AlwaysTraveling: O Melhor Bolo de Chocolate do Mundo

Arthur Bovino and Maryse Chevrière — December 10, 2009

Top, “Traditional Sweet” Cake in Lisbon. Left, Lisbon shop. Right, São Paulo location.

You don’t call your store, O Melhor Bolo de Chocolate do Mundo or, in English, The Best Chocolate Cake in the World, unless you have serious chocolate cake to throw-down. But that’s exactly what this self-confident store has done, with locations on both sides of the Atlantic, in São Paulo and Lisbon.

Bras Carlos Lopes created his no-bake, flourless chocolate cake recipe about 20 years ago. O Melhor Bolo’s website notes that the dessert menu of the restaurant where it first appeared “was so successful that he had to open a small bakery to sell only this delicacy.” In 2007, the cake appeared in a sister location in São Paulo, to be quickly followed by two more stores there. There are three cakes: semisweet (70% cocoa), “traditional sweet” (53% cocoa), and “Zero Sugar.”

We first stumbled across the Brazilian outpost, and followed up by visiting the original location in Portugal. Having visited both, we can comment on the assertion inherent to the stores’ name.

Click Here for Two Field Report Reviews of O Melhor Bolo de Chocolate do Mundo >>

AlwaysLearning: Coxinha

Arthur Bovino — September 08, 2009

Top, Coxinha & Guaraná soda from Barril Grill. Left, Barril Grill, 30-18 Broadway, Astoria. Right, Coxinha cross-section, New York Pão de Queijo, Astoria.

Sure there are Pastels and Bolinhos de Bacalhau but when you consider the Brazilian salgadhino that comes to mind most quickly after Pão de Queijo, it’s likely to be Coxinha (pronounced, Co-sheen-ya).

Where it’s from: Brazil.

What it is: At its most basic, coxinha is a croquette filled with minced chicken and seasonings. In Brazil, each coxinha is usually about two and a half to three inches long and about one and a half to two inches wide. It can be found in Brazil’s little corner coffee shops throughout the country. Where you find Pao de Queijo, you’ll most often also find coxinha. The word, ‘coxinha’ is said to actually mean ‘little chicken thigh”, and that’s supposedly what it originally contained. These days, the teardrop shape is said to be purposely reminiscent of this drumstick origin.

While it’s easily eaten on the go, coxinha is often consumed at the cafe counter where there’s usually a bottle of hot sauce. The top is torn or bitten off, and a dash of hot sauce is often used to spice it up as it’s eaten. The perfect coxinha resembles a misshapen arancine, and is similar in color. The outer shell should be crisp and delicate. Just underneath, a quarter-inch layer of batter and catupiry combines for a creamy effect, similar to a mashed potato paste. Finally, in the center, the minced chicken should be moist, flavorful and at least a little warm.

How it’s made: There are different preparations, but generally, chicken cooked with broth is then seasoned and minced, then enclosed in a wheat flour batter. Applications differ, but most recipes call for a Brazilian cream cheese called Catupiry. Some dictate that the cream cheese should be mixed with the chicken, some stipulate its inclusion with the batter, while others just note it should be present with the chicken when it’s battered and fried. This filling is then coated with batter and breadcrumbs, shaped to roughly resemble a drumstick, allowed to set and then fried.

Where to get it in New York: Coxinha in New York City tends to be much smaller on average than in Brazil but you can find it at several of the Brazilian restaurants in Midtown. Be careful, on occasion you’ll find a toothpick sticking out of the center. Whereas in Brazil you usually buy one individually (unless you’re hungry), here they’re served small and several to an order. Some restaurants serving them in Manhattan include Brazil Brazil Restaurant and Brazil Grill (787 8th Avenue). In Astoria, Rio Bonito and New York Pao de Queijo also sell decent renditions.

AlwaysLearning: Pão de Queijo

Arthur Bovino — September 04, 2009

Pão de Queijo in Astoria at New York Pão de Queijo, $1.75.

Pão de Queijo (pronounced, pow de KAY-ju, with a nasal ‘ow’) is an addictive, gluten-free, South American salgadinho.

Where it’s from: Pão de Queijo is one of many different salgadhinos (snacks), like Coxinha and Pastels, which you can find everywhere in Brazil. It is most often sold at cafés, where it’s eaten with espresso for breakfast while standing at a counter— though it can be found all day. Variations are said to be found in Bolivia, where they’re known as Cuñapé, and in Paraguay and Northern Argentina where they’re known as Chipás.

