Vancouver Bites!

Vancouver Bites into BrazilFest

Posted by vancouverbites on September 19, 2010 · 4 Comments 

BrazilFest happened last month.  Yeah, I went, of course.  But I haven’t posted about it till now.  Hmm.  Reasoning? BrazilFest was an epic fail of such proportions that I couldn’t even bring myself to blog about it until now.

So, here it is, my very short post about my very short visit to Brazilfest.

Big Man didn’t want to go to BrazilFest, but I thought it would be cool.  Big Man, Little Man, and I have been training capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, with the world-renowned Axé Capoeira for over three years, which means our whole family has become part of the Axé Capoeira family.  We get hefty doses of Brazilian culture, language, and food into our lives on a fairly regular basis.  Why not get a little more?

I should have realized that having some contact with Brazilian food and culture would set my expectations of BrazilFest a little too high.

When we got there, the band that was on stage was playing an actual Brazilian song. Some Brazilian women were dancing the Samba.  I could tell they were Brazilian because their hips moved far too fast for them to be anything else.  I’ve taken some Samba classes and I’m pretty sure that the skill of the dance runs in their blood and that I’ll never be able to attain it without a serious blood transfusion.

Of course, I headed towards the food, but it was such a clusterfuck that it took 10 minutes to realize how the  process worked.  There was a pay tent that was marked with “Cashier.”  The cashier tent had no real communication with the food tents, where there were no signs to indicate that you had to buy tickets first.  I found this out after standing in line at the food tent first.

After getting my tickets, I went to the coxinha tent.  They were almost out of coxinhas, even though the cashier tent was continuing to sell tickets for coxinhas.  I think I got the last 4 coxinhas.

Then I headed to the feijoada tent. They were completely out and told me to come back in 20 minutes.  Seriously?

When I finally got the food, I was utterly disappointed.  The food was catered by Eh! Restaurant.  Why the hell they got Eh! to cater this Brazilian event, I will never know.  Sure, Eh! is supposed to be an international cuisine restaurant, but shouldn’t you get a Brazilian or Brazilian restaurant to cater the food?! Hiring Eh! was a big mistake.

Okay, let’s start with the coxinhas.  Now, I love coxinhas.  Axé Capoeira frequently has a local Brazilian caterer bring in coxinhas for their events.  The caterer bakes her coxinhas, rather than fry them in a deep fryer. She sells these popular Brazilian snacks of battered pockets of chicken and spices for $1 each.  They are soooo good that I usually buy as many as I can eat in one sitting (5-6) and indulge. Eh!’s coxinhas (4 for $5) were the typical deep-fried variety and they were noticeably smaller than the ones that I’m used too.  They were okay, but kind of boring for coxinhas.  Meh.

Coxinhas

The feijoada was an utter disaster. I’m so glad it was only $5.  Ugh!  It wasn’t feijoada, which is a delicious stew of black beans and meat served with rice, so much as it was just a scoop of completely unseasoned black beans, chicken breast on the side, and a scoop of plain white rice.  This was one of the most disappointing meals I had ever paid for. It was flavourless.

"Feijoada"

We left shortly after we ate.  In contrast the Powell Street Festival, where I wish I could have spent my whole day at the event, I was eager to leave BrazilFest.  I will skip BrazilFest and grab homestyle Brazilian food—made by Brazilians—whenever I can in the future.

If you want to give Eh! Restaurant’s regular menu items a try, you can find them here:

Eh! Restaurant

2nd floor

1050 Alberni St.

Vancouver, BC

604-568-9915