Arabian Food in Brazil

Over the weekend we accompanied some new friends to an Arabian restaurant. This was actually our second time to Restaurante Monte Libano. Given my never ending desire to find something different, we ate here the same week I moved to town.

At that point we knew none of the names for Brazilian foods, let alone Arabian foods written in Portuguese. We just picked a few things off the menu and waited to see what arrived at our table. The food was great, but we watched as interesting and delicious looking plates were taken to the tables around us. Unfortunately we had no idea what they were.

I was pleasantly surprised when one my new friends here said she loved Monte Libano. She helped us translate the menu and we were on our way to an amazing dinner with some not-so-Brazilian fare.

My favorite find was the hummus! I have been craving hummus like crazy. We had it on flat bread with a yogurt cucumber sauce which was a lot like Greek tzatziki sauce. All the food was delicious, however, there was one thing I didn’t try.

I can’t complete this post without telling you about Kibe Cru. It is basically raw ground, red meat. It comes to the table looking like a mini-meatloaf that hasn’t been baked yet. We all know I'm tired of red meat, but this takes it to a whole new level.

I know, I know. People eat that kind of thing all the time in other cultures. In fact, I can remember when my brothers, who are several years older than me, went through a phase where they were all about body building and eating to build muscle. If I remember correctly, the most popular foods were raw eggs and raw hamburger.

Many people eat it and it doesn’t hurt them at all. Try as you may to convince me, I still won’t try it. My husband has tried it and said it doesn’t really taste like anything special, just raw meat. That doesn’t provide much motivation for me to step out of the comfort zone.

One negative side to being a nutritionist and also being a bit of a culinary traveler is that there are a lot of things that I just can’t overcome because of the knowledge base I have. I know about all the foodborne illnesses. I know what E.Coli can do to you and I’ve seen videos and read horror stories about meat packing plants.

I’ve been convinced to have a little sushi, but I can’t do raw red meat. It doesn’t bother me that other people do. I respect them and our differences as long as they respect mine and don’t expect me to eat it.

Oh, I should mention that Kibe Cru shouldn’t be confused with just plain Kibe. Kibe is the cooked form. It is pretty good. The best comparison to make is that it is like a hush puppie or fritter made with meat and spices.

So Brazilian-Arabian food I love. I could live on hummus and flat bread alone. You just won’t find me ordering any raw meat.

Honestly, I can’t believe my luck in not accidentally ordering it the first time we went. I can’t imagine what I would have thought if a loaf of raw meat had come to the table. I wonder how that would have affected my perception of Brazilian food my first week here?