AND AVOID EMBARRASSMENTS

Hold sandwiches with a napkin

This Brazilian habit prevents getting your hand greasy or transferring any germs to the bread, specially after handling money or typing your card password at the check out.

Having a Pizza in Brazil?

Just don’t touch it! In Brazil, pizza is eaten with fork and knife. Holding it with your hands is not considered hygienic in houses & restaurants. In informal environments, you can use your hands, as long as you have a napkin to hold your slice.

Fancy a Brazilian Hot Dog?

When someone asks if you want to eat a hot dog, make some room in your stomach, as the “Dogão” (or Big Dog), usually found in food trucks, contains sausage cooked in a tomato pasta sauce, mashed potato, corn, peas, grated cheese, tomatoes, chips, grated carrots, mayo, mustard, ketchup, vinaigrette sauce, and a variety of other ingredients.

CAIPIRINHA (The right way to drink it)

Caipirinha is a national cocktail, made of sugar cane hard liquor, sugar and lime. Ordering and drinking it at a bar is a normal action, but wait until you are invited to a meal or to a BBQ at a colleague’s house and you are offered this drink.

When a Caipirinha drink is prepared at someone’s house during a social gathering, you are expected to have a sip and pass the drink around to the other guests.

Drinking Chimarrão

Typical from the South Brazilian region, this infusion tea, made of a bitter flavored dried herb, is served in a traditional cup shape and shared among friends, who take a sip from the metallic straw and pass it around.

Churrascaria (Steakhouse)

This consists on a huge buffet, with all types of salads, entrees, hot meals and desserts. Once you land at the table with your plate full of buffet food, waiters will start serving a variety of barbequed meats every couple of minutes, stopping only when you display the red sign on the table. Remember to flip the red card, otherwise waiters will keep coming with meat.

The Sultans of Breakfast

If breakfast is your favorite meal of the day, then you will find yourself in paradise. The continental breakfast in Brazil is celebrated in homes, accommodations and bakeries with a variety of breads, fresh fruits, fresh juices, cakes, savory pastries, yoghurts, cereals, coffee, milk, bacon, eggs and more.

On weekends, bakeries open for their all day breakfast buffet, charging around USD 18 per person.

At someone’s home, expect to see bread, biscuits, cake, fruits, milk, coffee, cereals and yoghurt being served. Bacon & eggs or baked beans are not part of the regular home breakfast.

Lunch time at “Restaurantes por Kilo”

Around Brazilian offices, and in commercial centers, there is a number of restaurants that may look like a buffet, but are in fact Kilo restaurants. After picking everything you wish to eat, put your plate on the scales, order your drink and receive your docket with the final amount you will have to pay when leaving the restaurant. After facing a quick queue to pay and leaving the restaurant, you will find complimentary coffee and biscuit at the door.

Wish to know more about Brazil?

Send an email at roberta@braziltranslated.com and I will be happy to help you with more information about Brazilian businesses and consumer behavior.

Roberta Chaim is a Brazilian translator, with 14 years of expertise in Transcreation (Translation of Advertising & Marketing Campaigns), as well as translation of eBooks, landing pages, apps, websites, training and tourism materials.

Roberta is a former marketing executive who managed global brands. She also worked for a Chamber of Commerce helping international companies find their potential partners in Brazil and nowadays offers her expertise to help companies sell to Brazil.Find her at:

www.braziltranslated.com Linkedin/RobertaChaim