The sunny shores of Brazil are where elasticated waistbands were made to be used and abused. Fresh, fried and hearty, Brazilian grub is a veritable feast of sumptuous treats and mouth-watering tipples.  So here’s a rundown of the most iconic and downright delicious dishes and drinks you’ll come across in this South American stunner.

Cheese

Hard cheese, soft cheese, wet cheese, spreadable cheese, yellow cheese, white cheese: Brazilians’ love all the cheeses.  Cheese has become a staple in the Brazilian diet; it’s not uncommon to start the day with a cheese and ham toastie oozing with several different kinds of the pasteurised good stuff.  A particular delicacy is Pão de Queijo, little cheesy dough balls that are utterly scrumptious and highly addictive.  Be sure to try Brazil’s most iconic cheese queijo minas, a wet spongy cheese from the state of Minas (sounds gross, tastes divine).

Meat

I’m talking about the Brazilian BBQ equivalent, the churrascaria.   Now this isn’t your average ‘throw a couple of burgers and a handful of sausages on the grill’ type affair.  A churrascaria is more like an ‘all you can eat, half an animal roasting on a skewer, char-grilled to perfection’ type situation.  It’s a beautiful sight to behold and an even better delicacy to shove in your mouth in vast quantities.

Feijoada

Made up of black beans, rice, cabbage or kale and a meat stew (typically beef or pork), feijoada is Brazil’s national dish.  I have very fond memories of enjoying feijoada at a rustic samba house in Rio called Casa Rosa.  A hearty meal was included in your entry to the club – good old Brazilians and their healthy drinking culture – and when I say hearty, I mean it.  If your order pork, don’t be surprised to find all the trimmings in your stew; look out for little piggy ears and piggy tails hiding amongst the gravy.  But don’t be squeamish, they’re actually bloody delish.

Pastel & coxinha

At the heart of the Brazilian street food scene are pastel and coxinha.  It becomes a daily struggle in Rio to walk past the endless stalls selling these fried delights without buying the whole tray.  Pastel are thin-crust fried pastries with assorted fillings.  My favourite, hands down, was catipury e camarão (Brazilian cream cheese and shrimp).  Coxinha are dough balls filled with shredded meat, which are then shaped something like a tear drop, battered and fried.  These can be enjoyed as a snack during the day or as an accompaniment to a few beers in the evening.

Choco balls

If you love chocolate and don’t mind losing a tooth then brigadeiros are for you.  This super sticky, mouth-watering treat is made by mixing sweetened condensed milk with cocoa powder.  This mixture is then rolled into little balls which in turn are rolled in granulated chocolate or sprinkles to decorate.  The resulting product is like the atomic bomb of chocolate confectionery.

Salad

With all these fried goodies, rich deserts and cheese galore it’s any wonder Brazilians aren’t clinically obese.  Sadly for us dumbfounded westerners Brazilians are still some of the most active, healthy and downright sexy human beings out there.  But, let me tell you, it has nothing to do with their salads.  From apple salads to potato salads, in every traditional buffet restaurant I came across, the salads always came with a healthy dose of mayonnaise.  And by healthy dose, I mean the damn thing was drowning in the stuff.  Like, utterly saturated.  Heinz would make a killing in Brazil.

Coconut milk

There is little else that feels so quintessentially exotic and utterly paradisiacal than drinking coconut milk from the nut itself on the sandy shores of Rio de Janeiro (travel much?).  You hand over 3 real to a beach vendor who hacks open a fresh coconut with a machete, pops a straw in it, and off you go.  Excellent for hydration and hangovers and unbelievably refreshing, supping from the teat of nature has never tasted so good.

Caipirinha

My all-time favourite cocktail and guilty pleasure, the caipirinha is a force to be reckoned with.  Pure and simple, this champion of beverages is made by muddling together lime and brown sugar, adding ice, and then lashings of cachaça, a type of rum made from the fermentation of fresh sugar-cane juice.  It’s so fresh in fact that I like to class it as one of my five a day (which means if you drink five, you can bid a fond fuck off to the broccoli for dinner).