Jun 14 2009
Brazilian Cuisine, Remember the Samba!
It began like most ethnic food movements “do – with small restaurants in the neighborhoods where immigrants settled, small restaurants and cafeterias and cafes opened by those who wanted to offer a foretaste of the house of their fellow emigrants . The Chinese, Italian, Middle East, Thai – bistros, cooking spread outside those cultures “district” from the good food and the word spread. The last “nouvelle cuisine” which is spreading like wildfire east of Brazil – a delicious mixture of three cultures, which meets in the dishes and delicacies that are not found anywhere else in the world.
To understand the cuisine of Brazil, one must understand a little of its history. The base of the Brazilian cuisine is in their root – that sustainable Brazilians – cassava, yams, fish and meat – but it bears the stamp of two other peoples and the Portuguese who came to the conquest and remained, and the African slaves they brought with them to work cane. Brazilian cuisine is now a seamless amalgam of the three influences that among other in a unique and totally Brazilian style.
The staples of the Brazilian regime are root vegetables, seafood and meat. In cassava, from cassava roots is the “meal” of the region, and is eaten in one form or another almost every meal. The root of bitter cassava is poisonous in its raw state, but when prepared properly, the root of cassava and tapioca yields farinha, the basis for many dishes from the region. The Portuguese influence shows in the rich, sweet egg bread that are served at almost every meal, and in the dishes of seafood which are based “seafood” the coconuts and other and vegetables.
When I am talking about Louisiana, especially South Louisiana, it keep reminds me about their delicious seafood dishes. Located at the southern region of United States with Gulf of Mexico on the south, bless South Louisiana with the best and authentic ethnicity seafood cuisine. If you ever go to South Louisiana, seafood should be everywhere on every places, from fish, shrimp, crabs, crawfish, oysters, etc.