"Best Parts for Barbecue"

I was going through some old papers, and came across a "cow-map" from our favorite Churrascaria in SJC. This particular card is a bit beat-up, since I must've folded it up a few times and stuck in my pocket for safekeeping. There is a name and phone number of company VP on the back which I wanted to save. I remember this particular dinner. There was a VP leadership team in town, and of course, that meant they stopped by our plant for a tour. Afterwards, we all went out to dinner at the Villa D'aldeia since it was our customary place to bring the out-of-towners. It was a great "networking" event for me, and I'm still in touch with some of them today. Being a tour guide for visiting company dignitaries was a fringe benefit of my time in Brazil.

Anyway, as I've probably explained before about Churrascarias, there is a bewildering variety of meats to choose from, and this user-friendly guide helps you to choose which part of the beast you'd like to try. This one had the English translations, which was helpful when we first got there. I enjoyed most of the types listed on the front, except Cupim. What's Cupim, you say? Check out the map.

Rio 22 - Restaurant Review

It's time for a new feature of Formerly Live from Brazil: Restaurant Reviews. In particular, you guessed it, Brazilian-themed restaurants. This past weekend, we found out about a Brazilian BBQ-style restaurant that recently opened up in Union NJ, off of Route 22. It's called Rio 22. Having been to quite a few authentic Brazilian BBQ restaurants (I've been meaning to post about these churrascaria restaurants as a topic here on FLFB, but haven't had the chance yet), my review will be based on comparing this restaurant to the real thing.

Atmosphere: Rio 22 has an upscale setting, very comfortable, clearly the kind of place to which you can bring a bunch friends, family, or co-workers and not have to worry about being too loud. This is similar to the ones I remember from Brazil. In some ways, it reminded me of "Porcão" from Rio de Janeiro, so I guess their name fits. Rio22 even had the red/green coasters on the tables to alert your waiter about your receptiveness to more meat.

Salad Bar: Conceptually, very similar. In fact, the layout of the salad bar was nearly identical, with various salads and plates of side-dishes arrayed around the circumference of a large table. The majority of the dishes were not the same as in Brazil, they were more reflective of local favorites. They did have a few fish-dishes (cod fish salad, and something with little octopuses), rice and beans, and chicken strogonoff which can be found in every Brazilian BBQ. I missed the sushi rolls, although Rio 22 has an entire Sushi bar to choose from - just not included with the salad bar (at least that I saw).

Appetizers: Every Brazilian BBQ lays out some appetizers on the table to go with the meal, typically fried bananas, Pão de queijo , french fries, bread, yams, small salgados stuffed with meat, and rice. Rio 22 had similar - french fries, onion rings, fried bananas, and I was happy to see pão de queijo . Very authentic pao de qeuijo, I might add. I hadn't had one of these in a while. Yum.

Drinks: They had imported Brahma. (See "Cervejas" below). I had a couple, but not a bucket. We didn't get any caipirinhas, but I imagine you could get a good one here.

Meat: Mmmmm. Meat. That about says it all. The never-ending, table-served meat included: top sirloin, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, roast beef, flank steak, chicken, lamb, and picanha. A real Atkins lover's dream, and your cardiologist's nightmare. I have been craving picanha ever since my BBQ post. I even stopped in at a local butchershop to ask for it, and they looked at me like I was from Mars. I just saw on Wikipedia that it's called "rump cover" in the US, so maybe I'll try that next time, although, if that's not what it's called, I'll get strange looks asking for that too. Rio 22's was a real treat, and it was excellent. It was really, really good to have this again. Another authentic touch was having farofa and vinaigrette salsa at the table for dipping or topping the meat, respectively.

Coffee: I had a good expresso after the meal, which tasted authentic.

Price. This is the most noteable difference. In Brazil, dinner for two at the local Rodizio always wound up costing about R$100 - including drinks and dessert. (roughly US$35 - US$50, depending on the exchange rate at the time). Here, it was about that much for 1 person. So, roughly 2x-3x the price. It's a bit of an unfair comparison though since meat, fish, and the going rate for cooks and waiters is less expensive in Brazil. For the price, the value you get is more than comparable to a night out at a good restaurant, if not more so given that it's all you can eat.

Recommendation: If you are curious about Brazilian BBQ, definately check Rio 22 out. If you know me, and would like to go, let me know and we'll plan a night. We went on a Sunday afternoon, so I didn't experience the nightlife. I have the feeling Friday or Saturday night would be a fun time to go, judging at least by the size and layout of the bar, and the drink specials.

