Sunday, August 17, 2014

Iguacu Falls - restaurant - the Churrasbasica



Along with the Quilo restaurante, the Churrasbasica is a legend in Brazil.

It is especially popular down here on the Argentine border and they have some immense ones catering for the tour parties. The Churrasbasica is based around meat - especially beef - and great legs of it are cooked within sight and brought to your table. The juices flow as you can choose which part you wish to eat and it is carved onto your plate right in front of you.

After seeing the falls in Argentina we headed back to Brazil about 3.30pm and realised how hungry we were. The guide, Silvano, suggested a Churrascaria on the way to the airport. The restaurante was a great barn structure which opened at 12.00pm and closed at 6.00pm only to reopen at 8.00pm and put on a gaucho show. We were to miss this and were the only ones in a spookily deserted restaurante. It must have catered for the tourbus trade as this huge restaurante must have seated about 500 people. There was a bandstand at one end and an entertainment area where gauchos whip out their bolas and entertain the tourists.




For 17 reals we had a feast. The kind of feast which means you can't operate for the rest of the afternoon and just want to curl up and sleep. Four tables had every kind of food imaginable and you were just able to help yourself. Pasta, rice, fresh vegetables, spicy sauces and my favourite Brazilian food - feijoada was all there for the picking. Feijoada is Brazil's national dish and is a stew of pork, black beans and garlic served on a bed of white rice and sprinkled with manioc flour. I've got such a taste for the dish that I often have it at home in London.

There was plenty of juicy fruit on offer - papaya, mango, lime and passion fruit. And the deserts consisted of ice-creams and sorbets. But as expected it was the meat which was the star attraction. Chefs stood by with haunches of beef, pork and lamb and carved from your requirements to the bone. The meat was so fresh and delicious that it oozed juice and the taste was out of this world. Then back to my table to wash it down with a very nice rose wine




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