Brynn Barineau

Tag: Foods

  • The Delicious Moqueca Capixaba

    The Delicious Moqueca Capixaba

    When visiting Vitoria there are exactly four things to do: 1)spend the day at one of the nearby beach towns, 2) visit the Garoto candy factory, 3) see the 16th century Convento da Penha and 4) stuff your face with Moqueca.

    Moqueca (pronounced Mookecka) can generally be described as a fish stew. Or, more accurately, the greatest fish stew ever made. There are two kinds of Moqueca in Brazil, Moqueca Baiana and Moqueca Capixaba. The basic ingredients are the same for both, fish, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro.

    The Moqueca Baiana, from the state of Bahia, uses dende oil (a kind of palm oil) and coconut milk

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The Dende Palm

    The Moqueca Capixaba, from Espirito Santo, draws more from native Brazilian cuisine. Traditionally, it’s cooked in a pot made with black clay and tree sap. The stew is colored using arucum, a natural pigment made from the urucu flower. Moqueca Capixaba uses olive oil instead of dende and doesn’t have coconut milk.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The urucu flower

    Which version of Moqueca is tastiest? Well, that depends on which Brazilian you ask. Unfortunately, I’ve not had the Baiana version in order to declare definitively that the Capixaba version is better, but I can say the Moqueca Capixaba is not just a dish. It’s an experience.

    If ordering a Moqueca, I recommend having a very early, light breakfast and foregoing food for the rest of the day. If you’re a calorie counter, you might as well plan on not eating for the preceding 24 hours. You should also have the afternoon blocked off for napping. There is no strolling or sight seeing after this meal.

    You’ll be able to choose what kind of fish you want, but in Espirito Santo it’s almost always a kind of hard, white fish. My husband and I always order dorado. That is a hearty fish. We also like to have a shrimp sauce. As you can see the restaurant in Ubu is pretty generous with their shrimp.

    In addition to the stew, you’ll also get white rice, piraõ (a fish juice goo, very tasty) and Moqueca Banana (amazing!). Our favorite place also includes a delicious and totally unnecessary fried shrimp appetizer.

    Everything is brought to the table in a steaming, bubbling collection of black pans. The steam rising off the stew is so thick for a few seconds you can’t see across the table. Serving yourself is like dipping into a witch’s cauldron.

    There is no better way to spend an afternoon than gorging on Moqueca followed by a long, quiet nap on the beach. It’s become our Saturday routine, weather permitting. We always love company, so shoot me an email if you’d like to join us sometime.

    The Moqueca pictures were taken at Moqueca do Garcia, on Ubu beach, directly in front of the sea. Find Ubu and you find Garcia.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Road Trip Munchies

    Road Trip Munchies

    About a year ago my husband began working in the state of Espirito Santo, just north of Rio.  As a result, road trips have become part of our weekly routine.  And you know the best part about roads trips?  Junk food!

    I believe road trips offer a brief hiatus from rules of healthy eating.  Any car trip lasting longer than two hours puts the world into a state of suspended animation allowing you to eat whatever you want without consequences.

    True road trip food must come from either a fast food chain or gas station convenience store.  (Rest station vending machines work too.)  My go to road trip munchies in the US are Yoohoo and ranch flavored corn nuts.  Mmmmm, delicious!  Sadly, neither of these exist in Brazil, so I’ve had to explore new options.

    First, candy!  Brazil has two big candy makers, Garoto and Lacta.  Garoto sells many delicious candies including mini chocolate bars, only four squares, in a variety of flavors.  In my opinion, Lacta is a second-tier candy maker. The only Lacta product worth consuming is a Bis, a type of Brazilian Kit Kat.

    Another popular snack is Japanese peanuts.  They’re roasted peanuts with a crunchy, salty shell around them.  I don’t know what the shell is made of or what exactly makes them Japanese.   They sure are tasty though.

    You can also find small bags of pretzel sticks.  Based on the exclamations points and the word “NEW” all over the packaging, I can only assume pretzel sticks only just made it to Brazil and everyone is very excited about it.

    There seems to be a lot of dried fruit.  I don’t really know.  I don’t shop in that section.

    A favorite of many Cariocas is the biscoito de vento, air cookie.  It’s salty so it’s not really a cookie but it has so little substance I’m at a loss as to exactly what it is.  It’s crispy, filled with air pockets, and dissolves immediately upon hitting your tongue.  Is it corn?  Wheat?  I can’t say but it has a very satisfying crunch.

    Finally, potato chips. I can sum up the difference between American and Brazilian chips in two words, meat flavored.  Yes, the US has BBQ flavor but it’s referring to the sauce.  When a Brazilian chip bag says “roasted meat” the chip is going to taste like pot roast.  Unmistakably and disconcertingly like pot roast.

    If you’re not a red meat fan, there is also grilled chicken and turkey breast. Even the “herb” flavored reminded me, oddly, of tandoori chicken.

    And here we have the limit of my cross-culture understanding.  I do not want my potato chips to taste like meat.  Ranch dressing, fine.  Turkey breast, no.  My tolerance goes only so far. This is one tradition I will not be adopting.  I’m going to stick with my Japanese peanuts.