Focus on Brazil

The international arts festival Europalia, organized annually in Belgium, this year focuses on one of the so called BRIC countries, namely Brazil. In short, the BRIC countries are characterized by their newly advanced economic development.
Of course this blog isn't appropriate for discussing economics but I thought of focusing on Brazil because their culinary heritage isn't well known in these regions. Maybe the only known preparation originated from Brazil is tapioca, made from carbohydrate extracted from manioc. I only know tapioca as an extra flavor for soups.
But traditional Brazilian dishes? Maybe dulce de leche is known by sweet teeth. This delicious dessert will be one of the things I'll prepare for this blog (and my and my friends' pleasure of course).
Of course Brazilian food is influenced both by the culinary traditions of former colonizer Portugal and the eating culture of it's Latin-American neighbors. Even Indian, African and Japanese influences have entered the Brazilian cuisines, due to the ancient trade routes and for other reasons which I'm not discussing here (mainly because I'm not a historian and still have to learn a lot about the fascinating history of South-America).

For some reason(s) I'll focus not only on Brazil, but also on the Brazilian sweets. I searched a lot about their food and was constantly distracted by things as pão de mel (honey cake with chocolate), bolo prestígio (a rich and creamy chocolate cake) and of course dulce de leche (caramel cream).
Brazilians surely know how to make tasty desserts. And they have excellent coffee, so in a while you'll find my first experiments with Latin-American cooking here! Will be continued...

Bolo prestígio

Dulce de leche