The next challenge in my quest to find Paleo-friendly dining out options in Kansas City took me to South America. OK, my quest took me to the northeast corner of the River Market to ‘A Taste of Brazil’, a Brazilian restaurant and market. I am always leery of trying restaurants outside of my “cuisine comfort zone”, i.e. no Indian food, limited Middle Eastern food, very limited Asian food – anything that smells funky or has spices my body does not like. So my hope was that South American food would be safe as my expectations would be something in the mexican food range. I have a lot to learn.
Now I have two challenges: find something Paleo and find something in my “cuisine comfort zone”. First step is to review the online menu and find a couple of potential meal options.
Taste of Brazil has a lot of great dishes to choose from, not all of them Paleo but many delicious looking dishes that I may have to try on a diet free day. Example: the Risole, which is breaded fried dough filled with ham, provolone and mozzarella cheese ( $3.95).
But I am going to go as paleo as possible this trip. There were a couple of items I could have chosen from including the “Picanha Na Chapa” a grilled prime cut of top sirloin, served with chimichurri sauce ($10.25)
or the “Taste of Brazil Salad”, which was lettuce, tomato, asparagus, and cashew nuts ($5.25).
I chose the “Frango Com Bacon” – a marinated grilled chicken breast wrapped in bacon ($8.25). You had me at “bacon”. I forgot to ask what the chicken was marinated in, but it didn’t matter. It was juicy and tender. Plus it’s wrapped in bacon!
The order came with a side of chimichurri sauce for dipping. If you’ve never had chimichurri sauce – you need to get out more. Chimichurri is a green sauce used for grilled meat, originally from Argentina. It is made of finely-chopped parsley, chopped cilantro, minced garlic, vegetable oil, oregano, and white vinegar. It tastes great on all grilled meat!
The single kabob was $8.25 and came with no sides. I would have preferred two of the kabobs, or maybe some fresh Brazilian fruit of some sort. Guess I could have added the salad to the order but that was pushing my total over $12.00 which I think is a lot to spend on lunch.
My lunch partners had the “Croquete de Carne”, a marinated fried breaded ground beef rolls $6.75, and the Natura Sandwich – toasted wheat bread with lettuce, tomato asparagus, fresh mozzarella and cilantro chimichurri sauce, $8.25.
I didn’t have time to look through the small store but they do carry a variety of items I would assume are native to Brazil including Guaraná Antárctica which appears to be a berry based soda.
I look forward to a return visit to Taste of Brazil and try a few of the yummy looking desserts too!
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