The most interesting things to eat in Fortaleza, Brazil

We shall kick off the list with something light and relatively simple. A popular restaurant dish for a quick bite is called coxinha. It basically consists of dough made with wheat flour and chicken broth. The dough is filled with shredded spiced chicken meat or a whole chicken thigh, sometimes with a few mashed potatoes. Classic fillings often comprise chicken, catupiry cheese or requeijão and onions, parsley, and scallions. The result is rich in taste and not too heavy on the stomach, which is perfect for someone eating out as part of an active lifestyle.

Tortelê is a good place for foods like coxinha.

If you want to continue the trend of light food, add a dessert called brigadeiro to your list. Brigadeiros are essentially Brazilian and were invented sometime around 1946 as part of, of all things, a political campaign. Whatever anyone's views may be, the dish itself has become a staple of Brazilian cuisine. A brigadeiro is generally shaped into small balls covered in chocolate sprinkles and placed in a small cupcake liner. Such a simple recipe makes brigadeiros very popular for home cooking.

But if you want to eat out, Empório Brownie is a good choice.

While we're at it, let's check out something that Brazilian cuisine in Fortaleza borrowed from Peru. Causa is a dish combining potatoes with a bright orange chile with a medium to hot spice level. A classic cause is a cold, savoury potato layer cake. The causas are traditionally served with various fillings such as avocado, hard-boiled eggs, tuna, chicken, shredded crab, salmon, shrimp, and mayonnaise. The taste is exotic, the cake is very nutritious and interesting enough to check out when eating out.

Gelateria Trevo is a decent choice for causa.

Going further with foreign influences on local gastronomical preferences, it's worth noting some of the more original European foods. For example, the famous yet barely explored turnover pizza made with leavened dough. Calzones are usually made with pork or similar but more exotic meats, including the classic goat meat variation, as well as eggs and cheese. Modern variations of the dish outright use pizza dough for preparation, even though a good chef prepares it specifically for calzones.

Forneria Coriolano has calzones to everyone's liking.

Another foreign offering in the diverse Fortaleza is in itself a product of cultural exchange between Spanish and Portuguese cuisine. Churros are famous sweets with a reputation for great street food and often serve as second course. Churros are fried until they become crunchy and ridged at the surface after piping from a "churrera", a syringe-like tool with a star-shaped nozzle. Filled, straight churros are found in Brazil with chocolate, which is a popular addition to the classic recipe.

Great Brazilian churros are served at Cabaña Del Primo.

Now we're venturing into a more serious, substantial field. Once you're done with sweets and desserts, it's time for something like a good stew. Brazil has just the thing for such an occasion, and galinhada is very popular locally. This stew is very simple and consists of rice with chicken along with local additions of herbs and spices according to the preferences of the locals, including the chefs. The dish is Portugese in origin and is as common in Brazilian cuisine as sliced bread.

If you want to get to know galinhada, Restaurante Benjamim is a go-to place.

Since we're done with the chicken stew, it's time to find something equal but different. Fish, for example, is a natural choice for a place located next to the ocean. So, a curious food explorer can always fish out a nice seafood stew called moqueca. Its classic recipe consists of shrimp or fish as a base with tomatoes, onions, garlic, lime and coriander. The name "moqueca" comes from the term "mu'keka" in Kimbundu language, which makes the seemingly simple dish a lot more interesting in historical terms.

Coco Bambu Meireles has all the moqueca you may need.

We've had chicken and fish, so it's time to bite into something stronger and also very traditional in terms of Brazilian cuisine. There's this salty and tasty thing called Carne-de-sol that's probably a must for anyone who wants to know how Brazilian meat tastes. The dish itself is from Northeastern Brazil of Sephardi origin and consists of heavily salted beef exposed to the sun for one or two days to cure. this meat is the basis which is sometimes fried and served as a hamburger or baked in the oven with cream.

Geppos Praia is very good when it comes to meat, including this particular dish.

The next item on our list is so common in Brazil that it's commercially produced and packaged for sale but can also be prepared at home. However, for a restaurant experience, farofa is interesting mostly because it can be easily combined with varying amounts of salt, smoked meat, and spices. The most common recipes include toasted with abundant butter, vegetable oil or olive oil, salt, bacon, onions, garlic, sausage, olives, etc. It's a diverse and flexible kind of food perfect for restaurant exploration.

You can start with Cantinho Do Frango.

It's almost a small tradition for our lists about Brazilian cuisine to end with a drink, and cachaça holds a very special place in our hearts and glasses for a reason. It's a national Brazilian liquor made from fermented sugarcane juice. This spirit is often used for creating cocktails and other complex drinks around the continent and even globally. Cachaça can only be produced in Brazil, with recipes, facilities, and materials like fermented sugar that have been used since the times of Portuguese colonization.

Giz Cozinha Boêmia will take care of your drinking needs.

By now, it's pretty obvious that Fortaleza is an extremely interesting place with lots of world-class places to eat in addition to other points of interest. We wish you the best of luck in exploring everything the city has to offer.

.