If you go, let me know if you agree with my recommendation.

BBQ, Part II

The last time I posted the picanha had just hit the BBQ, and was cooking nicely. As you can tell from some of the pictures, the BBQ itself is much different than the propane grill type we are accustomed to. It's more similar to a pit-type BBQ.
Behind the grill area, is a wall of bricks with 21 holes each across their face. These holes form a grid-like pattern, and with a couple of adjustable height cross-bars in front, you have the ability to easily adjust the food's location with respect to the heat. This is why there are do many different types of skewers, to accommodate how to best support and position the food. I was better able to control the cooking with this setup, versus my propane grill in NJ.

Now that you know the secret to how the meat was cooked, here are the rest of the details on the picanha. After it chars on both sides a bit, take the meat off the fire and scrape the excess salt off (this is a trick that Pupio, the butcher from the butchershop I mentioned previously, taught me). Then, back to the flame. It took about 45 minutes or so to thoroughly cook a big picanha like this one - but worth every minute of the wait.

The taste of the picanha was really moist, tender, and flavorful. The natural taste of the meat - remember, no fancy sauces here. Can you really tell the difference in taste based on where the beef was from? Absolutely. The meat from Brazil was great, don't get me wrong. Brazil is known for their beef, and I can see why. But, the Argentinian was really special.

So, there you have it. That was a typical Sunday night in Brazil. I usually fired the BBQ up around 4pm, and we'd sit outside and have some quality time by the pool, maybe drinking some Bohemia's or Caipirinhas (look for these in other posts), just soaking it all in.

To bring it all together, here's a quick video.



Click here for FULL SCREEN.

Backyard BBQ

As I started back on Atkins again this week after putting on the "Re-Patriation 10", I've been eating a lot of beef lately. Beef - they say that Americans eat too much meat...obviously "they" have never been to Brazil. Brazilians have some very strong meat-related traditions, and the preferred style is BBQ. I'm sure in another post I'll deal with "Churrascarias", the Brazilian BBQ restaurants. (You've probably seen ads for ones in Dallas while perusing through the magazine conveniently provided in the seat back in front of you.) In this post, I'm going to guide you through what became a near weekly ritual for us - cooking BBQ in the beautiful BBQ pit on our gorgeous indoor/outdoor back patio.

This photo only shows the BBQ pit area, which was great in itself; I'll have to find some more pictures of the whole patio area. It really was my favorite room in the house. On weekend mornings, I would often just sit out there, relaxing, watching the hummingbirds stick their darty-beaks into the Bird of Paradise plants, and thinking "You don't see that in Jersey". I miss it.

Back to the BBQ routine...

A very popular cut of beef in Brazil is called "picanha" (pee-con-nhya). It's a cut you don't get at the ShopRite here, but, hey, it's all from the same beast. This particular cut comes from somewhere near the back end, I won't get too specific. Follow the link. I used to buy Argentinian beef from this great butcher shop in town. Good quality meats are about 1/3 of the price of here, much more than that if you consider that I got TOP quality beef at unbelievable prices. The piece like the one below probably set me back about R$25 - roughly $10. Imagine.

1. First Step: Buy the essentials. The Meat and coarse salt. And, of course, charcoal made from eucalyptus trees.



2. Fill the BBQ pit with the charcoal, and light. Usually the lighting involved copious amounts of alcohol-gel to get it going. In reality, if I had the patience, I could have used one bottle per year of the stuff vs. the bottle that went up in flames every two weekends.

3. Prepare the meat. The style here is minimalistic - no fancy BBQ sauces, no spicy rubs, or "secret" sauces - just meat and salt. Instructions. Cover meat with salt. Pat. Let stand. (for those with high BP, don't worry, the salt comes off later).





4. Choose the skewer. I had many to pick from: Single skewer, Double Skewer, or the "clam shell". I usually went with the clamshell for picanha - the skewer ones poked holes in the meat and I figured would let the moisture out. In the artsy-shot below, you can see the Bird-of-Paradise plant in the background, and our pool.


5. After clam-shelling, it's onto the pit. That's the picanha in the middle. I usually made some hotdogs for Edge, and a basket of mixed veggies, which you can see on the side.



This is getting to be a long post, and I'll admit that I am a bit frustrated with Bloggers ability to put the pictures where I want them without having to adjust the code. So, for now, I'll leave you full of anxiety as to what comes next for our dear picanha.