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A big part of the touristic experience, right?
First of all, outside of the tourist hotels and restaurants, you will not be able to get many of the foods that you eat back home, either in restaurants or markets. This is fine because Brazilian food is quite tasty and usually reasonably priced.
Americanos are likely to vaguely think that Brasileiro food will be something like Mexican - after all, they are both "Latin American", "south of the border", right? - Brazilian food is really nothing like Mexican food, or is at least as similar to traditional homestyle USA food as it is to Mexican food.
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> Brasileiros love barbeque - churrasco ["shoor-HASS-ko"]. There are plenty of all-you-can-eat churrasco places. On Sundays the traffic in front of them is backed up for a block. In general, meat in Brazil is plentiful, reasonably priced, and of good quality. In particular, because Brasileiros do not use some of the feeding practices of the big agribusinesses back home, Brazilian beef is considered to be safe from the risk of "mad cow disease".
If you'd like to try something a little different, ostrich [avestruz - AH-veh-STROOZ] meat isn't too difficult to find -- ostriches are raised on ranches. Ostrich meat is said to be similar to beef and to be quite healthy. You can find ostrich-meat burgers along with the others in the freezer at the supermarket.
> A common and practical type of restaurant is a "quilo" (or "kilo"), buffet where you pay for your food by weight. These vary from real "greasy spoons" to really great food (and the prices vary from cheap-cheap to pricy as well). You get a ticket on which an employee will record the weight of your food. Don't forget to bring it with you when you go for seconds! (Thirds, fourths...) In some kilos, especially the larger or busier ones, you have to surrender a receipt when you're leaving, to show that you've paid. It may be a cardboard ticket or a plastic card.
> Mineiro food (style of the state of Minas Gerais) is considered to be "plain home cookin'", comparable to midwestern food in the USA. It can be quite good. It tends to be hearty and not spicy, though the hot peppers and chili sauce are usually available for those who want a "kick".
> Bahiano food (style of the state of Bahia), though a descendent of West African cuisine, is unique to Brazil. In some respects it is similar to the creole style of New Orleans in the USA or to some styles of Indian food. It emphasizes seafood and can be very spicy. Many items are fried, often in dendé (palm oil with a spicy taste). Bahiano food can be extremely tasty but should be approached with caution by those unaccustomed to it.
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> Cachaça ["ka-SHA-sa"] is Brazilian sugar-cane rum. All tourists are supposed to try it, or you will be missing part of the full Brazilian experience. It is pretty powerful stuff. The quality varies a lot. You can buy tourist-souvenier cachaça with goofy names on the labels like "Mule Kick" and "Old Capybara Whizz".
Beer (cerveja ["ser-VEY-zha"] or choppe ["shop" or "shoppy"]) and wine (vinho ["VEEN-yo]) are popular. There are a number of good domestic brands, as well as the imports.
In the non-alcoholic category are guaraná ["gwa-ra-NA"] and maté ["ma-TAY" or "MOTCH-ee"]. The former is a tropical fruit unique to Brazil. It is made into several popular brands of soft drink with a taste like a mild ginger ale with a hint of fruit, as well as available in a concentrate to blend your own. It is vaguely supposed to "give you energy" - I am not aware of any serious research supporting this.
Maté is a "tea" made from the leaves of a tree. It contains a mild stimulant similar to but different from caffeine. Maté is available everywhere as a cold beverage, in bottles or plastic single-serving cups. It tastes something like iced tea, but is "mellow" or "smoky" rather than "brisk". In the south of Brazil (and Argentina), maté is a way of life. It is drunk (as a hot "tea") all day long, from a type of "mug" called a "chimarrão" or "cuia".
Coffee (café ["kah-FAY"]) is a major Brazilian product and a mainstay of life. Brasileiros will suggest a cafezinho ["kah-feh-ZEEN-yo"] (little cup of coffee) at every opportunity, and every real meal ends with one. (You do not, by the way, start a meal with a cup of coffee the way Americanos do. I did this the first time I was in Brazil and my waiter acted like he was afraid he was suffering from schizophrenic hallucinations.) When I say "little cup of coffee", I mean "little cup of coffee" - half the size of an American cup, or smaller. Your eyes will bug out the first time you see one. If you get café in a botequim ["bo-tee-KEEM" or "bo-chee-KEEM"] (traditional tavern that also has light breakfast and lunch items) it may come in a little "jam-jar" style glass.
Brazilian coffee is good quality, is made strong, and is inexpensively priced - it is, after all, a domestic product rather than an expensive import.
Chá completo in restaurants is tea served with cakes, cheese, bread, jam, etc. It can be a pretty good bargain.
Brasileiros are also fond of various types of traditional, as well as new, imported, herbal teas. As in other places, many of these are supposed to have various special benefits and/or may taste pretty odd. Experiment if you want.
