Food Issue - Around the world: Brazil

A counter full of Brazilian men watches the soccer match playing on the flat screen mounted above the refrigerators at Coisas do Brasil. They hoot, holler, and argue with lots of hand motions in between bites of shockingly juicy flat steaks served with griddled onions, rice, beans, and some sort of cooked-down ground chicken and yam mixture that will have you thinking, “Where have you been all my life?”

Coisas, it seems, is a regular hangout for Brazilian men craving a piece of home in Marietta, where many Brazilians have set up shop in recent years. An assortment of freshly made savory and sweet Brazilian pastries filled with everything from guava to ground beef to minced ham fills the case leading to the cashier. Skip the leaden cheese rolls served with most Brazilian meals and go for one of the monstrous sandwiches filled with unexpected ingredients such as pineapple. One sandwich arrives on a buttered, griddled sesame bun. It’s stuffed with ham, a split hot dog, bacon, a hamburger patty, a fried egg, cheese, canned peas, corn, tomatoes and lettuce. Figuring out how to approach a monster of this magnitude is only half of the battle, as you will definitely fall into a food coma after only a few bites.

Wander around the handful of aisles stocked with Brazilian groceries and cooking utensils. If you’re looking for a large metal skewer to grill on, this is your place. One of Coisas’ best features is the affordable and impeccable meat counter. Here you’ll find tiny bags of Brazilian red and green chili peppers, links of bright red sausages, grill-ready chunks of chicken neatly wrapped in slices of bacon, and large slabs of beef with marbling akin to Wagyu. The beef also happens to retail for just less than $4 per pound so you can feed an army or just pick up a delicious cut of meat for a quiet night in.