Last night we made our second attempt at a churrascaria (Brazilian barbecue restaurant) here in Santa Cruz called Centenario, and this time we were successful. "We" = the new foreign English teachers at our school, plus some local Brazilian friends. A complete meal there includes the buffet, shown below, and a seemingly endless rotation of waiters bringing meat to the table on long sword-like skewers and serving slices right onto your plate.
The waiter saw me trying to get a peek into the pass-through and invited me right into the kitchen to photograph the roasting pit/oven. The cook, on the other hand, didn't look very pleased to have his territory invaded, so I took one quick shot and hightailed it out of there.
A view of one corner of the seating area. The restaurant is about 5 or 6 times this size.
There was live music, as well - a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing popular songs from Pink Floyd to the Eagles to Michael Jackson to Coldplay. He was quite talented with a pleasant voice, and the song list was like a journey through my past, yet with a slight Brazilian flavor.
In this photo, it looks like my dining companions are under attack, but this is just the first round of meats being served tableside. When the waiter slices the meat off the skewer, you are to use the little tongs you can see in the foreground to grab the slice and put it onto your small meat plate.
Meat, of course, is the main attraction - lamb, beef, chicken, pork, chicken hearts, tongue, delicious things wrapped in bacon, and other meaty goodness.
However, they also have delicious rotisserie pineapple with cinnamon sugar glaze, and they even barbecue giant blocks of CHEESE!
My meat plate was full .. and they kept bringing MORE!
On the right you can see my plate from the buffet - I wasn't able to eat all of this! One thing that was especially interesting is the little green thing at the upper left of my plate, which was a green fig stewed in cloves and cinnamon and sugar. It was delicious!
After dinner we wandered out with our Brazilian friends, and did what young Brazilians do... hang out in front of the nearest gas station/convenience store with a crowd of other people smoking, drinking, dancing and talking, throughout the night. Many go home around dawn. There were plastic chairs and tables, and a ton of cars, some with music blaring. One table even had a hookah, and I half expected a giant caterpillar to appear.
And from the convenience store, I present the random Brazilian product photo of the day: "Snob", for when your bottom is just too good for the other brand of toilet paper!
We called it a night around 2:30am. I can't remember the last time I stayed out that late - possibly one of the farewell parties in China.
There was live music, as well - a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing popular songs from Pink Floyd to the Eagles to Michael Jackson to Coldplay. He was quite talented with a pleasant voice, and the song list was like a journey through my past, yet with a slight Brazilian flavor.
In this photo, it looks like my dining companions are under attack, but this is just the first round of meats being served tableside. When the waiter slices the meat off the skewer, you are to use the little tongs you can see in the foreground to grab the slice and put it onto your small meat plate.
After dinner we wandered out with our Brazilian friends, and did what young Brazilians do... hang out in front of the nearest gas station/convenience store with a crowd of other people smoking, drinking, dancing and talking, throughout the night. Many go home around dawn. There were plastic chairs and tables, and a ton of cars, some with music blaring. One table even had a hookah, and I half expected a giant caterpillar to appear.
And from the convenience store, I present the random Brazilian product photo of the day: "Snob", for when your bottom is just too good for the other brand of toilet paper!
We called it a night around 2:30am. I can't remember the last time I stayed out that late - possibly one of the farewell parties in China.
I wanna eat there!!!!! What's the pay like there?...looks like you are having fun, Ray
ReplyDeleteRay, I get paid enough to be able to pay my expenses and still splurge occasionally. It's a little lower than in China, because housing is not included.
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