Do's and don'ts at the Brazilian dinner table

@Itoby955.  That's funny! 

From what I see in day-to-day life, the taboo on picking up food with your bare hands still exists, but it's weakening.  Depending on the crowd you're with, it may be ok to pick up a slice of pizza, for example, especially if the crowd is younger.  I wouldn't be the first one at the table to pick up a chicken leg, but I might be the second, especially if the first was a Brazilian.  With a paper napkin:  even when they eat a sandwich, it's always wrapped. 

Most Brazilians I know do not drink while they eat.  I need to because of physical condition, and it always attracts attention -- not really negative attention, but enough that I sometimes feel the need to explain.  Then it's ignored, aside from making sure that my glass is always full.

I've never run into the one about continuing to eat after everybody else stops.  Maybe I was saved from embarrassment  by being a fast eater.

Brazilians don't put their napkins on their laps, but keep them on the table for wiping hands.  Curiously, putting my napkin on my lap attracts less attention than drinking during a meal.

Brazilians cut foreigners a lot of slack, so if you follow the lead of the people you're with and the rules that your mother probably taught you ("Don't lick your fingers!"; "If something has to come out of your mouth, it should come out the same way it went in!" , etc,) that should keep you out of serious trouble, if not out of someone's family lore.

@abthree I have witnessed so much but I have to watch my cholestrol and so does my Brazilian girlfriend but she eats and ignores it rather than offend and so no. I would rather say no as health is more important to me. I can't begin to think how they diet here, do they?

From the Sertão in the past, "Bolinho Capitão," as one can read (in Portuguese) here: https://www.revistaquitanda.com.br/post … -sertaneja

Bolinho Capitão is feijão verde com farinha balled up in one's hand and then eaten by hand.

Mostly what I find peculiar is the absolute race to eat quickly as if competing to make the tummy happy.

Also I find that varying the diet is pretty much not accepted. I gave up trying to be "the cook" because those around me wanted to eat what they mostly eat almost every day. I come from a place that has great variety but didn't use to have great variety. I always say that in my parents' house it was "burnt steak and potatoes" almost every day and my dad's idea of eating his vegetables was to force himself to munch on a celery stick. That all changed in the 60s-70s as my city took on a lot of incoming new residents from around the world - thank goodness.

Here there has to be rice & beans every day but my being here has modified things a bit and there are many more fruits and vegies.

Itoby955 - yeah, not much dieting. Brazilians used to be proud of how they were mostly not overweight but that is no longer the case.

It seems strange as you see many pick their noses openly but you can't eat a chicking wing with your hands lol.

my family eats fried chicken, pizza and hamburgers by hand.  The custom I have the most difficulty with is people trying to serve more food on my plate after I've served myself with everything I wanted.  My wife is learning not to cook and serve so many beans because it takes so long to cook dried beans and also because of she is finally understanding the relationship with nocturnal bursts of perfume.  I eat very slowly because when I was a child my dad always demanded for me to talk and report on what I learned in school that day, but I was not allowed to talk when my mouth was full.  Although the dynamic is completely different now I'm just not changing for anybody, I respect different customs but I expect the same.

I would agree, in Ireland where i'm from you can eat as you wish, the only thing I agree with is not licking fingers. The amount of red meat consumed here would also bother me, I eat it but in moderation.

"Red meat"?  Most of my Brazilian family cooks beef until it it thoroughly dead with not a hint of pink in it.....

"Red meat"? Most of my Brazilian family cooks beef until it it thoroughly dead with not a hint of pink in it.....
-@EricPau

That's funny, I can't even imagine my Brazilian family cooking beef to anything but very well done, over the top, "thoroughly done". I'm not even sure they call beef red meat, KKKKK

Hello everyone.

Thanks to ltoby955 for starting this thread.

That's a very good one.

Keep sharing!

Cheers,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

Here's a new "don't" for me from today's breakfast table = DON'T eat a banana when eating eggs because the banana [somehow] cancels out all other proteins.....

And if you want to dive into it, the "dos and don'ts" of eating, how many others here have had to face the complications of eating "comidas carregadas" (called "reimosas" [or remosa] in other regions)? "Comidas carregadas" (supposed to be "unhealthy foods "known" to inhibit the body's curative processes) are part of an ever-changing list. A quick search on Google gives me the following foods as "carregadas:"

• pork and derivatives
• sheep
• alligator
• duck
• crustaceans
• eggs
• watermelon
• alcoholic beverages
• sodas
• so much more but I can find no solid references

OMG - it is like tackling Kashrut dietary laws (Kosher foods) for someone not raised in that tradition.

Now bananas are NOT "carregado" but their effect somehow causes problems with the morning over-easy eggs.

I'm not (in any way) trying to belittle the impact that what we eat does or doesn't have impact on health or interactions with other foods that we eat. My point of contention is that the "knowledge" comes from an oral tradition (at least what I've found) that seems to originate in communities of the Iberian (New Christian) Sephardic Jewish diaspora - BUT the actual links to that origin seem to have vanished over the long history of a people forced to hide their true origins - but I could be completely wrong. My point is that there is no canonical text being used and therefore, well, just complicated.

The traditions that I live with here include all kinds of local and natural remedies and things one can and cannot (or should not) eat/drink.

I am always being corrected and I find it extremely interesting to the point of visiting places that produce "natural" medicines, visiting traditional communities with ethnobotanist friends, visiting and seeking out any texts that I can find.

Just recently, reading the book "The Insect Crisis," by Oliver Milman, 2022, a reference was made to some 40+ insects used as cures in traditional medicine in the state of Bahia (I found the study online if anyone is interested). I know I'm getting off-track here regarding food manners and such but I guess that what I'm headed towards is just to say that there are huge influences regarding what Brazilians eat and how they eat and while many of those influences can be seen as very European there are also very African and Native American influences at involved.

Ah yes - this is one of many reasons that I love living in Brazil!!

@mberigan

PS - still looking for a good plate of tanajura - https://www.youshareproject.com/tanajura-time/