Feijoada and side dishes
I lived in Brazil for three years and absolutely loved the food. One of the most typical meals is feijoada, in fact it is considered the national dish and is eaten almost exclusively at lunch time on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In the US we don’t really have this custom of eating a certain dish every week on the same day, but it seems to work. Feijoada is a heavy stew consisting of black turtle beans, a variety of salted pork and beef products (such as ears, tails, tongue, feet, etc), bacon, pork ribs and a couple of types of smoked sausage. I know it sounds a little crazy, but it’s delicious!
You toss all of these ingredients in large clay pot and let it simmer for hours until you get this beautiful rich purplish-brown juice which coats your tongue like a velvety glass of Petit Verdot.
So my friend Carmen, who is from Brazil, was celebrating her birthday by having some people over for feijoada. While I was there I met a friend of hers named Elida who is from Carmen’s hometown of Campo Grande. Elida spent two days preparing this feast and it was delicious!
She came to the US on July 5th to attend her nephew’s wedding in New York and then came down to DC to visit with Carmen and other friends. She is planning to stay until August 13th.
Feijoada: Brazil's national dish
This is not her first time to the States though; in fact her husband was an American. Elida did something that I thought was really great too, she signed up for a mini English course that she is taking for three weeks.
Although now retired, Elida worked for many years for Banco Itau. That was my bank actually when I lived in Brazil. Now she dedicates her time to her family. She will soon be a grandmother! She told me that she was asking her son, “When am I going to have some grandchildren?” and the next day he came to her and said, “You’re going to be a grandmother!” The baby is due in April.
“I’m going to use the $10 to buy an outfit for the baby” she told me.
I tried to get some photos of her but she preferred not being photographed.
I asked her if there was anything she needed or wanted that somebody might be able to help her with. She thought and said that she didn’t really need anything but that her dream was to spend a day in Paris. “My husband promised me that we would go there, but we never did it.” Who knows… maybe one day that dream will come true.
Year of Giving 