Churrasco

Popular throughout all of Brazil, the authentic churrasco is indigenous to the state of Rio Grande do Sul (in the southern part of the country, south of São Paulo), where the gaucho prepares his evening meal on an open fire in the field. At the popular churrascarias (restaurants serving grilled meats) of São Paulo and Rio, roasted hunks of beef on a spit are served and sliced by a battery of waiters touring the room. Then skewers of ribs, steaks of every cut, kabobs of every part of the chicken, are presented one after the other. To accompany the meats, mammoth help-yourself salad bars offer a wide variety of cold vegetables and greens. The meal ends with quantities of fresh fruit that, they say, cancels out the fat.