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Looking for Brazilian Food


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Twenty two years ago someone turned me on to Brazilian food by sending me to Doña Flor, a restaurant in Tenleytown that suffered the common fate of going from excellent to mediocre to closed.

Since then, I've had feijoada at The Grill From Ipanema, which started out as a mediocre restuarant, and Café Atlantico, which used to occasionally serve a deconstructed version that was pleasant if unexciting. Last time I had anything close to feijoada was at Greenfields, where I could go to the bar and get a plate full of rice, beans, orange segments, collards, and farofa, and then wait for pork on a skewer to show up.

Is there any Brazilian (preferably Bahian) restaurant worth going to? Within, say, a 100 mile radius of DC? Or should I go to Fogo de Chao and play "build your own sauceless feijoada" again? Or does anyone know of a store that sells dende, farofa, and that wickedly good hot yellow pepper sauce, and a Brazilian cookbook?

Thanks.

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Twenty two years ago someone turned me on to Brazilian food by sending me to Doña Flor, a restaurant in Tenleytown that suffered the common fate of going from excellent to mediocre to closed.

Since then, I've had feijoada at The Grill From Ipanema, which started out as a mediocre restuarant, and Café Atlantico, which used to occasionally serve a deconstructed version that was pleasant if unexciting. Last time I had anything close to feijoada was at Greenfields, where I could go to the bar and get a plate full of rice, beans, orange segments, collards, and farofa, and then wait for pork on a skewer to show up.

Is there any Brazilian (preferably Bahian) restaurant worth going to? Within, say, a 100 mile radius of DC? Or should I go to Fogo de Chao and play "build your own sauceless feijoada" again? Or does anyone know of a store that sells dende, farofa, and that wickedly good hot yellow pepper sauce, and a Brazilian cookbook?

Thanks.

There is a Brazilian market in Wheaton where you can get dende, farofa, guarana, etc. Its Brazilian Market‎ 11425 Grandview Avenue, Wheaton, MD 20902-2741 (301) 942-8412‎. They also have pretty good frozen pao de queijo and quijo coalho.

I work at the Inter-American Development Bank, which rotates various Latin foods through the cafeteria. We occasionally have feijoada or moqueca. If you know someone here they might be able to alert you when it comes up. Still, I would kill for a decent Brazilian restaurant for food from the Nordeste. Fogo is fine for churrasco, but I really miss moqueca, bobo, casquinha de siri and the like from Bahia for the times when I don't want to cook them. If you find out about a place, please post!!

I have a good recipe book at home for all the brazilian classics, and also a recipe for bobo de camarao from my friend's mom that I got when I was living, briefly, in Salvador. If you want the bobo recipe, let me know and I'll post. Similarly, if you are looking for something specific, I can look in the cookbook and post the recipe. Do you read Portuguese? I could scan and post. Otherwise, I'd have to translate it.

ETA: You can make the pepper sauce yourself. Just buy a bunch of bird eye or other really hot chiles, put them in an old clean tabasco or cholula bottle and cover with cachaca. Let sit for a month or two and the cachaca will eventually absorb the flavors of the peppers.

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Doña Flor

Portuguese speakers can get slightly testy when you use a Spanish word instead of the Portuguese. It was Dona Flor (Portuguese doesn't have the letter ñ).
that wickedly good hot yellow pepper sauce
On the other hand, you can easily find Peruvian hot yellow pepper paste at local Latino groceries, of which there are many, and among the best brands is Doña Isabel. I have no idea if that's similar to Brazilian hot yellow pepper sauce, but it's very hot and very tasty.
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Portuguese speakers can get slightly testy when you use a Spanish word instead of the Portuguese. It was Dona Flor (Portuguese doesn't have the letter ñ).

Do you read Portuguese?

Apparently not. :lol:

Thanks for all the tips. As soon as my kitchen is back together (now four weeks past original completion date) I'll check out the store in Wheaton. And Rieux, I would love to get the recipe for bobo - thanks!

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On the other hand, you can easily find Peruvian hot yellow pepper paste at local Latino groceries, of which there are many, and among the best brands is Doña Isabel. I have no idea if that's similar to Brazilian hot yellow pepper sauce, but it's very hot and very tasty.

Unfortunately, this isn't the same thing. The yellow pepper sauce I have had in Brasil is made from a combination of the juice extracted from manioc pulp and local peppers that are a variety of Capsicum chinense. Aji amarillo is Capsicum baccatum and has a very different flavor. The yellow pepper sauce from the Amazon and other lowland regions is both unique and sublime, assuming one is a pepper sauce aficionado. Some indigenous groups even add ants for extra zing. (I haven't tried that one). The other pepper sauce I encountered in Amazonia was made with garlic and malagueta peppers covered with lime juice. You let it sit in the fridge a few days before you use it.

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There is a Brazilian market in Old Town Manassas. http://www.thefoodloversmarket.com/ There is also a Portuguese Club/Community Center there which has many Brazilians. On Sundays the men cook and it is open to the public. Google it as it has been years since I have been, but it may be what you are looking for, And if I am not mistaken the market may have it's own little cafe also. Call them.

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