What I miss of the Brazilian cuisine

When you live abroad people are usually curious about your life " back home." Questions about the weather, the people and  the food are most common. We´re usually asked what we miss about our lives back home, and usually this answer will include people and some tasty treats that you were used to eat before moving to a new place.

Now, if you ask me what I miss about Brazil I´ll start saying that I miss people. I miss everyone who is important to my first 20 years of life, and are still living there now. About the rest (weather, places, shows, food) I think I mostly reproduce the feeling wherever I am, or I try to substitute it with something more available to me. I was just talking to my friends, wishing them happy holidays, and they told me they were going to the mall to eat at the new Burguer King. I couldn´t stop laughing.. Here I am, salivating for things I can only get in Brazil( even if it´s not Brazilian), and they waste a meal with a burguer. (My town didn´t have one until this year, and should probably have avoided it).

When I think about my childhood and what I used to love eating I can´t stop thinking that I loved to go to Bras-lee, a Chinese restaurant that makes the best meat and onions dish ever. I also can´t forget the taste of Arabic Esfihas from Kibeteria and Kiberama, or the tempura and sashimi from Samurai. On the weekends an Italian gelato was the best way to cool down the heat, and whenever we went on trips we always stopped at Holandesa for some dutch treats or Strauss for some German chicken pot pie! Yum!I remember nights eating hot dogs at arnaldo´s, or the delicious burguers at zerão. ( Can´t remember the name of the place! But loved the drive in kind of feeling because they brought trays that attached to the car window)

My mom is the best kibe maker I´ve ever known. And my dad, who has never cooked rice in life, can only make sukiyaki in the kitchen..But he rocks at it. My great uncle, who is 97 at the moment, makes an awesome italian pasta, just like my dear nonna. For Easter, we always had Portuguese style cod with olives and olive oil. My aunt was always trying out new dishes, and she used to test them with us, so we´d have Spanish paella for birthdays, or some Indian curry chicken.

Brazilian things that are really Brazilian and that I love are brigadeiros (rich chocolate fudge) and pão de queijo (cheese balls). In their everyday lives, Brazilians eat rice, beans, a kind of meat and salad. I´m not too crazy on beans (can´t stand´em) and I like rice with a kind of sauce. So, let´s say that from my childhood I only really miss Barreado, which is a tradicional dish made in the south of Brazil only. Brigadeiros and cheese balls I can make anywhere. The whole feijoada (beans, rice, pork, among other things) I never liked. Nothern dishes, such as acarajé, I´m not too crazy about either.

I find it amuzing when people ask me why I don´t miss Brazilian food so much, and how I get by without it. Let´s just say that Vancouver has so many cuisine options, that I never have to even wonder if I´ll ever miss the beans I never liked. In fact, whenever I´m in Brazil, I can´t get enough of Esfihas.. they taste like childhood to me and it was my "fast-food" option way before any other eat out things :)

I do miss fresh fruits (jaboticaba from my nonna´s tree!) and fresh squeezed juices!

Oh, and just to be a bit more unusual and against the flow (as always), I rather cook a good meal at home than venture to a new restaurant where I´ve never been before. I know. I´m weird like that.

I guess I won´t have time to write before Xmas. Taking the train to spend Xmas with family. Mmm... I wonder what´s for dinner.

Happy Whatever you celebrate. All the best in the New Year!