Food & Drink

Each region in Brazil has its own speciality cuisine. For example, a Rio de Janeiro favourite is feijoada (a thick stew of black beans, beef, pork, sausage, chops, pigs ears and tails), whilst a typical Bahain dish is vatapb (shrimps, fish oil, coconut milk, bread and rice).

Other popular dishes include:

• Rice and beans - an extremely popular dish, considered basic at table
• Salgadinhos - small savoury snacks, mostly sold in corner shops
• Pão de Queijo ('cheese bread') - a small, soft roll made of manioc flour and cheese
• Coxinha - a chicken croquette shaped like a chicken thigh
• Pastéis - small halfmoon-shaped pastries with a wide variety of fillings
• Cuscuz branco - milled tapioca cooked with coconut milk and sugar
• Hot dogs - offered with a dazzling array of condiments including various dressings, boiled quail eggs, peas, corn, olives and crunchy potato straw
• Pinhão - pine nuts of Araucaria angustifolia, a typical tree of the highlands of south Brazil. The nuts are boiled and eaten as snack in the winter months.
• Cachaça - Brazil's native liquor, distilled from sugar cane
• Caipirinha - Brazil's national drink, made from cachaca, mixed with sugar, ice and limes

The dairy-producing state of Minas Gerais is known for such cheeses as queijo Minas, a soft, mild-flavored fresh white cheese usually sold packaged in water; requeijão, a mildly salty, silky-textured, fluid cheese sold in glass jars and eaten as a spread on bread, and Catupiry, a soft processed cheese sold in a distinctive round wooden box.

More information about the food in Brazil can be found in Brazilian Culture.