Brazilian Cuisine

Released on: March 22, 2008, 1:19 am

Press Release Author: For more Free Resources www.dishadvice.com

Industry: Food & Beverage

Press Release Summary: It began as most 'ethnic food movements' do - with small
restaurants in the neighborhoods where immigrants settled, diners and lunchrooms and
tea rooms opened by those who wanted to offer a taste of home to their fellow
émigrés. Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Thai - from family run bistros, the
cuisine spread as those outside the cultures of the 'neighborhood' learned of the
good food and the word spread. The latest 'new cuisine' that is spreading like
wildfire is Brazilian - a delicious blending of three separate cultures that comes
together in dishes and delicacies that aren't found anywhere else in the world.


Press Release Body: It began as most 'ethnic food movements' do - with small
restaurants in the neighborhoods where immigrants settled, diners and lunchrooms and
tea rooms opened by those who wanted to offer a taste of home to their fellow
émigrés. Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Thai - from family run bistros, the
cuisine spread as those outside the cultures of the 'neighborhood' learned of the
good food and the word spread. The latest 'new cuisine' that is spreading like
wildfire is Brazilian - a delicious blending of three separate cultures that comes
together in dishes and delicacies that aren't found anywhere else in the world.

To understand the cuisine of Brazil, one must understand a little of its history.
The base of Brazilian cuisine is in its native roots - the foods that sustained the
native Brazilians - cassava, yams, fish and meat - but it bears the stamp of two
other peoples as well: the Portuguese who came to conquer and stayed, and the
African slaves that they brought with them to work the sugar plantations. Brazilian
cuisine today is a seamless amalgam of the three influences that interweave in a
unique and totally Brazilian style.

The staples of the Brazilian diet are root vegetables, seafood and meat. Manioc,
derived from cassava root, is the 'flour' of the region, and is eaten in one form or
another at nearly every meal. The bitter cassava root is poisonous in its raw state,
but when prepared properly, the cassava root yields farinha and tapioca, bases for
many dishes of the region. The Portuguese influence shows in the rich, sweet egg
breads that are served at nearly every meal, and in the seafood dishes that blend
'fruits de mer' with coconut and other native fruits and vegetables. The national
dish, bobo de camarao is one of these, a delicious mingling of fresh shrimp in a
puree of dried shrimp, manioc (cassava) meal, coconut milk and nuts, flavored with a
palm oil called dende.

It is the African influence that is most felt, though - as is to be expected of the
people who worked in the kitchens. Pineapple and coconut milk, shredded coconut and
palm hearts worked their way into everyday dishes, flavoring meat, shrimp, fish,
vegetables and bread. Brazilian food, unlike the cuisines of many of the surrounding
countries, favors the sweet rather than the hot, and more than any other South
American cuisine, it carries the savor of tropical island breezes rather than the
hot wind of the desert.

The most common ingredients in Brazilian cuisine are cassava, coconut, dende, black
beans and rice. Bacalao - salt cod - features in many dishes derived from the
Portuguese, but flavored with typical Brazilian insouciance with coconut cream and
pistachio nuts it becomes an entirely different food. It is typical of the Brazilian
attitude toward food - an expression of a warm and open people to whom feeding and
sharing food is the basis of hospitality. Brazilian cuisine is like its people - all
are welcome, all are welcomed and all make their mark - without ever overwhelming
the contributions of the other.


Web Site: http://www.dishadvice.com

Contact Details: # 523, Sector 8-B,01724619333,jivisabi52@yahoo.com

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