Day 2 – Churrascaria

Each day our students will blog about some of their experiences on the Brazil Travel Course.  Our entry for Wednesday, 1/18 comes from Mindie Te.


How could one come to Brazil without trying Brazilian BBQ –
Churrascaria
?  The adventurous bunch took up the tour guide’s recommendation and went to
Vento Haragano
.  Beware when you flip the round card to the “green” side, all the waiters with the gigantic skewer will rush your way to cut you a slice!  There are 22 different cuts on beef alone, plus chicken, fish, lamb, pork, and wild boar varieties.

Some tips for when you go to a
Churrascaria
:  there is no ordering required, so just grab a plate from the salad bar to start, and remember, since you are in multicultural Brazil, don’t be surprised when there is sushi at the salad bar.  Don’t overfill your plate though!  Once you have a plate in front of you, the waiters start coming and offering different meats, and before you know it, your plate is filled with 4-5 different kinds of meats.  My new experience was eating chicken heart.  I impressed myself with that one!

(photo courtesy of Joe Melican)

At some point I flipped the round card red side up, which meant “No, thank you”.  However, the waiters still kept coming.  I was told that I had “the look” on my face that said I wanted more – so when you are full, avoid eye contact!

After the dinner, we requested a tour of the kitchen, and the restaurant graciously accepted!  To our surprise, it was a “no chef” kitchen.  There was a huge open charcoal rack oven where the skewers are laid out in order, with the hot seared meats on the bottom rack and the slow roasted meats on top rack.  A simple, streamlined operation producing simple, natural, succulent meats – YUM!

Wish you were here!

– Mindie