I thought it would be pretty easy to obtain food in Brazil.  Turns out, it can be a bit challenging in the beginning.  It’s important to note that this post is mainly geared toward everywhere BUT Brasília District Federal.  Why?  Because the city is separated where food, shopping, business, housing, etc, is all sectioned together in separate quadrants.  This is only in DF though!  For example in Aguas Claras (where we stayed with friends), it is not sectioned.  With that being said, here are my tips and tricks on finding and ordering food in Brazil!

Beach Areas / Downtown

These are definitely the easiest places to find food.  On the beach there are constantly food carts and vendors walking around with really cheap delicious food.  If you wait just a few minutes, you’ll even find that food and drink inevitably come to you!  In Copacabana, it was extremely easy to stumble across our favorites such as churros, tapioca, açaí, caipirinhas, and coconut water.  Simply walk outside and head in any direction.

 

Finding Restaurants by Walking

So you may be looking for a larger meal that the vendors don’t supply.  This can be as easy or as hard as you make it.  Google maps can be a great tool to find food, but it’s not very helpful in most of South America. 

Tip: Here’s a better option that will work 99% of the time: go for a walk. 

Exit your hotel or Airbnb or wherever you are sleeping, choose a direction, and go.  It’s great for finding food as well as exploring the area you are staying in.  Who knows, you might even find some places you want to go back to explore later.  Once you start walking, look for pictures or words you do understand (quite a few are in English) to help you choose a place.  A huge factor in finding a restaurant to eat at is seeing a place and thinking “ooh that looks good!”  Go in, and if it seems impossible or suddenly nothing looks good, just leave.

Learn Key Words

This is the most basic way to figure out what you are looking at on a menu.  Get your Google Translate app out and memorize ingredients you like AS WELL AS the ones you really don’t like.  This will help you order something good and not be surprised with mushrooms or brussel sprouts or something.  Here are some examples of menu items we memorized (most are pretty easy):

Fruits – Frutas

Fruit salad – Salada de fruta

Lime – Limão

Strawberry – Morango

Mango – Manga

Meat / Beef – Carne

Chicken – Frango

Rice – Arroz

Shrimp – Camarão

Fish – Peixe / Pescado

Mushrooms – Cogumelos

Water – Água

Coke – Coca

Beer – Cerveja

Swiss Lemonade – Limonada Suíça

Interested in more?  Check out my Brazilian Portuguese Starter Guide post for some simple phrases and words to prepare you for your trip to Brazil!

Only Limes, No Lemons

The word for lemons is the same as limes: limão.  That’s because yellow lemons are almost IMPOSSIBLE to find!  If you do find them at a grocery store or something, you’ll see they are ridiculously expensive.  So, I felt this necessary to mention since I was really surprised to find out lemonade is really limeade.  Oh, and Swiss lemonade is limeade with no sugar.  Now you know.

Point to Order

So you learned your key words and still can’t seem to figure out what you want to eat.  Have no fear, pictures are here!  Nine times out of ten, the menus and walls have TONS of pictures that you can look at and point to if all else fails.  This also works if you can’t figure out how to pronounce something or you see what you want in a glass case.  Just point!  It’ll work.

Restaurant Card System

Wandering around, you will find a ton of restaurants with buffet style selections.  As you enter, you might find yourself being greeted and handed a small card (kind of like a DSLR camera battery).  The first time this happened, Michael and I looked at each other like “what the heck is this?!”  It’s an easy, and kind of great system. 

Here’s how it works:

The greeter hands you the card, you go around to different areas and grab food, at each area they scan that card with how much you owe.  You now have two options: you can pay at the register and then eat, OR you can sit down, eat, and have the option to get more food before you pay and leave.  Genius right?  To know that you have paid, the cashier will exchange your card with a laminated ticket that you hand to the greeter when you exit.  

If you have more than one person and you want to pay together, no worries!  At each section, hand them the same card (everyone else can just pocket theirs).  When it comes time to pay, the one card will have all the charges.  Pay it and get your exit ticket.  Everyone else will show a zero balance and be given their exit tickets.  Everyone hands their papers at the door and it’s done!  Too easy. 

