Brazil - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 227

corn dough, battered and fried), or cheap
meals like a bauru - a basic filling steak
meal with egg, fries and salad.
Restaurantes a kilo are the lunch choices
of most Brazilian office workers, where
you choose from (sometimes vast) buffets
and pay by weight ( por kilo ); less lavish
ones will cost you anything from
R$12-24 for a decent plateful. Rodizio
restaurants can be fantastic deals
- specialized restaurants (such as pizza
or sushi), where you pay a set fee and
eat as much as you want of the endless
supply food waiters bring around.
he churrascaria , the classic Brazilian
steakhouse , operates similarly, with a
constant supply of charcoal-grilled meat
on huge spits brought to your table.
here are more fruits than there are
English words for them. Some of the fruit
is familiar - manga (mango), maracujá
(passion fruit), limão (lime) - but most of
it has only Brazilian names: jaboticaba ,
fruta do conde , sapoti and jaca . he most
exotic fruits are Amazonian: try bacuri ,
cupuaçu and açaí . The last-named is often
served na tigela with guaraná, crushed ice,
sliced bananas and granola - a delicious
and ubiquitous filling smoothie - from
any lanchonete .

for it sem açucar to have them offer you
a sugar substitute instead). Te a ( cha ) is
surprisingly good: try cha mate , a strong
green tea with a caffeine hit, or one of
many herbal teas, most notably that
made from guaraná . Fruit in Brazil is put
to excellent use in sucos : fruit is popped
into a liquidizer with sugar and crushed
ice to make deliciously refreshing drinks.
Made with milk rather than water, it
becomes a vitamina .
Beer ( cerveja ) is mainly of the lager/
pilsner type. Brazilians drink it ice-cold,
mostly from 600ml bottles. Draught beer
is chopp . The regional beers of Pará and
Maranhão, Cerma and Cerpa , are
generally acknowledged as the best; of the
nationally available brands Skol , Brahma ,
Antarctica and Bohemia are all popular,
though mild. Despite the undoubted
improvement in the quality of Brazilian
wines , those imported from Chile and
Argentina remain more reliable.
As for spirits, stick to what Brazilians
drink - cachaça , sugar-cane liquor. The
best way to drink it is in a caipirinha
- cachaça mixed with fresh lime, sugar
and crushed ice - which along with
football and music is one of Brazil's
great gifts to the world. One thing
to remember when enjoying Brazil's
beverages: most clubs and some bars
will give you an individual card when
you enter upon which your drinks are
tabulated. Don't lose it. Even if you have
paid, unless you have the receipt at the
door, you will have difficulty leaving and
may even have to pay again.

3

DRINK
Brazil is famous for coffee and you'll find
decent espresso in many cafés, but in lots
of local places the coffee comes ready
loaded with copious amounts of sugar
(Brazilians add it to everything and you'll
draw looks if you don't follow suit; ask

JEITINHO
To make things happen for you in Brazil
you first need to understand the concept
of jeitinho . Literally it means, “a knack”,
a “fix” or “twist”, but in a larger sense it
means “a way” and it's how Brazil works.
Can't get tickets to the football game two
minutes before the match? Go to the
head of the line and get creative. Bouncer
giving you trouble getting into the club?
Smile, joke and get persuasive. In other
words start blagging. In Brazil, there's
nearly always a way to get what at first
glance seems impossible.

CULTURE AND ETIQUETTE
The most widely spoken language in
Brazil is Portuguese . Educated Brazilians
often speak a little English, and there are
plenty of Spanish-speakers, but knowing
Spanish is of limited help in interpreting
spoken Portuguese. You will do yourself
a huge favour and likely make several new
friends if you learn some Portuguese
- even a little effort goes a long way.
On the whole, Brazilians are very
friendly, open people (you'll be guided
to your stop by passengers on public
transport if you ask for help). The pace