The "churrasquero" / grill master

This weekend, along with Monday and Tuesday, is a holiday because of a Catholic saint and because it's National Childrens' Day.  Sean and I were invited to spend the weekend with a family at their beach house a little bit outside of the city.  The invitation was too tempting to pass up: a full-blown traditional Brazilian churrasco on Saturday and a typical feijoada on Sunday.  Sean and I stopped eating on Friday night in order to prepare for the incredible amounts of food and drink that always accompany family gatherings such as this.

Fixins' for the meat: a type of potato salad, vinagrete, rice and special type of beans

We arrived Saturday morning and the family was very excited to show us the buckets of different cuts of meat that were being readied to put on the grill.  I should have gotten a picture but the quantity and variety of beef was staggering.  The "churrasquero" fired up the grill and started cooking.  A family churrasco works just like the stereotypical restaurants.  You don't make one plate of food and eat once, but rather the grill master cooks all day and periodically takes meat off the grill which he slices and then passes around on a plate.  Everyone takes a piece and continues sitting, talking and drinking.  There's always more than enough food, however, and because the grill goes all day, there comes a point when people actually pass the meat along without taking any.  The flavor and the quality of the meat was awesome and Sean kept saying, "My dad would love this!"

Brazilian hot dog / "cachorro quente"

In the afternoon we hung out at the beach for awhile before returning to the house and being offered Brazilian hot dogs.  Brazilian hot dogs consist of cut up pieces of sausages mixed in with tomatoes, peppers, onions and sauce and topped with corn, peas and mayonnaise.  It was a little different, but quite delicious.

Lookout of the coast from Serra Grande

On Sunday, we explored some of the neighboring small beach towns and then arrived just in time for lunch - a traditional Brazilian feijoada.  Feijoada is black beans and different kinds of meats that have been slow cooked for hours.  We ate it with salad, rice and topped it with manioc flour.

 
Sean and I are back at home now and are recovering from all the food.  Plans for the day include going to the gym and maybe going for a run on the beach.  Maybe this will make us hungry enough to tackle the five pound Tupperware container of leftovers that the family graciously gave to us this morning as we said goodbye.

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