Brazilian street foods

I don't know much about the history of the Brazilian Day Festival.  I was told that it's the celebration of Brazil's Independence Day. I chose to focus on  Brazilian street foods (and some good looking Brazilian young men wearing Brazil's soccer team tees saying KAKA) which I found somehow unique if compared to other street food cuisines. I started with the famous Acarajé, a fritter made from black-eyed peas and deep-fried to a crisp golden brown in palm oil. The most common way of eating acarajé is splitting it in half, pouring vatapá and/or caruru, a salad made out of green and red tomatoes, fried shrimps and home made hot sauce. The strangest thing is that Acarajé is also found in Nigerian cuisine.

Acarajé

Another street delicacy is the well-known pão de queijo, the cheese bread. It is a small, baked, cheese-flavored roll, usually served for breakfast in Brazil, in Bolivia and Argentina. This small bite of pleasure is perfect for a snack but also with a nice, refreshing Caipirinha. This cheese bread is distinctive not only because it is made of cassava or corn flour, but also because the inside is chewy and moist.

pão de queijo

Pastel

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Pastel is another traditional Brazilian dish, consisting of crisp pastry filled with ground beef meat, cheese, chicken or shrimp and then deep fried. Rather on the "heavier" side, it can be also too big to be eaten by one person so please, share it!

I missed the Churros, a Spanish rather traditional sweet that is also made in South American countries and is popular in Australia. It is a fried-dough pastry-based snack, sometimes made from potato dough, sprinkled with sugar and eaten dipped in thick chocolate. Brazilians were offering  Churros with doce de leite.

Brazilian street food is fried with an oily finish but has this surprising uniqueness: you can't turn it down. I need to return to Little Brazil for a more detailed and extensive tasting with some historic research. I am sure I won't be disappointed.