The Brazilian Paradox, or: Meat Me in Brazil

Let's be clear: I'm an omnivore, but back in California, it's fish or chicken a few times a week and red meat every so often.  But when in Brazil, it's all about the meat, meat meat.  And savory enough for many of us to put aside any dietary scruples, at least for a few weeks.  Meat lurks in every sort of innocent pastry, hides in our inability to translate menus, and is the centerpiece of breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Vegetarians beware: that delicious popcorn?  Popped in bacon fat!

Meat is the star of the show in some of Brazil's signature meals.  While in Rio, some of us had the traditional Saturday afternoon feijoada meal, beginning with caipirinhas cocktails, spicy sausages, soup, the best beans ever and a big pot of slow-cooked meat cuts.  You think you know pork rinds?  The pork rinds (served with rice, shredded kale, manioc fries and other sides) that came with this meal were a revelation, though I may never eat them again, having now experienced pork rind heaven.  And just when you think the meal is winding down, you get repeated visits from waiters with fresh pans of ribs, sausage, and every cut of cow imaginable.  Very hard to say no.

Then, in Curitiba, we went to lunch with some local planners at a classic churrascaria, where dozens of waiters sailed around the tables bearing upright swords of various meats and wielding sharp knives to slice off  perfect juicy portions right onto your plate.  This particular restaurant even provided each diner with a card showing a cow profile with dotted lines around each meat cut, numbered and labeled in Portuguese and English.  A slice of hump, please!

A night-time pub crawl by bicycle in Curitiba led us to a great local watering hole where the icy beer is washed down by unadorned hockey-puck-size meat patties accompanied only by a selection of mustard and hot sauces- perfect!

Many of us who were on the BBC diet (beef, beer and chocolate) that seems to sustain the Brazilians began to wonder: why, under these culinary circumstances, are the Brazilians noticeably leaner and healthier-looking than a random crowd of Americans?  Is this the Brazilian Paradox?  It appears none of our group complained of malaise or weight gain in the short run while on this high-protein binge.  One explanation offered by a Brazilian is that the beef here is grass-fed and hormone-free and thus much healthier than ours.  And we did see Many Brazilians exercising all over the place.  And perhaps most importantly, the habit is to eat lightly much of the day, and perhaps not to snack as often as we do.

But, even with memories of the best pork rinds in the universe fresh in my mind, it's back to Californian cuisine pour moi.  I feel great, but will avoid getting my cholesterol checked for a month or two.