After a few days of being completely submerged in the Brazilian culture I quickly learned how the women get their amazing curves…the food! But me being American just simply felt like I was going to explode from all the food. My friend and I were very excited when we put on our jeans five days into the trip and they still fit (phew!)!
First thing that our bodies adjusted to was their lunch. They eat their largest meal at lunch and we simply don’t do that, but my-oh-my do they know how to cook a mean lunch. Every lunch we had always included beans and rice but that was only the tip of the iceberg. They would have a pasta dish and a meat dish such as pork or chicken and a vegetable dish like okra or green beans. I found the flavors to be very rich and flavorful, for the lack of a better word, and the meals to be heavy. The heavy factor was probably because we would be woken up around 1pm for the 1:30pm lunch so my body didn’t have time to wake up and realize it was time to feast. Our late morning snoozes were definitely because of out jet lag, not our social life that was quickly developing because of all the amazing friends we were making!
Probably one of my favorite things they happily shared with us was pao de queijo, which simply put is cheese bread, and for all you fellow cheese lovers out there- need I say more?!? It was a little roll that was best when you would tear it open, right out of the oven, steaming and be moist and doughy on the inside! It would be soft and creamy and so cheesy tasting without the typical appearance of cheese in it. I liked to put cream cheese on mine; yummy (I’m starting to drool).
Here are some more pictures of food from Brazil!
Coxina Pamoja
Acai!! They serve it with some toppings and the cream stuff is condensed milk!! It is so delicious.