Brazilian Cuisine

Brazilian cuisine was developed from indigenous, European, and African influences. It varies greatly by region, reflecting the country's mix of native and immigrant populations, and it's continental size as well. This has created a national cuisine marked by the preservation of regional differences.

Ingredients first used by native peoples in Brazil include mandioca, guaraná, açaí, cumaru, and tacacá. From there, the many waves of immigrants brought some of their typical dishes, replacing missing ingredients with local equivalents. For instance, the European immigrants (primarily from Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Portugal) were accustomed to a wheat-based diet, and introduced wine, leaf vegetables, and dairy products into Brazilian cuisine. When potatoes were not available they discovered how to use the native sweet manioc as a replacement. The African slaves also had a role in developing Brazilian cuisine, especially in the coastal states.

Root vegetables such as cassava (locally known as mandioca, aipim, or macaxeira), yams, and fruit like açaí, cupuaçu, mango, papaya, guava, orange, passionfruit, pineapple, and hog plum are among the local ingredients used in cooking.

Some typical dishes are are Feijoada, considered the country's national dish; and regional foods such as vatapá, moqueca, polenta and acarajé.. There's also caruru, which consists of okra, onion, dried shrimp, and toasted nuts (peanuts and/or cashews), cooked with palm oil until a spread-like consistency is reached; moqueca capixaba, consisting of slow-cooked fish, tomato, onion and garlic, topped with cilantro; and linguiça, a mildly spicy sausage.

The national beverage is coffee and cachaça is Brazil's native liquor. Cachaça is distilled from sugar cane and is the main ingredient in the national cocktail, Caipirinha.

Salgadinhos, cheese buns, pastéis and coxinha are common finger food items, while cuscuz branco, milled tapioca, is a popular dessert.