Feijoada party gives the real taste of Brazil

Host Victoria Jones carried the star of the party, a heavy black clay pot, as if it held precious cargo.

In a way, it did. Inside the dish, feijoada, the national dish of Brazil.

For Jones and Debora Romo, the two days of preparation was also a labor of love and a chance to share their culture with friends.

“The last time I made it, it was for my husband’s family,” Romo said. “Every now and then we get together with people who have never tried it.”

For many of us in the United States, the Brazilian steakhouses are what we know of that country’s cuisine. During a recent seminar at the Culinary Institute of America here, visiting chef Rodrigo Oliveira of São Paulo spoke about the American success of the steakhouses, or churrascaria.

“We’re very glad with that,” he said. “But it’s only one face of our cuisine.”

The true face is the black bean and pork stew that has as many variations as there are Brazilian cooks.

The history of feijoada is a microcosm of the country’s story on a plate. The name comes from the Portuguese word for beans, feijão, and the origins of the dish lie in Brazil’s colonial history. As with x  many of the world’s great dishes, it goes back to the separation between wealthy and poor. In Brazil, the generally accepted story about feijoada is that it originated with the slaves taking the leftover parts of pork — the ears, tail, feet and so on — and cooking it with the beans that were a mainstay of their diet to create this stew.

Now, feijoada is popular throughout the country, with restaurants serving it on Wednesdays and Saturdays.