There's a world of different tastes, and temptations available from street vendors in Rio de Janeiro. I probably eat something off the street everyday. Whether it be a fruit, a burger, or a kebab. It just depends what takes my fancy, looks good, and smells fresh.
It's a great way to sample the cuisine. Pull up a stool, pay a couple of bucks, and watch the world go by for ten minutes.
None of the food for sale is regulated by local authorities, or acceptable by HAACP standards, so you do you need to be careful. If buying hot food, I generally like to see it cooked in front of me. Or I ask the vendor "essa bem quench?"(is it hot)...and then if it isn't I'll give it back.
That aside the food is generally cheap, and of good quality.
X-tudos (burgers with the lot), are served with double meat, eggs, tomato's, corn, peas, potato sticks, and a choice of sauces for 1 buck. Cachorro's quente (hot dogs) are a similar price. They taste their best with linguica calebresa, a spicy thick Brazilian sausage. I prefer them plain without the toppings.
Small barbequed kebabs cooked over smoking coals provide a tasty interlude. Chicken hearts (coracao de frango), or marinated chicken, pork, beef, and sometimes, if you're lucky, calibrito (goat) meat, skewered, slow cooked, with or without farofa, and a variety of sauces. Washed down with a cerveja bem gelado (cold beer), and rest assured everythings alright Jack.
There are colourful fruit stalls with every exotic fruit one could imagine. And fruit juice's to match, all freshly squeezed.
One of most distinctive smells you'll encounter is the musky aroma of dende oil, and fresh cooked Acaraje. Black eyed peas, cooked, and pounded into a paste. Deep fried and filled with fresh shrimp, a spicy sauce, and fresh chopped onions, tomato's, peppers, and herbs. This is a Bahian specialty, and in my opinion the best goddamn takeaway ever.
The cooking is the easy part. Collecting the ingredients is a bit more difficult, but rewarding. Plan ahead of time and you want have any hassles.
Ingredients (for the batter)
- 1 kg of black eyed beans.
- Salt to taste.
- 2 onions finely chopped.
- 250 grams of dried shrimp.
- 50 mls of water.
- 500 mls of dende oil (or vegetable oil if dende isn't available).
Method
- Soak the beans in water overnight.
- Gently remove the skin, which will peel off easily.
- Place all of the ingredients in a food processor, until a paste forms.
- Refridgerate, for an hour or so.
- Bring the oil up to temperature, so that when the batter hits the oil it sizzles.
- Using two dessert spoons make rounds of batter and gently slip into the hot oil.
- Fry until golden brown.
- Remove and drain on self absorbent paper.
Ingredients (for the sauce)
- 250 grams of dried shrimp, finely chopped
- 6 seedless fresh Chillis finely chopped
- Dende oil
- Salt to taste
Method
- In a frypan heat the oil over a moderate heat.
- Add the ingredients and gently fry until a sauce forms
- Take off the heat and reserve.
Ingredients for the Filling
- 1 red onion finely chopped.
- I red roasted red pepper, skin removed, and finely chopped.
- 3 chilli peppers (seedless) finely chopped.
- 1 tomato (skinless and seedless) finely chopped.
- 200 grams of fresh shrimp, skin and poop tube removed.
- Salt to taste.
- Dende Oil
Method
- In a frypan heat the oil over a moderate flame.
- Add the shrimps and saute for 2 minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients, and saute for 2 or 3 minutes.
To Assemble
- Cut open the Aracaje.
- Smear with the sauce.
- Add the filling, and garnish with finely chopped spring onions, cilantro, and parsley.
- Serve hot.
It's easier to make the filling and sauce first, and keep it warm, prepare the garnish, set aside and prepare the fritters last.
