try it than a local restaurant called "Casa de Feijoada"? This place will fix you up with some of Brazil´s culinary goods. Along with the "feijoada", you will also get some colorful side dishes that come along with it, such as rice, cassava (which is manioc, quite popular down here), collard greens, fried pork rinds (trust me, this is very very good!), and some orange slices, to sweeten things up a bit. This is bonafide, authentic "Carioca (term used for anything deriving from Rio)" culinary excellence, almost worth the trip alone! Best while sipping down "caipirinia", a drink made from lime juice and alcohol ("cachassa"). Its that good!
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