Brazilian Cuisine 101 | Food Finders Singapore S5E4

Brazil is not only known for football but also for its incredibly diverse cuisine, from the mouthwatering churrasco to the simple beiju, follow Joy as she discovers Brazilian food.

Joy
https://www.instagram.com/theshbang/

0:00 Introduction
1:00 Beiju Express
5:37 The Butcher’s Wife
8:43 Casa Brazilia
14:27 Conclusion

Address:
Beiju Express
12 Gopeng St, #01-48 ICON VILLAGE, Singapore 078877

The Butcher’s Wife
19 Yong Siak St, Singapore 168650

Casa Brazilia
25 Teo Hong Rd, Singapore 088333

—

Website: https://sethlui.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sethluimarketing
Instagram: https://instagram.com/sethluicious/
Tiktok: https://tiktok.com/@sethlui.com

Are you a small-business owner of F&B with a story to tell?
Email us your story at info@sethlui.com for potential (free*) video coverage!

Did you know that acai bowls originated from Brazil? I just found that out. And there are also so many more Brazilian delights. Today’s episode will be your introduction to Brazilian food you can find in Singapore. So there’s this cuisine that’s super hard to find here. Apparently less than ten restaurants

Ever in Singapore, and that is Brazilian cuisine. So Joy, what do you know about Brazilian cuisine? Honestly? Blank. I know that apparently acai bowls are actually from Brazil or it’s a Brazilian thing, did you know that? I didn’t know that. Okay, I also did not know that. Have you heard of churrasco?

You mean like, churros? No, churros are Spanish! OMG! Don’t add that in! our first stop is gonna be this place that sells Brazilian crepes. I didn’t know they had crepes, but apparently they do have crepes, so let’s go!

I did not even know that there was such a Brazilian place in the middle of Tanjong Pagar So we’re going to go check it out, okay let’s go! So we’re here at the first place, inside Icon Village it’s like a little kiosk

That you did not notice it was here, but it’s called Beiju Express. and they sell specifically Brazilian tapioca crepes. And they just opened last December, so coming up to one year now here really excited to try their crepes, so let’s go.

So I’m here with Darius, who is the owner and co-founder of Beiju Express. Beiju is a Brazilian crepe that is made of hydrated tapioca flour. So it’s originated from the north and northeast of Brazil. And was invented like few hundred years ago by a native tribe.

So they call it the food of gods because it was helping them with digestive issues. That’s good to know. If you have digestive issue, you should come here and grab a crepe. Are you Brazilian? Uhh no. So me and my partner, we are not Brazilian.

We were invited in one of our Brazilian friends home and he let us try the crepe. We just loved it, so… And from that, you decided to start your own restaurant? Yeah, we always wanted to open a restaurant. We made some research, of course.

So, we saw that it was getting popular in countries like the US, Australia, Canada Nobody was selling it in Asia so we thought, why not we bring it to Singapore? Well, I might start trying a bit of the crepe because I’m hungry. This one is the tapioca crepe made with chicken.

It’s quite chewy on the inside. And really what, what brings… It’s really the savoury fillings and the sweet fillings that bring them to life. OMG, it’s so good! So where are you actually from? Yea where are you from? I’m from France. *editor offline*

I love it when I can bring up my French on the episode. Like what you said it’s a chewy, thicker crepe material than your French crepe, actually. You know, like the typical French. I like the French crepes because they are more crispy. Right? They can make it into very crispy.

But this is like… It adds a lot of flavour to whatever ingredients is inside. Even though it’s tapioca, and usually it doesn’t have flavour But I think the chewiness really blends well with the flavour. I’m really impressed! Before we move on to the next crepe

This is a local drink from Brazil that is super popular. It’s called… It’s, maybe some similarity with Sprite Is that a cherry on the… Is that a cherry? That’s why i thought it was a cherry coke. It’s a good question, sorry. I thought it was cherry. It’s not cherry.

It kinda tastes like cherry though. Like a cherry sprite. When the Brazilian customers come there, they ordered the guarana drinks. They go for more simple crepes. in Brazil they like to eat tapioca crepes in a more simple way. To really feel the flavour of the crepes come out right

Without the ingredients inside. They don’t want to add too many fillings. All right, so this is the… This one is I Bean Here, it’s a vegetarian crepe. I would say the flavours are not as interesting and nice, like more umami as this one But it is a lighter crepe.

