What to eat and drink in Rio

Black bean stew with pork cuts, served with rice, farofa, collard greens and orange. A Wednesday and Saturday tradition.

Cheese puffs made with cassava starch, naturally gluten-free. Perfect with a cafezinho at the bakery.

Frozen blended Amazonian berry served in a bowl with banana and granola. In Rio it’s a dessert or post-beach snack.

A thin, crispy fried pastry filled with meat, cheese or hearts of palm. A street-market classic with sugarcane juice.

A teardrop-shaped fried croquette with shredded chicken. The most popular snack at any lanchonete.

Airy cassava-starch rings that melt in your mouth. Sold on the sand, sweet or salty, usually with mate.

At a rodízio steakhouse you pay a fixed price and waiters keep carving meat at your table (picanha is the star). Green card = keep going, red = pause.

Fish or seafood stew in a clay pot. The Bahian version has coconut milk and dendê palm oil; the Espírito Santo style doesn’t.

A fudgy ball of condensed milk, cocoa and butter rolled in chocolate sprinkles. A birthday party must.

Cachaça, lime, sugar and ice. With vodka it’s a caipiroska; there are passion fruit, strawberry and kiwi versions too.

Draft beer served in small glasses, ice-cold. Waiters bring another without asking: cover your glass if you’re done.

Not the South American gourd drink: it’s iced mate tea with lemon, sold from tanks along the sand.