Review: Churrascaria Braza
Aug. 3rd, 2004 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rikibethWow. What. A, Dinner.
Today being one of Charlotte's camp overnights, Christy offered to take us out to dinner, in part to celebrate her new job.
We hadn't had a chance to try Churrascaria Braza in the old Colonial Theater building yet, although my co-worker Jen had spoken well of it, and a steakhouse seemed a better choice for a diabetic than the many breaded and fried offerings at the Mississippi Grille in the old Oasis Diner building, which we'd tried for their late night service with the houseguests, so Braza it was.
Wow.
It's a prix fixe dinner. There's a bar of perfectly reasonable appetizer salads and whatnot to start with; I took little bites to try most of the interesting looking ones -- not all of them, I don't need to eat marinated cucumber salad out when I make it nearly every day myself -- and they were fine, if nothing stellar. The cocktail sauce for the shrimp was more spiked with horseradish than usual, so that was nice. Little identifier labels woudl also have been helpful -- a visual inspection did not disclose the nuts in the orzo salad, so I panicked when I bit into one, just in case it might have been a Brazil nut, to which I am horribly allergic. On asking, it proved to be toasted almond, harmless to the Rikibeth, but not cool to hide nuts in things without warning people.
But nobody goes there for the appetizers.
There are fourteen courses of roasted/grilled/whatevered meat. Two marinades of tri-tip, andouille and linguica sausage, New York strip, brisket, pork rib, pork tenderloin, parmesan crusted pork roast, beef short rib, salmon, lamb, rosemary chicken, and I'm forgetting one, but you get the idea. Oh, turkey wrapped in bacon, that was it. Apparently not everyone eats everything, but we did -- I explained to the nice carver (he was cute) that unless he brought out kidneys or blood sausage, assume it was Yes. Okay, I skipped the salmon, because I ate it last night, but I did try everyhting else. On a return visit, I'd also skip the rosemary chicken, because it had too much rosemary, kind of Vicks VapoRub, but everything else? Yum.
They brought out some side dishes too. Yucca fries, good; cheese biscuits, excellent, and I forget what they called them, but wahtever it was must have been Portugese for gougere, because I am pretty certain they were gougeres -- pate a choux with added cheese. Mmm.
We had mojitos before, and i want to make a batch of mojito flavored sorbet, because it's a really nice flavor combination. And wine with dinner -- I do NOT know a lot about wine, but I HAVE learned to interpret the wine-language descriptors and pick something I'll like. "Jammy" or "cherry berry flavors" usually means it's BORING. "Lots of oak" means I will HATE it, and "tobacco" is another one that means "avoid." I picked the one they described as "fruit forward, ripe tomatoes, and minerals," which translated into normal tastebuds means "doesn't shrivel your mouth on first sip, but is assertive enough to cope with all the meat fat you'll have in your mouth." Actually, it was delicious. Chilean: Concepcion Cabernet Reserva 2001, if I have written this down correctly. I am going to see if the wine shop down the street has it, it was that good.
I also discovered that "bunuelo" is Spanish or Portugese for "beignet." Fried dough, with chocolate sauce in the middle, and dulce de leche to dip it into.
I am really, really glad we walked to and from the restaurant.
Yum.
Today being one of Charlotte's camp overnights, Christy offered to take us out to dinner, in part to celebrate her new job.
We hadn't had a chance to try Churrascaria Braza in the old Colonial Theater building yet, although my co-worker Jen had spoken well of it, and a steakhouse seemed a better choice for a diabetic than the many breaded and fried offerings at the Mississippi Grille in the old Oasis Diner building, which we'd tried for their late night service with the houseguests, so Braza it was.
Wow.
It's a prix fixe dinner. There's a bar of perfectly reasonable appetizer salads and whatnot to start with; I took little bites to try most of the interesting looking ones -- not all of them, I don't need to eat marinated cucumber salad out when I make it nearly every day myself -- and they were fine, if nothing stellar. The cocktail sauce for the shrimp was more spiked with horseradish than usual, so that was nice. Little identifier labels woudl also have been helpful -- a visual inspection did not disclose the nuts in the orzo salad, so I panicked when I bit into one, just in case it might have been a Brazil nut, to which I am horribly allergic. On asking, it proved to be toasted almond, harmless to the Rikibeth, but not cool to hide nuts in things without warning people.
But nobody goes there for the appetizers.
There are fourteen courses of roasted/grilled/whatevered meat. Two marinades of tri-tip, andouille and linguica sausage, New York strip, brisket, pork rib, pork tenderloin, parmesan crusted pork roast, beef short rib, salmon, lamb, rosemary chicken, and I'm forgetting one, but you get the idea. Oh, turkey wrapped in bacon, that was it. Apparently not everyone eats everything, but we did -- I explained to the nice carver (he was cute) that unless he brought out kidneys or blood sausage, assume it was Yes. Okay, I skipped the salmon, because I ate it last night, but I did try everyhting else. On a return visit, I'd also skip the rosemary chicken, because it had too much rosemary, kind of Vicks VapoRub, but everything else? Yum.
They brought out some side dishes too. Yucca fries, good; cheese biscuits, excellent, and I forget what they called them, but wahtever it was must have been Portugese for gougere, because I am pretty certain they were gougeres -- pate a choux with added cheese. Mmm.
We had mojitos before, and i want to make a batch of mojito flavored sorbet, because it's a really nice flavor combination. And wine with dinner -- I do NOT know a lot about wine, but I HAVE learned to interpret the wine-language descriptors and pick something I'll like. "Jammy" or "cherry berry flavors" usually means it's BORING. "Lots of oak" means I will HATE it, and "tobacco" is another one that means "avoid." I picked the one they described as "fruit forward, ripe tomatoes, and minerals," which translated into normal tastebuds means "doesn't shrivel your mouth on first sip, but is assertive enough to cope with all the meat fat you'll have in your mouth." Actually, it was delicious. Chilean: Concepcion Cabernet Reserva 2001, if I have written this down correctly. I am going to see if the wine shop down the street has it, it was that good.
I also discovered that "bunuelo" is Spanish or Portugese for "beignet." Fried dough, with chocolate sauce in the middle, and dulce de leche to dip it into.
I am really, really glad we walked to and from the restaurant.
Yum.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 08:33 pm (UTC)I am full just reading this!
no subject
Date: 2004-08-04 04:34 am (UTC)They former (which has closed) also tended to have a few experimental meats on the list, like Buffalo or Rattlesnake sausage or Wild Boar or hump-meat from a Bhrama Bull. The last was too greasy for my tastes, but I liked the others.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-04 09:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-04 12:24 pm (UTC)A friend was in Brazil for Carnival and brought me back a box mix for said cheese bread. It was remarkably similar to the rolls served at Fogo de Chao (for which I take a day off from claiming vegetarianism, btw.)
Then Josh went to Central Market and bought FROZEN Brazilian cheese bread. Not quite as good as the mix, but really cool for when you absolutely positively need some cheese bread in 11 to 13 minutes.
But yes, I suspect that the overall recipe is not unlike gougeres. For which I have a recipe to try... too bad about my kids' dairy issue. Have to wait for them to go to bed, THEN start the dairypalooza!
K