Where the hungry of Rio meet and eat

RIO DE JANEIRO: If the most popular foods of this city have one thing in common, it is their informality.

While you can find fine restaurants in Rio, what sets the city apart and brings its residents, known as cariocas, together is the unpretentious food they eat in crowded bars and on busy street corners after a day at the beach.

They are foods best served with lots of friends, non-stop conversation, glass after glass of cold, draft beer known as chopp, and if you are really lucky, dazzling local music. No sun-drenched Saturday in Rio is complete without lunching on a plate of dried meats and sausages stewed with black beans and served with rice, shredded collard greens, slices of orange and farofa – manioc flour mixed with eggs or banana.

This meal, that many trace back to the food given to slaves on sugar and coffee plantations, can be found throughout the city, but many consider Bar do Mineiro (Rua Paschoal Carlos Magno, 99 – Santa Teresa) to be among the best. Brazilian barbecue has gone global and you can find expensive versions in Asia, Europe and North America.

But if you want to eat at a more humble version that takes you back to a less ostentatious age where the all-youcan-eat rodizio grill began, try Churrascaria Palace (Rua Rodolfo Dantas, 16 – Copacabana) a half block from Copacabana beach and across the street from the Copacabana Palace.

The waiters will keep the food coming until you say “stop!” Be warned: and only then.

Popular cuts include picanha (top sirloin cap), alcatra ( sirloin) and fraldinha (flank steak), while the longgrilled beef ribs are a house speciality, served with panache.

But if you aren’t in the mood for a meat overdose, you might try one of the many non- rodizio churrascarias in the city.

One of the most popular is the always full Brazeiro da Gávea (Praça Santos Dumont, 116 – Gávea). Of the myriad carioca street foods, one of the most popular is the pastel, a large deep-fried dumpling filled with cheese, meat, chicken, shrimp and other delights.

They are easiest to find at the weekly farmers markets where locals buy produce.

With a glass of freshsqueezed sugar- cane juice (caldo de cana) or a coconut water (agua de coco), a pastel is the perfect thing to hold off hunger as you lug your vegetables home from the street market to cook lunch or after a walk on the beach.

Podrões are the “filthy” street sandwich stands, many of which ring the edges of the busiest night life districts. Not all of them are dirty. They serve cheap hamburgers, hot dogs and other sandwiches on a griddle with all the trimmings, just the thing you need after a night of partying.

Churrascaria de rua, or street grill: sometimes called “cat grills” (churrascaria de gato) because of an urban legend that said they roasted cats, they remain a local favourite offering basic beef, chicken and sometimes vegetables on a stick roasted over coals.

In addition to meat they usually offer sausages and sometimes a tasty roasted rubbery cheese known as queijo coalho. Bolinho de bacalhão, or “codfish croquettes”, are perhaps the most famous Rio de Janeiro bar food. But a really sublime bolhinho, with the right mix of salt-cod, flour, potatoes and spice fried in the right oil, is hard to find. Sardinha frita, or batter-fried sardines are a staple of the city’s central port district. The large Brazilian sardines are gutted, and butterfly split into a flat mat, battered, deep fried and served in stacks of 10 with the tails on. – Reuters