Grocery Stores

If you’re a budget traveller, you really don’t need to get groceries (food is just so cheap here).  But, if you want some snacks or just miss cooking, there are plenty of markets and grocery stores.  They work the same as anywhere else.  However, they ask you a question before you pay every time.  We could not, for the life of us, figure out what they were trying to ask until we went with a friend.  The cashier will ask you for your CPF number, which you probably won’t have one (like us).  This is a taxpayer registry ID number thing and it’s ok if you don’t have it when passing through.  Just say no and pay for your stuff.

My Favorite Foods + How to Find Them

1. Joelho – Our first experience with these happened when we saw them at one of the hundreds of street side bakeries.  We saw these hand sized bread rolls with ham and cheese inside and pointed to order them.  Boy were they good!  Very simple, but delicious and everything we wanted.  It wasn’t until weeks later that we learned the name of them. Each time we just pointed and asked for two.  You’ll see a ton of open places with food in glass cases.  I can almost guarantee that these will be in there.  They’re seriously everywhere.

   

2. Açaí – We have options with this one.  There are street vendors that walk around with Açaí.  However, their topping selection is usually limited to sprinkles, chocolate, and chocolate syrup.  So, if you’re looking for more of a granola and fruit açaí, there are plenty of restaurants like Maria Açaí that have dozens of topping options and sizes.  This one we found on Google Maps!  There is one in Copacabana and another one on the way into downtown Rio de Janeiro from Copacabana for sure.

   

   

3. Tapioca – You do NOT want to miss out on this one.  It’s basically like a rice pancake folded in half with whatever you want inside.  You can order it sweet or savory and we really enjoyed them with meat and cheese.  Tapioca can be found at a street vendor as well as in restaurants.  If you’re really lucky though (like us), your new Brazilian friends will make it for you at home!  

4. Churros – Another famously delicious street vendor snack and my favorite hands down.  Most fill their churros with chocolate or dulce de leite (dolce de leche) in front of you.  We didn’t have to walk more than a block to find them when our churro cravings hit. 

5. Caipirinhas – Basically the official drink of Brazil made with limes, sugar, and rum.  They’re really cheap, sold practically everywhere, and pretty darn delicious.  If you are on the beach, they will find you, you almost never have to seek them out.

6. Margarita pizza – Anywhere with a “pizza” sign will have this simple meal.  It was nice to have pizza every once in a while since it’s usually thinner crust with very light sauce, cheese, and basil.  Our favorite place to get it from was Balada Mix in Copacabana.

   

   Balada Mix Pizza

   

   La Dolce Vita Pizzeria

7. Chicken Stroganoff – This one is a little weird, and most of the times we had it was as delivery from UberEats… so there’s that.  It’s just really yummy and I felt like mentioning it.

8. Catupiry – Basically a cream cheese spread that you can find at most grocery stores in Brazil.  We really liked putting it on pre-made toast squares and eating it for breakfast.  You’ll also find it hidden as an ingredient in other foods like pastel. 

9. Pastel – Our new friends in Brasília introduced us to this.  Basically a square spring roll with whatever you want inside like meats and cheeses!  Our favorite was the chicken with catupiry.

   

   Pastel on the cover

   

   All the options!

10. Coconut water – Every ten feet on the beaches there is almost guaranteed a coconut vender.  Impossible to miss with their heap of coconuts, they’ll stab a hole into it right in front of you.  Absolutely fresh, cold, and delicious.

    

11. Brigadeiro – This Brazilian dessert is sort of comparable to fudge, rolled up, and dipped in sprinkles or whatever.  Basically condensed milk with cocoa powder or even parmesan!  One of my favorite highlights of Brazil was learning how to make brigadeiro with our host Gisela in São Paulo.  We found her on Airbnb Experiences and it was just an incredible way to learn and stuff our faces!  Bonus points: Gisela will give you a special treat if you mention finding her on my blog!  If you look in most dessert shop cases, you will see these balls of rolled chocolate deliciousness.  Want to learn how to make it for yourself?  Check out my post : Learn to Make the BEST Brigadeiro in São Paulo.

    

    Making Brigadeiro

    

    I made these!

12. Fresh produce – Grocery stores is an obvious answer on where to find this.  However, I added this here to tell you about the markets!  There are TONS of farmer’s markets going on as well as people selling fruits and veggies on the street.  They are very cheap and quite delicious so if you’re unsure of where / when, ask a local.

    

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