What to Eat in Brazil

Brazil’s cooking reflects a continent-sized country of rainforest, savanna, and a vast coastline. Equatorial heat and subtropical winters shape what’s grown and how people cook, from manioc and beans to abundant river and sea fish. Indigenous, Portuguese, and African techniques mingle at home and in markets.

Lunch is typically the main meal, with family gatherings stretching into weekends and street stalls filling late afternoons. Religious calendars still put fish at the center on many Fridays, and regional traditions guide cooking fats—dendê in the Northeast, olive oil or pork fat farther south.

Black beans are simmered for hours with assorted pork—carne-seca, ribs, sausage, and often ears or feet—plus onion, garlic, and bay leaves until the beans turn creamy and the broth inky. The pot is served with white rice, toasted farofa, garlicky collard greens, orange slices, and crackling torresmo, a plate that balances richness with citrus and gentle bitterness. Shaped in 19th-century Rio from Iberian bean-and-pork stews and local ingredients, feijoada grew into a national emblem of leisurely hospitality and a symbol of convivial, midday eating. It anchors long Saturday or Wednesday lunches in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo homes and social clubs, ideally eaten when there’s time to talk and rest between helpings.

Moqueca braises fish or shrimp with tomato, onion, peppers, cilantro, and garlic in a covered clay pot, letting steam and juices create the sauce. In Bahia, cooks add dendê (red palm oil), coconut milk, and malagueta chilies for a lush, aromatic stew, typically paired with rice and pirão, a fish-stock gravy thickened with manioc flour. In Espírito Santo, moqueca capixaba uses annatto-tinted oil, fresh herbs, and traditional black clay cookware, avoiding both coconut milk and dendê for a lighter, clean profile that highlights the fish itself. You’ll find moqueca at family lunches and coastal gatherings, eaten midday in warm weather when fresh catch arrives, with the clay pot holding heat at the table and inviting extra ladles of sauce.

Acarajé begins with peeled black-eyed peas ground with onion and salt, whipped to trap air, then deep-fried in dendê until the fritters turn crisp outside and tender within. Split and filled to order, they carry vatapá—a creamy paste of shrimp, bread or manioc flour, peanuts or cashews, coconut milk, and dendê—plus caruru (okra stew), dried shrimp, salad, and hot pepper. The result is crackling, nutty, briny, and vividly orange, with heat adjusted to taste. Of Yoruba origin (akara) and carried to Brazil by enslaved West Africans, acarajé is sold by baianas in white attire and headwraps, a practice recognized as cultural heritage and intertwined with Candomblé offerings; it’s most commonly eaten late afternoon and evening on Salvador’s streets and beaches.

Churrasco showcases beef and other meats seasoned simply with coarse salt, skewered and grilled over charcoal or wood until the exterior develops a smoky crust. Cuts like picanha, fraldinha, maminha, ribs, and linguiça are sliced directly from the skewer, with sides such as farofa, vinaigrete (tomato-onion-parsley salsa), and boiled manioc to refresh the palate. The style grew with gaúcho cattle culture in Rio Grande do Sul and spread nationwide, prized for bringing people together around the fire to share successive rounds of meat. It anchors weekend and holiday gatherings, usually at midday or through the afternoon, when time and conversation let each cut rest, slice, and shine.

Tacacá is a hot broth built on tucupi, the fermented yellow juice of wild manioc, boiled with garlic and Amazonian herbs like chicória-do-Pará and sometimes alfavaca (basil). In a cuia (gourd bowl), vendors layer a ladle of goma (tapioca starch gel), dried shrimp, blanched jambu leaves that gently numb the mouth, and then the steaming tucupi, with malagueta pepper on the side. The flavor is sour-savory and herbal, with the silky goma and the tingling spilanthol of jambu creating a distinctive sensation. With Indigenous roots and strong footing in Pará and Amazonas, tacacá is sold by tacacazeiras at plazas and markets in Belém and Manaus, typically sipped in the late afternoon after rain when the air cools slightly.

Brazilian cuisine stands out for regional range and ingredient clarity: manioc in many forms, beans and rice as anchors, seafood-rich coasts, and grilling traditions inland and south. African, Indigenous, and Portuguese techniques meet local climates and harvests to shape daily meals and street snacks. Explore more dishes and plan tasting routes with Sunheron’s data-driven destination guides.