shrimp

Caipirinha: This drink is a mixture of cachaça (native Brazilian liquor; very sweet and potent) and lime and sugar.

As my interest has risen in the passionate culture of Brazil, I have explored their music, their language, and their…appearance. I had not as of yet made much of an effort to taste their cuisine. I had a vague inclination that the food in Brazil is tied closely with that of Argentina – specifically, I had decided that these two countries had little in common with the strict diet of comida tipica found in many Central American countries. (In my experience, comida tipica changes a little bit in each place, but revolves around rice, beans, and some sort of meat fritado.) I also had been exposed to cachaça, the elemental native Brazilian liquor. I enjoyed my shot of cachaça. I could not describe it any more that “enjoyable,” because I don’t remember. A quick Wikipedia search and I was inundated with different styles of cooking from different sections of Brazil. That only makes sense, of course, seeing as the landscape and cultures from these different sections are very varied. From the northeast, which sees seafood on its plate often, comes Moqueca, a seafood stew. Strangely this stew is cooked without adding any water – the stock liquid is palm oil and coconut milk.