> In general, a wide diversity of cuisines is not available in Brazilian restaurants, except in São Paulo and Brasilia. In other cities pizza, Italian, and the various traditional Brasileiro styles are all extremely popular (one on every block), and you can find simple Chinese (Cantonese), Japanese (mainly sushi), and Middle Eastern, but anything else is quite rare.
> Brazil has an enormous variety of tropical fruits with odd names (frequently of Indian origin) ranging from the jabuticaba, which looks like a cherry with a white interior (and which grows on the trunk of a tree rather than on the branches) to the jaca which looks like a dinosaur's toe and can weigh 40 kilos (80 pounds) or more (and which tastes something like a rather gummy pineapple).
> Almost every corner has a suco ["SOOK-o"] (juice) bar, where you can any kind of fruit juice, combination of fruit juices, and fruit juices with additives like protein powder or bee pollen. You may see people in juice places eating something that looks like pureed raw liver in a cup. This is (fortunately) puree of acaí ["ahs-sah-EE"] fruit instead. It is considered a "high-energy" food and is popular with sufers.
> Fast Food: On almost every corner you will see a traditional salgadinho ["sal-ga-JEEN-yo"] (fried pastry) place. There are about ten different styles of these snacks and about eight different fillings. They are filled with ham, chicken, various cheeses, olives, palmito (chopped hearts of palm), etc, and various combinations thereof. They all look alike, but nobody ever puts signs on the display case to indicate which is which.
Any Brazilian food which contains olives is quite likely to contain olive pits - be careful.
You can get a cachorro-quente ["ka-SHORR-ho KEN-chee"] (hot dog) in many of these places. Typical Brazilian condiments are canned corn, dollops of mayonnaise, and deep-fried potato shreds.
McDonalds and KFC (fried chicken) are becoming increasingly common, but have strong (and tasty) competition from the home-grown equivalent, "Bob's". Another good fast-food chain is Giraffas, which in addition to burgers has many home-style knife-and-fork items. For a change of pace, Habib's has fast food of Middle Eastern origin.
The safety/hygiene of professionally manufactured/processed/packaged foods in Brazil seems to be quite good - you shouldn't need to worry about this. On the other hand you will see street vendors everywhere. I've never heard any cautions about eating food from these guys, but use your common sense.
Brasileiros do not eat food with their bare hands the way Americanos frequently do - they always wrap the food in a paper napkin so as to avoid their skin touching it (I suppose this is because God knows what your hands have been in contact with). I think snack foods like potato chips might be the only exception to this rule.
> Brasil has several kinds of tasty vegetables you may want to try. These are usually available at churrasco places or quilos.
Couve ["KOH-vee"] is basically "Brazilian spinach" (I think it's really a kind of chard but I'm not sure). Like spinach, it's kind of an acquired taste. I like it a lot. It's a required ingredient of the delicious caldo verde ["KAHL-do VAIR-jee"] potato soup.
Abobora ["ah-BOH-bo-ra"] is Brazilian pumpkin. It may be cooked in chunks (maybe with onions) or made into a puree, sometimes sweetened.
Aipim ["ay-PEEM"] is a root something like a potato. It may be cooked in chunks or pureed like mashed potatoes, or fried in chunks as Aipim frito ["ay-PEEM FREE-to"], a standard snack with beer. Aipim frito compares quite favorably with french fries. Highly recommended. Not a diet item.
Palmito ["pal-MEE-to"] (Hearts of Palm). An expensive import in the northen countries, common and inexpensive in Brazil. Looks something like a white stalk of asparagus, from the size of a finger to the size of your wrist. Has almost no calories, a texture something like an olive, a mild sour taste, and is a good source of vitamin C. May be put into salads or used as a filling in empadas (mini-pies) or other salgadinhos (snack foods). It took me a while to develop a taste for it, myself. If you like it, go wild -- as I say, it's inexpensive in Brazil.
> An extremely "Brasileiro" food item is farofa ["far-RO-fa"]. It's not similar to anything you eat back home. Farofa is the root of the manioc (aka cassava or aipim -- something like a potato) ground and pan-roasted with seasonings. It's used as a condiment or accompaniement to other foods. There are many different variations.
It looks almost exactly like beach sand or sawdust, with bits of cooked onion, egg, or meat in it. By itself, it is dry and you probably shouldn't try eating it. It's sprinkled onto or mixed with beans or other food to thicken it and/or give it some additional flavor. It's actually pretty tasty: don't hesitate to try it, but as I say, it's not similar to anything you'll eat anywhere else.
> As in most places outside of Europe and North America, vegetarians and vegans will be able to find things to eat with some effort, but very few Brasileiros will be able to be at all helpful. In particular, since in Brazilian Portuguese carne means both "meat" and "beef", it is incontestable to most Brasileiros that chicken and fish are not "meat". Big cities will likely have a couple of dedicated vegetarian restaurants. In the rural regions, people will probably have no idea at all what you're talking about.