🇬🇧 Brazil - what to eat and drink in the southeast

Brazil is a big country and the variety of typical food travellers and nomads can find here is enormous. Brazil is much more than feijoada and caipirinha. This post is to talk about the food in the southeast region, which includes the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais.
This region offer a wide variety of typical foods. Some of these foods are found in restaurants in other regions too, but the local versions, in special for food from Minas Gerais, are much more interesting.
The typical foods from Minas Gerais are among my favourite brazilian foods.
The traditional feijoada is one example of local typical food. Made with black beans and pieces of pig. I don't eat the external pieces of pig, like ears, tail or feet, but some restaurants use only inner parts to prepare feijoada.
Muslims and other people who does not appreciate to eat pig (or the strong taste of black beans) have other options, like the "caldeirada", which is made with seafood and white beans.
Southeast also have "galinhada" (rice, pequi and chicken), the "arroz com pequi" (rice with pequi and bull meat salted to dry), "feijão tropeiro" (beans sauced with bacon and other ingredients), and many other. Chances are you feast in local restaurants in Minas Gerais, where we also can find great chefs of contemporary gastronomy using local ingredients in very creative dishes. Local food, in special fish and seafood on the beach (Buzios, Ubatuba, Angra dos Reis, Parati, Trindade, Rio, etc) are also good options. To eat close to the river São Francisco the local food is also an amazing experience.
Oops! I cannot finish this post without mention local desserts! The most famous is called "Romeu and Julieta" (Romeo and Juliet) and it's made of goiabada with cheese Minas or Canastra. In Minas there is a wide variety of desserts made with fruits, all of them very sweet. The "doce de leite" is made of milk and it's found in different consistences, from cream to solid. You'll find desserts made of papayas, oranges, mangoes and many other fruits, with sugar syrup, creamy or solid. Another good experience is called "quebra queixo" and is made of coconuts.
The best brazilian coffees are from the southeast: from Minas Gerais and São Paulo. The best cachaças are also made in these states.
The "quentão" in Minas is a hot drink prepared with cachaça, with flavour and smell very different from the "quentão" in the south.
These are only some ideas. For more specific tips, follow this blog and my social media channels to keep updated.

Nycka, the nomad