Food & Cuisine in Belo Horizonte

Food info sections | Eating locally

Eating out in Belo Horizonte will be a memorable experience; one that will have your taste buds tingling and begging for more. An exotic mix of African, Portuguese and Native Indian foods combine to create the sensational taste of Belo Horizonte cuisine.

Only in Belo Horizonte could one savour all these unique gastronomic delights!

Our Belo Horizonte Restaurant Guide gives information on Mineira cuisine and popular dishes you will find across the region, as well as listing some recommended Belo Horizonte restaurants. If you haven't yet booked your Belo Horizonte accommodation or tours, be sure to check out what we have on offer. Our Belo Horizonte Shopping Guide gives some great souvenir and gifts ideas available to purchase on your trip.

Food & Cuisine in Belo Horizonte

History

The Mineiro cuisine reveals the African, Portuguese and Native Indian roots of the people. A peek into the history of the land explains the reason for this mix. It was around the 16th century that Brazil lived through its cycle of gold. With the discovery of gold and diamonds in Minas Gerais, the state became the destination of choice for thousands of people from all over Brazil. They settled in Minas with dreams of becoming wealthy. These mining regions soon became Brazil's most important economic centre. A natural effect of this was the economic growth of the neighbouring regions. Diamantina, Mariana, Ouro Preto , São João Del Rei, and Tiradentes were the first few towns of Minas Gerais.

Minas Gerais's location, close to both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, proved to be very fortunate. People from every corner of the country moved to the state, bringing with them their native recipes. In time, these traditional recipes underwent many changes; ingredients were sometimes added and sometimes replaced, resulting in quite an interesting blend of tastes. This makes the Mineiro cuisine quite distinct. 

Popular Dishes and Ingredients

Mineiro food is very traditional and the recipes have been passed on from generation to generation. Some of the popular dishes are beans and manioc meal, corn breads and cakes, cheese rolls, chicken and okra, chicken in blood sauce, cookies, corn meal and collard greens, feijoada or black beans and pork, guava paste, and mineiro caramel.  Brazilians like to wash down their meal with liqueurs made from jabuticaba, a berry or pequi, a savannah fruit, and Cachaça or sugar cane brandy, and delicious coffee.

The ingredients that create the distinctly different Minas cuisine are native foods such as cassava, corn, honey, and sweet potato, in addition to beef, herbs, pork, red pepper, sausages and tropical fruits such as guava and jabuticaba. All these ingredients, reflecting the culture of the different people, combine to make the cuisine rich and flavourful.

Origin of Popular Dishes

The Mineiro cuisine is a reflection of the people's experiences through the ages and a lot of the flavours originated during colonial times. Those were times when people used what was available locally. In fact the aromas and tastes of the past are alive today as well.

The slaves left behind their popular dish feijoada while the flavourful feijão tropeiro belonged to the Tropeiros or the people who drove mule-trains to transport goods. The feijão tropeiro is not only mouth watering, but its presentation is a feast for the eyes too. Here we must mention the pão de queijo or cheese rolls, and we cannot forget the well-known cachaça, which became a symbol of the region.

Another famous dish is the very popular rice and beans. Coffee, sweets and cheeses from the farms are all part of the Minas Gerais cuisine.

Food Festivals and Other Food Sources

The Mercado Central is the best place to feast on all these traditional dishes. The market stalls sell these meals all year round. Another place to enjoy these dishes is at various food festivals. Some of them are the Comida di Buteco or the Bar Food, the Brasil Sabor or Brazil Flavour, which starts soon after the Carnival and carries on till May, or the Festas Juninas in June and July, which is like a party filled with regional food, music and dance.

If you should want to try food from other regions of Brazil, there are several restaurants that specialise in other cuisines as well. International cuisines are also readily available for the homesick traveller, from Arabic food to different kinds of Asian food, Italian food to Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and Iranian food as well.

Drink

The Savassi neighbourhood in central Belo Horizonte is the place to go to if you are looking for a drink, as the area is teeming with bars. The cover charges of many clubs are unnecessarily high but the best way to experience the Brazilian bar scene is to go to the outdoor ones.

The locals are well known for their love of bars and in fact, the city is said to have the most bars per capita in the world, though this fact is not confirmed completely.

Acerola, most commonly known as an ingredient in vitamin pills, is available in abundance here. You can have fresh acerola squeezed into your orange juice right in front of you! The drink is rightfully called vitamina. Acerola, being perishable, is stored on ice. Bananas, abacaxi or pineapples, açaí, and mamão or papayas are other fruits prepared similarly.

The cachaça is perhaps the most well known drink of Minas Gerais. The best way to enjoy cachaça is in mixed drinks. Catuaba is another popular wine-like sweet tasting drink.

True, Savassi is the most popular spot on Fridays and Saturdays. Dancing is very popular here but the environment is not for the faint hearted!