Rio bar snacks for beginners

Oct 4, 2010 8:26:14 AM

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This excerpt from Lonely Planet’s Rio de Janeiro guide provides a introduction to the local bar snacks.

If you’re heading home from the beach and can’t be bothered with a sit-down meal, go Carioca and grab a meal at a neighborhood bar. While not particularly healthy, these satisfying snacks – known as petiscos, tira-gostos or salgados – go quite nicely with a chope.

Here are some items you are likely to find at most botecos:

1. Aipim Frito: Deep fried slices of cassava.

Image by JorgeBrazil

2. Bolinhos de aipim: Deep-fried cassava balls, sometimes served with shrimp and other treats baked inside.

3. Bolinhos de bacalhau: Deep-fried codfish balls.

Image by karl.s

4. Bolinhos de queijo: Crispy deep-fried cheese balls.

5. Carne seca com aipim frito: Sundried jerked meat with deep-fried cassava slices.

6. Coxinha: Pear-shaped cornmeal balls filled with fried chicken or beef.

Image by Koal:Bear

7. Linguiça acebolada: Fried sausage and onions.

8. Pão de queijo: A slightly gooey cheese bread, baked into bite-sized biscuits; the biscuits are so popular in Brazil that a whole franchise was launched on their success (naturally named Pão de Queijo).

Image by Jed Sundwall

9. Pastel de camarão: Crispy deep-fried pastry filled with shrimp. Other fillings include pastel de carne (beef ) and pastel de queijo (cheese – often the mild, stringy catupiry).

Image by kawanet