Feijoada

Feijoada for lunch

Today is Wednesday, which means it's Feijoada day! Feijoada is to Wednesdays in Brazil as clam chowder is to Fridays in the US. In lanchonetes (cafes/casual diners, literally "snack place") and cafeterias all across Brazil they are serving feijoada today. It's a hearty pork and bean stew which tastes like a nice comfort food type dish - lots of rich meaty flavor and all that liquid from the stew to mix in with your rice and sop all that goodness up. The original version according to one of my residents was made with all the undesirable parts of the pig (think offal) but nowadays usually includes some meat pieces and various types of sausage. Usually served on a bed of rice, it usually is accompanied by some chopped cooked greens and farofa, which is roasted cassava flour. See what I said about carbs + carbs for meals? People like to add farofa to a number of things, and it doesn't really have much of a particular taste to me but does add a nice crunch to the texture of your food.

I have to dedicate an entire post to differences I've learned about the system here vs. the US, but I will mention here that today I ate in one of two restaurants in the basement of the outpatient building in the hospital at FMUSP. One is called "Kilo" where you pay by the kilo and it has more options (but today would have also had feijoada among other items), and another is cheaper that has fewer options, but you can load as much as you like onto the plate. Unsurprisingly, lots of med students go to the cheaper place. What's amazing is that you get as much of the food as you want to fit on your plate, a dessert option (usually a sweet or a fruit), and a choice between two juices, and all it costs a med student is R$1,90 which roughly converts to ONE DOLLAR.

Is your mind blown yet? Well apparently for 5th and 6th year med students (i.e. clinical internship years which resemble M3/M4 US med school years), you eat for FREE! My friend wasn't sure if residents can eat for free also or if they pay R$1,90. But still! Not a bad deal at all, considering what we usually pay in our US hospital cafeterias to eat. Anyway, not a bad way to eat some feijoada, considering also that at regular restaurants in town, feijoada can cost up for $R70-80 for two people.

And I won't forget to note my juice of the day: acerola!
Based on my previous juices with acerola, I expected it to be a little more tart, but I was pleasantly surprised at how mildly sweet it was with not too much of the pucker effect. Yum! :)