What it is: In Portuguese Pão de Queijo means ‘cheese bread.’ Bread isn’t quite accurate— gougère or cheese profiterole is more apt. Basically, it’s a domed cheese puff one to three inches wide, made using Povilho Azedo, cassava flour (tapioca starch) usually with Queijo de Minas cheese inside. Origins are murky, but it’s thought to have been created by slaves who harvested the yucca crops and gathered the starch leftover after processing. Starch was rolled into balls and baked. Later, when cattle-farming became widespread, cheese was introduced. One Brazilian chain that specializes in it, Casa do Pão de Queijo (founded in 1967 in São Paulo), attributes it to the 18th century in the state of Minas Gerais, a region in the Southeast of Brazil, a little less than 300 miles from Rio.

How it’s made: Recipes vary, but generally, milk, oil and butter are first mixed over heat. Then tapioca flour, eggs and cheese are added. After the mixture cools, balls of dough are formed and cooked for about twenty minutes. The combination of tapioca starch and cheese creates a slightly gummy, chewy consistency inside, like a palatable rubber cement. When done right, they are crisp on the outside and light, airy, warm and slightly chewy on the inside with full, cheesy flavor. One of Brazil’s best places for pão de queijo is in São Paulo— Pão de Queijo Haddock Lobo —a little shop in a neighborhood called Jardins Paulista.

Where to get it in New York: There are pockets of Brazilian restaurants downtown (like Casa and Cafe La Palette in the West Village, and one place in the East Village, Esperanto) that serve pão de queijo, as well as a few in Midtown (Emporium Brasil) on what’s left of Little Brazil on 46th Street (“Little Brazil Street”) and also in Newark, and Astoria, Queens.

One AlwaysHungryNY.com favorite spot for pão is New York Pão de Queijo (right), a small café in Astoria. It has other treats including açai na tigela and a bevy of Brazilian fruit juices. Fair warning: once you’ve eaten one, it’s difficult to stop.

Featured Dish: Gambas Com Acorda at Pão!

The Gluttoness — August 11, 2009

Gambas com Acorda at Pão!

Pão! co-owner, Frank Coelho, a native of Portugual, didn’t set out to reinvent the Portuguese culinary wheel, just recreate it on a quiet corner in SoHo. His regulars, many of whom are Portuguese and looking for a taste of home, rely on this quaint eatery at Spring and Greenwich for authentic Portuguese fare. Specialties at Pão! (restaurant page) include Caldo Verde, a kale-based soup with potato and linguica (mild Portuguese pork sausage) and Bacalhau and Braz, traditional sautéed cod with egg, onion and straw potatoes.

Pão means “bread” in Portuguese so it shouldn’t be a surprise that bread is a prominent ingredient in one of its signature dishes, Gambas com Acorda, Grilled Tiger Shrimp with Lemon Shellfish Bread Pudding. The beautiful, monochromatic dish features six juicy, butterflied tiger shrimp, which are practically bursting from their glistening orange shells to kiss the lemon-rosemary cream sauce dressing the plate. The shrimp tails are anchored in a mound of savory shellfish bread pudding that is riddled with bits of shrimp, scallop, clams and mussels. The pudding is made from the same broa de milho (wheat and corn bread) that adorns every table.

Gambas com Acorda is much like an Iberian shrimp and grits, with the warm bread pudding offering a smoother sensation than grits. The firm flesh of the shrimp complements the silky texture of the pudding, and the tangy lemon sauce balances its richness. The dish is perfectly paired with a crisp glass of vinho verde, a bright, clean, slightly carbonated ‘green wine’ made from unripe grapes.

FirstLook: Aamchi Pao

Arthur Bovino — June 17, 2009

“There’s always a right time to reinvent yourself,” Chef Surbhi Sahni, told us recently at Aamchi Pao.

No, Chef Sahni isn’t leaving her post as Devi’s pastry chef. But she has joined Nandini Mukherjee as co-owner at the reincarnation of Mukherjee’s West Village restaurant of almost six years, the Indian Bread Co. As previously reported, the Stuffed Parathas and Naanwhichs (grilled Indian “panini”) are gone. There are still Kathi Rolls, but the Naan sandwiches have been replaced by “Pao,” renditions of Pav Bhaji, a Mumbai street food that is essentially an Indian Slider. The word “Pav,” in Marathi (the language of southwestern India), is said to come from Pão, the Portuguese word for bread.

Click here to read more about Aamchi Pao's Mumbai Sliders >>