Food for Thought

One of my favorite parts about hearing about different countries is learning what a typical day of food is like. Although I've lived here over 2 years, just the other day I realized that I have never blogged about what a typical Brazilian eats in a typical day. Keep in mind, there are lots of other foods that are eaten on special occasions (who can forget Brazilian bbq?) and there, of course, are exceptions to the rule based on social class, but we're focusing on the typical food in a typical day.

For starters, after 2 days in Brazil you will realize that the typical Brazilian eats almost the exact same menu every single day. In fact, if you live in typical Brazilian family, you never need to wonder what's for breakfast or lunch because it's always extremely similar. This is hard to imagine for us Americans who thrive on variety! In fact I am still fascinated about the fact that Brazilians don't get bored of the same tastes, but when I've asked some friends this, they can't imagine getting bored or tired of their food routines. So...here it is! (I took these pictures of items I had around my house, so some of my things are slightly different, but I"ll explain)

Breakfast starts out with white bread, usually what we would call a Portuguese style roll. Unlike this one, usually they are really crisp on the outside and VERY airy and almost empty inside. The rolls are eaten with margarine, and on special occasions ham and cheese are put inside.

Breakfast wouldn't be complete without coffee - even for toddlers! In fact, "breakfast" in Portuguese is literally "Morning Coffee". Brazilians drink VERY strong coffee in VERY tiny cups. I don't have any of the typical coffee cups on hand but I do have a spoon that you use with these cups. Here's the size to get the idea....think espresso. Sometimes they put hot milk in too.

The other thing about Brazilian coffee (in the morning and all day) is it is EXTREMELY sweet. I mean totally, totally loaded with sugar! Think cough syrup sweet....seriously! Jeyson and I generally prefer our coffee without sugar (though we do have a major weakness for flavored creamers). Drinking coffee without sugar is unfathomable for most Brazilians. We've ordered coffee out before and requested it without sugar and the Batista actually made a face like we just requested water from the toilet :) What can I say Brazilians love coffee in their sugar!
For lunch, Brazilians always eat rice,

And beans. I had this can of beans just for the picture, but Brazilians make the beans from dry beans. They cook them in a pressure cooker and then fry them in other pot with garlic. Rice and beans are served every day...period. Even if a side dish of spaghetti is served, so are rice and beans.

Meat almost always goes along with the rice and beans. Usually it is pan fried chicken, beef, or pork, though I"ve heard in the Amazon they have a lot of fish.

On a busy day, people might just cook up chicken nuggets instead of the meat. It's funny that here it is socially acceptable to serve fried chicken nuggets to adult lunch guests...even dinosaur shaped ones :) I must confess, they're fun - it releases the inner kid.

Different veggies are served with lunch - carrots, cabbage, lettuce, beats, etc. The one different thing though, is they are almost always grated or finely chopped - think coleslaw style even for lettuce. It actually is much more practical than trying to fit a giant leaf into your mouth politely :)

Brazilians drink fresh juice every day. They take pineapple, lemons, or passion fruit, etc and throw them in their blender. Most people rarely drink iced tea or milk - unless it's chocolate milk that is! I haven't yet converted over to the juice culture. It's a lot of work to chop fruit and wash your blender each day, so fortunately they sell convenience juices for people like me. This is a bottle of very concentrated cashew juice. Just pour this bottle into 5 liters of water and you're good to go. You might be wondering how you make juice out of a nut, right? Well did you now that the cashew nut is attached to a pear sized piece of red fruit? The nuts are exported but the fruit stays here. Since so many cashews are produced for exportation, the fruit is the cheapest kind of juice to buy here! (see the picture on the bottle for a picture of the nut attached to the fruit)

Dinner is Brazil is very simple. Some people reheat lunch left overs, some have hot dogs, or a pizza, and some just have simple crackers with butter and coffee, or even a piece of cake!

Another interesting thing is that Brazilians LOVE condiments. They put ketchup, mayonnaise, etc on just about everything...even pizza!

Speaking of pizza, when you come down here for a slice, don't forget to use your knife and fork - the only socially acceptable way to eat it! In fact, Brazilians use utensils for just about every kind of food out there - fries, and even sometimes hamburgers!

So that wraps up a typical day of food in Brazil. So, what do WE eat, you might wonder? We lean towards varieties of our American favorites, made with Brazilian ingredients, and with a flare of Italian, a sprinking of Asian, and a dash of Mexican. We've just decided to make our own food culture. Speaking of which, time to get my saucey chicken, cheese, and green pepper casserole out of the oven.