São Braz Coffee Shop
Recife
São Braz's simple cakes look like as if taken from a local family table. Paired with a cup of coffee, the delicate, fine crumb, makes the perfect mouthful.
The looks of a European café may suggest a classical French-inspired menu, but popping over to a São Braz Coffee Shop is irrefutably a genuine local experience.
There are a number spread around town, with four tagged here on map, and in all the main Shopping Centres.
A cornmeal recipe, the Northeast Brazilian cuscuz is topped with your choice of traditional butter or coalho cheeses. Mozzarella is also available, and the meat versions combine sun-dried beef or charque jerky. Made with fresh sweetcorn, pamonhas resemble a sturdy polenta, richer both in taste and texture and served with your preferred combination from above. Manioc starch tapiocas are pan-fried and filled as a crêpe, or comfortingly soaked in coconut milk.
Whatever your choice is, one should not miss the chance of trying the tangy, velvet-like local butter cheese, so start practicing your Portuguese by picking some 'queijo manteiga, por favor' to go with it. Besides a variety of coffee and chocolate drinks, the icing on the cake is - cakes themselves. Orange cake, coffee cake, banana cake. Old-fashioned and delicious.
