Street Cafe Brazil Book

Street Café Brazil hums and crackles with the outdoor life of this largest and most diverse of Latin American countries. As Michael Bateman remarks: "At any public event, food sellers materialise, peddling anything from freshly simmered corn-on-the-cob to coloured hard-boiled eggs". This is the original fusion cooking, a real melting pot of influences for hundreds of years, combining at first the local Indian, Portuguese and African traditions, then those brought by successive waves of immigrants, principally European but culminating most recently in huge numbers of Japanese settling in Sao Paolo. How could the resulting food be anything other than fascinating? Pride of place is taken by The National Dish (Feijoada Completa), the most substantial dish in the book, a rich stew of up to half a dozen different meats (fresh, salted and smoked) cooked with the characteristic little black Brazilian beans. Elsewhere, lighter, more portable fare prevails, from the innumerable tasty deep-fried snacks made from every conceivable ingredient (of which Michael Bateman can only give a handful), through fabulous seafood stews flavoured with coconut milk, to meat dishes that reflect the geographical and climatic range of the country. From the south, a gaucho's barbecue, Churrasco a Gaucho, where the grilling meat is basted with brine; from the far north, an unusual Dried Beef Puree, a kind of meat and cassava porridge. Desserts tend to be very sweet, many being based around eggs and coconuts. The names are evocative: Heavenly Bacon, Mother-In-Law's Eyes, Angels' Cheeks and Dreams. An irresistible collection, seductive as a slow samba. --Robin DavidsonRead More