Pretty much anywhere in the world where a lot of people spend a lot of time on their feet outdoors, there are going to be food vendors lining the streets, offering them a bite to sate their appetite. Whether it’s snacks for lounging on the beach, a quick bite while on a lunch break, or foods catering to tourists, these street foods are a core part of experiencing the culture of the place you’re visiting.
Brazil is, of course, no different. Street foods are common, not just in tourist traps, but all throughout the country, as they cater to workers between shifts, people heading home for the day, and just people looking for a quick bite.
What are the best and most compelling street foods in Brazil? We’ve put together our top ten list, so check them out if you get the chance!
Table of Contents
Coxinhas
Hands down one of the most popular street foods in all of Brazil is the humble coxinha. We’ve mentioned them before in several blog posts, but it’s always worth mentioning them again.
Shaped like eggs or cones, a coxinha is actually meant to resemble a chicken drumstick without the bone. They were invented for the prince in Imperial Brazil in the 1800s, who desperately loved chicken drumsticks. When the court ran out, chefs needed to come up with an alternative. Shredded chicken, covered in dough, and molded into a drumstick shape is then fried and presented to the prince, who loved it. The empress, too, loved the dish, and quickly spread it around.
Modern coxinhas are a more refined and developed recipe, usually including ingredients like potatoes, cream cheese, or jackfruit, along with spices to mix things up. The end result is a teardrop-shaped ball of fried deliciousness unique to Brazil and well worth the experience.
Pasteis (Pastels)
Name us a food culture, and we’ll tell you about their favorite dough pocket stuffed with deliciousness. Spring rolls and wontons, empanadas, hand pies, pasties; anywhere that dough and frying have been invented, the two have been combined into an incredible, portable, delicious whole.
In Brazil, we have the pasteis, or as it’s more commonly known, the pastel. It’s a sort of fast food, a half-circle or a rectangle of dough stuffed with savory fillings and fried to a crisp. They’re portable, they’re self-contained, and they’re extremely delicious.
There are as many pastel recipes as there are people who make them, but they’re usually savory rather than sweet. Typical fillings include ground meats like beef and chicken, cheese like mozzarella, catupiry, and minas cheese, and add-ins like shrimp, fish, or palm hearts. Though savory pastels are far more common, sweet pastels also exist, with filings like guava paste or banana and chocolate.
Pastels are also one of the easiest of the Brazilian street foods to make at home. In fact, we have a whole recipe for them right over here if you want to try it out yourself! It’s a simple cheese pastel, but feel free to mix up the fillings however you like.
Cachorro Quente
What makes a street food a street food? Most people tend to think it means something easily carried, portable, and edible without too much mess. While that’s common, it’s not actually a requirement; the only thing that determines if a food is a street food is whether or not a streetside vendor is selling it.
We preface this because Cachorro Quente is, while technically portable, perhaps not the simplest food to eat on the go. More often, it’s something you buy and take to a nearby bench or table to settle in to eat.
What is it? Quente is the Portuguese word for hot, and cachorro is the word for dog. That’s right; it’s a hot dog! The Brazilian twist on the humble hot dog is quite a sight to behold. They’re piled high with toppings, ranging from diced ham and potato sticks to cheese to corn and peas to shredded carrots and even quail eggs.
It’s as much an experience as it is a meal, so give it a try if you’re given the chance!
Queijo de Coalho
If you’ve ever visited a state fair in the United States, you’ve likely experienced the wealth of foods that are positioned carefully on sticks, fried, and presented to fair-goers to munch as they wander the attractions. The concept of a food on a stick is, of course, nothing new. Often, though, you might think of corn dogs, skewers, or something more exotic like dango.
In Brazil, we’re no strangers to foods on sticks – after all, the core concept of churrasco, like what we serve at Texas de Brazil, is all about meat on skewers – but queijo de coalho is slightly unique. It is, put simply, cheese on a stick. It’s a specific kind of cheese, a “squeaky” kind of firm white cheese similar to a mozzarella or cheese curd, just in bar form.
The cheese is not battered and fried as you might expect. Instead, it’s usually grilled and then topped with herbs and a drizzle of molasses. The end result is a stunning combination of sweet and savory, unlike anything else you’ve likely had before.
Brazil isn’t the only food culture to grill a good cheese, but what makes queijo de coalho unique is a combination of the kind of cheese itself (a rennet cheese unique to Brazil) and the toppings, which are unlike what you find in other grilled cheese treats around the world. It’s definitely worth trying if you ever get the chance.
Acaraje
One of the most stereotypical kinds of street foods is something that closely resembles the coxinha we already mentioned but with a wider variety of stuffings. In Brazil, the most common version of this fried goodness is Acaraje, a kind of fritter. Made predominantly out of black-eyed peas and onions for the dough, an acaraje is fried, then split open and stuffed with delicious fillings like shrimp or a spicy paste made with cashew, palm oil, and other ingredients.
