Sounds & amp; Flavours of Brazil - Islooites taste Brazilian home food

Two veteran chefs prepared food representing all the areas of the vast country.

ISLAMABAD: There is nothing that can match the love and warmth of a mother’s home-cooked meal and it is these genuine emotions that two Brazilian chefs have tried to recreate at the ongoing Brazilian food festival in the capital.

“Our main objective here is to present to you the home food of Brazil,” Sous-Chef Rodrigo Orlandi told The Express Tribune. “This is the food I grew up eating. My grandma used to cook it for my mom and she cooked it for me.”

The Embassy of Brazil in Pakistan brought Orlandi and Chef Marcelo Schambeck from Brazil to present their country’s traditional cuisine at the “Sounds and Flavours of Brazil” festival at the Islamabad Marriott Hotel.

The authentic food at the festival is accompanied by popular Brazilian tunes performed live by Gabriel Titan, a singer and musical theatre actor who flew from Rio de Janiero. PHOTO: WAQAS NAEEM/EXPRESS

The authentic food at the festival is accompanied by popular Brazilian tunes performed live by Gabriel Titan, a singer and musical theatre actor who flew from Rio de Janiero to participate in the event. Titan sang pop numbers and danced lightly as his dulcet voice set the mood for the festival.

Orlandi said Brazilian food varies within the country from region to region, owing to the country’s large size and multicultural population. The menu the chefs prepared represents dishes from different areas of the country, he said.

From aesthetically sliced fresh vegetables to delicious Moqueca --- a fish stew in coconut sauce --- and the Italian-influenced Polenta with lamb, the buffet offered simple but scrumptious culinary delights from the South American country.

The fish stew had a rich texture and the polenta, based in meat-sauce, was succulent while maintaining its original cornmeal-ish quality. Desserts featured traditional Brazilian coconut pudding and guava tarts among other items.

Unlike Pakistani food, Brazilian cuisine does not rely on hot spices, Orlandi said. But still, there are similarities between dishes from the two countries.

The Black Bean soup Orlandi and Schambeck put on the menu, for example, resembled beans curry prepared commonly in Pakistani households and often served with boiled rice, just like in Brazil.

“The black bean soup is a traditional soup,” Orlandi said. “People eat it everywhere almost every day. In fact, black beans-with-rice is like the main dish of Brazil.”

It is similarities such as these that the Ambassador of Brazil Alfredo Leoni said could help the two countries further strengthen bilateral ties which go back 65 years.

“Brazil and Pakistan have always had close relations,” the ambassador told The Express Tribune. “But we feel that we can make Brazil more accessible to Pakistanis by presenting aspects of our culture through food and music.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2013.