I taste the tapioca one more here, which is nice. The little pebbles within the tapioca crepe. Moving on to dessert. Ohhh so chewy! The tapioca crepe, flavour is stilll the same, just that ingredients are different. If you like the typical kind of chocolate, sweet crepes that you get in Singapore

I would say that this is almost like a level-up because you get the chewiness from it, I really like the chewiness of the crepe adds a different texture to whatever you’re eating. It doesn’t make it like super sweet or anything.

It actually almost calms it down because there’s no taste to the crepe itself. the savory crepes are so good. And definitely, if you’re in the area working here, it’s less than $10. It’s pretty filling, I would say. So it’s a great like lunch option

Or even like a dinner option with some other desserts as well. With the acai bowl, which I’m now gonnna try for the second time. The blueberries are huge. It’s so hard to find really sweet, big, juicy blueberries here. So that’s a plus point for me.

Yeah, we’re trying to use as much as possible fresh ingredients So what I was saying earlier is that In Brazil they like to eat tapioca crepes in a very simple way. They don’t even put any meat or, fish inside. They just eat it very simple, with oregano, cheese, tomato.

So we thought that, that would not be enough for the Singaporean market So we definitely adapted that. This is all our recipes. Then that’s it for here at Beiju Express. if you’re in the area, definitely come check them out. And have a bite of their delicious, savoury or sweet crepes.

Thank you for coming. Okay, so we’re at our second stop of the day Okay this is a place that I’ve been to so many times and I never knew that it was Brazilian. So we’re at Butcher’s Wife which is actually a Brazilian inspired cuisine with some Asian flavours.

Plus, they’re also gluten free which I also didn’t know because you really can’t tell from the dishes they serve here. And also the best part, they serve natural wine, which is my favourite. So yeah, let’s go check out some of the dishes that they have prepared for us.

Tadah! we have a very, very colourful spread here. Inspired by, obviously, the Brazilian colours and food dishes. I did not know that The Butcher’s Wife is actually part of the Spa Esprit group? I also have Tim here, who is the operations manager for The Butcher’s Wife.

He’s going to walk us through some of these dishes that we have here today. So this is our take on a real Brazilian ceviche. It’s a sea bass, we just cured it with a little beetroot you have some fresh cucumber and then the idea is you just scoop it up

With a spoon onto our tapioca chip. This is our signature Brazilian cheese bread. And then moving across here we have our favourite seafood moqueca. So inside we have some beautiful octopus from Fremantle in Western Australia some tiger prawns, some sea bass, and it’s a really light delicious Brazilian style stew

Based on coconut milk. And then finishing here is my favourite it’s the strained wagyu rump cap. We can’t forget the orange wine! From France, it’s one of our founders wineries. And this is really really fresh, particularly good with the moqueca and ceviche. Excited to try, thank you!

This is really good, wow the texture it’s already got a salty taste to it but then with the salsa, it’s just so refreshing. What a great appetiser. Let’s try this ceviche. A bit sourness in there. So it’s pink because there is beetroot added inside.

Using a tapioca chip like this is actually very different and never had that before, usually with ceviche, you eat little bread, right? And it makes it very refreshing and crispy. I’m going to have more because it’s so delicious. So this is like, it looks like kind of like granola, like banana granola.

It’s like some sort of like, no, it looks like crispy bread. They burnt it though, a little bit, to get that smoky flavour. To give it more texture. Oh this is really heart warming on a cold day, just like today, where it’s raining outside.

I like that the stew is not too thick, which is not what I like. And then the fish inside is also really tender and juicy. This is Tim’s favourite, which is the Wagyu beef It’s a chargrilled Wagyu picanha. It has a very smoky taste to the lady’s fingers.

There’s a nice compliment to the wagyu. I think it’s really well cooked, it’s not really salty at all I think it’s pretty naturally chargrilled cooked, which is nice. Overall, I would say it’s a great place to come with your friends for brunch.

I know they have great brunch selections, and the dinner is great for sharing and for family, so Recommend! We’re at our last spot of the day. Where they serve Brazilian barbecue. in this all-you-can-eat style called rodizio. Where they just carve the meat in front of you

And you can kind of choose what kind of meat platters you want. So we have like seven sides here, and we also have the owner of the restaurant here. The one that’s in orange is actually the Brazilian smoked tomato soup.

This one took us 4 hours to smoke it to give that soury, smoky flavour in order to open your appetite so that you can eat more. The one in white is called pao de quejo, which is Brazilian cheese bread. And then the one that looks like a teardrop

It’s actually the Brazilian chicken croquette, it’s called coxinha. The salad, on the other hand, is something that is slightly unique. The Brazilian eat it because it’s actually from a heart of palm tree. So they slice this into two

In the middle there’s the heart of the tree, which is white in colour. In Brazilian term, they call it palmetto salad. So generally, when our customers sit down, the food will come one at a time.