Acaraje is actually the Brazilian version of a food that hails from much further afield. We talk a lot about how Brazil’s history during colonization means that North African slaves brought much of their food culture with them, which influenced a lot of Brazil’s food, especially in the Bahia region, which shares a similar climate. Acaraje is one great example.
Acaraje is basically the Brazilian twist on Akara, which is a staple food of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. It’s also one of the relatively few foods in Brazil that is truly spicy, again because of that north African heritage.
Pamonha
There is a lot of common evolution of foodstuffs across different food cultures, especially where common ingredients can be found. One such example is the tamal, a Mesoamerican dish made of corn dough and steamed in either a corn husk or banana leaves. It’s a food that has been around for well over 7,000 years, and has influenced many different foods across many different cultures. The closest modern example you’re likely familiar with is the tamale, the Mexican and Latin American staple.
In Brazil, we have something quite similar that we call the pamonha. Pamonhas aren’t quite tamales, though. They’re both corn-based and steamed within the husk, but pamonhas use corn in a different way. Tamales use masa, a corn flour, while pamonhas use fresh sweet corn as the main ingredient. The end result is a much sweeter, more dessert-like version of the foodstuff.
Pamonhas can be made using a variety of different add-in ingredients. While sweet versions with coconut, butter, and sugar are common, you can also find them filled with cheeses and even some meats. They’re a very common festival street food and are absolutely to die for.
Quibe
Quibe is a baked Brazilian food influenced by a completely different culinary immigration from the Middle East. In fact, if you pronounce it out loud – and you’re familiar with Middle Eastern cuisine – you might already know what it is. In America, the more common version of the dish is pronounced mostly the same but spelled quite differently: Kibbeh.
Kibbeh is a dish with an outer layer of bulgur wheat, seasonings, onions, garlic, and spices, and an inner filling of minced lamb and more spices. It’s a very tasty treat, and easy to handle as a street food with a texture and shape similar to coxinha.
Brazilian Quibe is a little different. For one thing, we generally use beef instead of lamb. It’s also typically mixed and molded with a little less effort, so it’s not quite as firmly two-layered and is more uniform throughout. The flavor profile and texture are more or less the same, however, and it’s a delectable treat no matter where you get it.
Esfiha
Esfiha is another tasty treat that Brazil has happily adopted from culinary immigrants from the middle east. Traditionally, it’s a sort of Lebanese meat pie using lamb and spices, piled on top of flatbread. Like most things coming from the Levantine region, it has a very long history, dating back at least as far as 14,000 years ago.
Brazilian esfiha is a little different, as you’ve likely come to expect. For one thing, the traditional middle eastern sfiha is an unleavened flatbread, while Brazilian esfiha is leavened with yeast or baking powder, more like a pizza dough. We also commonly use ground beef instead of lamb for the meat topping, along with plenty of spices and tomatoes, garlic, onions, and more.
The spice mix is quintessentially Lebanese, with a brilliant mixture of sumac, cumin, cinnamon, coriander, and cloves, augmenting the savory nature of the dish. If you want to try making your own esfiha, it’s surprisingly easy; try our recipe here.
Caldos
Caldos are a street food you can find all year, but tend to be the most popular when it’s a cool evening, when there’s a fair or festival happening, and when a bit of warm comfort is desirable.
A caldo is simply a soup. Street food caldos are cooked in large pots, continually refreshed and enhanced through a long day of cooking. Some are even “forever” soups or stews, where the remains of the previous day are the base for the next, building on the flavors indefinitely.
A caldo can be just about any kind of soup. You have caldo de feijao, a black bean soup similar to a smooth and simple feijoada. You have caldo verde, a Portuguese version with collards, potatoes, and sausage. You have caldo de mocoto, a collagen-rich soup made from cow’s feet and other off-cuts, with an incredibly rich broth. You have caldo de mandioquinha, a parsnip-based soup with chicken and a thick, creamy broth. There are so many options to explore, whenever you want a nice hot cup of soup on a day, there’s going to be one nearby.
Espetinho
To round things out, you have espetinho, another in the long line of “foods on sticks,” which can be just what the doctor ordered. In this case, though, it’s something we’re very familiar with, in a sense.
Espetinho is simply meat on skewers, cooked in place and handed over as a street food. It’s often a long strip of meat, but can also be individual pieces, a packed mince, sausages, or even fish! It comes from Portugal, where the fish versions were more common than they are in Brazil.
In a sense, espetinho is similar to churrasco. Churrasco, after all, is meat grilled on skewers. The difference is that our gauchos cut off pieces of the meat for you to enjoy, and espetinho is a whole skewer given to you. It’s just as delicious, just not quite the same experience.
If you’re interested in what churrasco has to offer, why not browse our menu or seek out your nearest Texas de Brazil location? While we might not offer most of the street foods on this list, we’re sure you’ll love the Brazilian favorites we have on offer.
