Customer Reviews

Eat Smart in Brazil: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure

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The authors have written a series of Eat Smart books that no traveler to foreign countries should be without. Each book covers a separate country--Eat Smart in Turkey, Eat Smart in Brazil, Eat Smart in Indonesia and Eat Smart in Mexico--and is chock full of information that you won't find elsewhere within the covers of one easy-to-carry paperback. Individual chapters cover such topics as the history of the country's cuisine, regional foods, how to shop in the local markets, mail-order sources for suppliers of ingredients, and a collection of recipes for typical dishes found in that country. Especially useful is each book's extensive menu guide, listing menu terms alphabetically in the language of the foreign country, with a description of the dish in English. That section is followed by a chapter titled "Foods & Flavors"--listing the foreign terms for foods, spices, kitchen utensils and cooking techniques, with an English translation/description. These books are well researched, accurate and very informative. Highly recommended. --Sharon Hudgins, editor, Chile Pepper magazine

This book is an excellent guide to the cuisine of Brazil, which has a vast array of regional specialties, spices, fruits and fish. If you go to the Amazon, Bahia or Rio, for example, you're going to encounter quite different menus. "Eat Smart" is one of my key Brazil guides, along with the music book "The Brazilian Sound."

To make the most of your Brazilian culinary adventure, pick up a copy of "Eat Smart in Brazil." This one-of-a-kind introduction to Brazilian cuisine demystifies food selection. Even timid diners can feel confident ordering exotic, unfamiliar foods. Read it before your trip and carry it when you dine out. -Ruth Houston, Gold Coast Gazette

Just got back from the trip of a lifetime to Brazil. We visited our former exchange student and his family. We used this book to find out what we were eating (wonderful food!) at every resturant. Even though we were with native Brazilians who spoke English, they often did not know the English words for food.
We used it in Campinas, Paraty, Rio, and Santa Rita (MG). Near the end of our trip we went through the book and marked which foods were our favorites. I recommend this book to anyone taking their first trip to Brazil

From the authors of Eat Smart in Mexico, comes this new title, an easy-to-use menu guide for travelers to Brazil. It contains useful phrases in Portuguese when ordering and a collection of recipes for chefs who want to cook Brazilian fare at home.

I'd like to see more of this kind of book. Written by experts in a readable style, "Eat Smart in Brazil" provides a succinct but informative overview of the country's culinary culture. It includes historical, ethnic and regional overviews, recipes, shopping tips (both for local markets and for when back home), a culinary phrase guide, and two Portuguese-to-English glossaries - one to help when ordering in restaurants and the other to clarify definitions of food names and cooking terminology. The Eat Smart series is published independently, under the Ginkgo Press imprint. Joan and David Peterson are literally eating their way around the world with Ginkgo. Besides Brazil, they've covered Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Morocco, and India. Next up, Peru. Unlike the run-of-the-mill globetrotting guidebook writer, this couple knows its stuff - which, of course, would be food. (Bill Hinchberger is the editor of the BrazilMax website.)

EAT SMART IN BRAZIL

Reviewed by Sharon Hudgins, author of The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East

Reading "Eat Smart in Brazil" made my mouth water! I'm a big fan of the "Eat Smart" travel guides for food lovers--and I'm always delighted when another book in this series is published. This second edition of Joan Peterson's "Eat Smart in Brazil" certainly lives up to the series' theme, promising to tell you "How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods, & Embark on a Tasting Adventure." And what an adventure this is! After an explanation of the historical, geographical, and ethnic influences on Brazilian foods and a description of five different regional cuisines within that huge country, the author then satisfies your desire to eat by providing nearly two dozen recipes for Brazilian dishes from appetizers to breads to desserts.

You'll also want to carry this book with you on your next trip to Brazil, because it contains a comprehensive glossary of food terms and cooking techniques in Portuguese (the language of Brazil), translated into English, as well as an extensive Menu Guide for translating terms that you'll find on menus and cafe chalkboards throughout Brazil. One of my favorite features of the Menu Guide is the author's marginal comments on many of the dishes listed: National Favorite, Regional Classic, Spectacular, Interesting, A Feast, Not to Be Missed, Excellent, Try Them All. Just reading these menu terms makes you want to book the next flight to Rio de Janeiro! Highly recommended!

Brazil IS NOT made of Indian, Portuguese and African people descent. Brazil was colonized by Portuguese, African, French, Italian, German, and Duth people. Other people that were very expressive in Brazilian history were Chinese, Jewish, Arabic, Spanish..I'm sorry if I'm leaving some nations out of this equation (Brazilian people are a union of many people and cultures!!), but I've never read something SO absurd as this review.
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