And they have a one and half hours timing to try all the different cuts and barbecue that we will provide. I went to Brazil, I felt like it’s a country where Asians in particular, we do not quite understand their concept. If I were to ask you I’m going to say Brazil.

It’s in Brazil. Brazilian cuisine represents a big meat culture. over there they call it churrascaria It is definitely more soury than your usual tomato soup. It’s opened up the appetite. I can see that it’s slightly burnt. I think you should ask the expert over here. We actually use the rodizio style.

Rodizio means to put onto a skewer and turn. Yeah I like the burnt kind of taste that I get from the garlic bread. It’s a good mix with the tomato soup. So we actually had some of the cheesy balls earlier, which was really good. Little bit harder to open.

Oh, still the kind cheesy in this. After it’s left a while, it gets a bit… A bit hard right? Still kind of like the mochi style that we’ve seen at the last restaurant as well.

I think this is like a little bit cool down now, so it’s not as cheesy, the cheese is still there but… it’s okay. We need to talk about this salad because this is the stuff that’s in the middle of the palm trees. I really want to know what this tastes like.

Taste like… artichoke. That’s really yummy. Wow, what meat is this? Lamb, boneless lamb leg. Go ahead. Look at all the juices dripping down from that lamb. How long did it take to grill the whole thing? 10 to 15 minutes. I’m shooketh. Thank you. It’s like rare, almost medium rare.

Oh very chewy. If you love lamb, this is a good lamb. I’m not a fan of lamb. It’s very lightly cooked, so it’s not cooked all the way through. Like the lamb’s gamey taste is definitely still there. Is that chicken heart? NO. Just kidding! Picanha.

Considered the main cut. Where are you from? I’m from Brazil. Where are you from in Brazil? I’m from northeast. Recife. 2000 kilometres from Rio de Janeiro. Okay i’ll look up on Google after. Are most of the rodizio style meat that comes out is always rare to medium rare-ish?

Not always, sometimes can be well, even well done. Depending on what you choose or? Because someone can request. Wow, look at this red, red, red meat. Oh it’s very tender. It’s very easy to eat. This is one of the better things I’ve had.

More meat, more meat, more meat, more meat, Beef rump. This cut is from Brazil. I’m smelling the meat because the owner just now told us that Brazilian red meat have a certain smell. Yes. What’s that smell? The Brazilian meat is grass-fed.

I would say that it’s softer than the previous one. A little bit more raw, but I also taste the smokiness more here. This is the most smoky that I’ve tasted in all of the meat so far.

I think there’s a lot more textures to this piece of meat than the previous ones that I’ve had. And the flavours are also very different from the first bite to the last bite. OMG. It’s a legit pineapple. Yes, this is grilled pineapple. How did pineapple become part of the cuisine

Actually pineapple helps to remove grease. Did you add, like, any seasoning to it? Usually use cinnamon powder. Some people say it’s the best. It’s the best? Better than the meat? Yes, so I feel offended. Don’t come here and tell the chef pineapple is the best.

This is Malaysian pineapple or Philippines, I’m not sure. Okay, I don’t like the pineapple because of the texture. You know the kinda soggy texture. There is the crispiness on the outside of the pineapple which kinda solidifies it a lot more. And it’s a lot juicier.

Maybe less acidic than like a typical pineapple would be like… that makes it better than the normal pineapples. So come back here if you do love a good steak, meat and pineapples. So we just wrapped up the three restaurants that we went to today to try out Brazilian cuisine in Singapore.

I have to say that there isn’t a lot here other than the last restaurant which I really felt like they kinda went deep into the culture, into the types of food offered there. And then they were able to bring it to Singapore.

I do commend the first restaurant for loving the whole tapioca crepes and then bringing it to Singapore, making it their own. That’s more of like an express style. Whereas The Butcher’s Wife is more of a casual bistro where they combine Brazilian flavours with Asian cuisine.

My favourite restaurant with the most interesting concept has to be Casa Brazilia. It’s just the concept, I haven’t tried anything like that here. The meats are also great. You can see that the owner and the chef put a lot of effort into

What they’re doing here, bringing meats all the way from Brazil. So that’s it for today. If you’d like us to check out other Brazilian restaurants or if you’re a Brazilian in Singapore, leave a comment below like what do you think of the restaurants we went today?

And if you have other cuisines that you want us to try and test for you then let us know in the comments below. But after you like and subscribe.