Foodie

During the years of military dictatorship in Brazil (1964 - 1989), newspapers used to publish recipes protesting against the censorship. So much to tell and still having to be quiet.

Time has come to talk about food. You'll be presented to the delicious local cuisine today!

Firstly, it's important to state that there is nothing such a "haute cuisine" here. Yet the local produce is awesome and the fresh ingredients make up for anything that someone might require. I myself am more a fan of the terroir trend than of eating expensively, therefore I am 100% satisfied.

Nothing bellow have I cooked myself - I only took the photos, usually with a poor mobile camera. The transliteration is not the official one - I took the pronunciation as the rule, so think you're reading in English.

Fool

This fava beans dish is usually served as a breakfast course to be eaten with local bread. You can also add sausages or boiled eggs to eat if you want to have something even more substantial. Spices commonly added are salt, garlic, black pepper, cumin and parsley. 

My verdict: one of my favourites to be eaten at any time of the day. I even have my favourite street's kiosk to feed me on fool, but it seems that many people agree with me, because they start selling it at seven and by lunch time everything is gone. =P

Rice

This is a rice photo, not a rice pudding photo. It's incredible how people here can put the rice like this and yet,by some secret that passes from generation to generation and is oblivious to the Brazilian ex-pats, when you serve your rice, the grains pour at your plate like a Spring rain and do not stick together as Asian rice. The yellowish colour is somehow related to the countryside, as a friend of mine explained. Cooks in the capital city will serve you bright white rice.

My verdict: I have a rice tin here and I didn't know what it was for rice, but thought it was for pudding! Rice here troubles Brazilians who want it how the locals like it, but we are somehow unable to obtain the same results with the same product. The cooks I asked about their secret, told me they first fry the rice in oil before adding water, but that is exactly what we do in my state, Minas Gerais. Local rice is very yummie and is both the base and the side dishes for many recipes here. I'm for the countryside style and like more the golden-style rice. Additives that make the rice white are a big no for me.  

Waraq Enab

 

A roll stuffed with rice and wrapped in grape leaves. You can have vegetarian Waraq Enab with rice only - and maybe some herbs - but you may also add chicken or grounded beef to it. It's seasoned with tomato sauce, onions, lemon (here the green small one, that we call 'lemon' anyway, but the official name in English is 'lime'), salt, pepper and cumin. 

My verdict: another favourite. It's so nice to see the leaves being sold in the market, a proof that with creativity nothing in Nature is wasted.  I also like how everyday food has little meat in it, in a way that makes it balanced without the need of exaggerating anything. But I feel rather demotivated to cook my own rolls - the idea of working with the grape leaves seems to me to require abilities that my clumsy person doesn't fancy to. 

Yoghurt sauce (with chicken in the background)

I have eaten several different yoghurt sauces without a particular recipe to draw my attention to. I love them all, tho, I hope to leave the country knowing how to make one or two.

My verdict: although the sauces are very delicious and I enjoy having something creamy on the top of the salad that is not cheese - for the sake of some variation - I confess I had some very romantic ideas of yoghurt in the MENA Region. All the ones I have found so far have an ingredient list in which milk is just one of several ingredients more similar to periodic table elements than to things you would expect in a cookbook. The positive thing is that I can buy non flavoured yoghurt in an 1 kilo bowl.