Café Brazil in Denver

Today Ed (from Yuma) wants to share a meal with mmm-yoso readers that he shared on a recent trip to Denver. Tomorrow if Kirk doesn't post, Cathy will. So stay tuned.

One place that Jane insisted we had to try for dinner was her longtime favorite, Café Brazil:

The several rooms were pleasant and unpretentious with a diverse clientele and pleasant Brazilian music that set the mood:

I'm sure they serve beer and probably wine, but Café Brazil has a "rum room," serves around 75 different varieties of rum, and provides list of yummy sounding rum cocktails on the menu. So I decided on a mojito:

Wow! This mojito was tasty and powerful. The sweet/sour flavors were nicely balanced with the taste of mint predominant.

Jane chose a caipirinha, a Brazilian specialty cocktail (the unofficial cocktail of the 2016 Rio Olympics, they say) made with sugar, lime, and a sizable amount of cachaça (sugarcane liquor):

It was also quite good. I guess I had expected something sweet, but the drink had a nice complexity and depth of flavor. A good start to the meal.

Since it was my first time looking over the menu, we decided to start with an appetizer; we picked fried bananas:

These little banana balls were perfectly fried and had a crunchy crisp exterior wrapped around a warm gooey banana center. Good as they were, we kind of wished we had ordered them as a dessert. They did, however, keep us from being hungry for sure.

Our server placed these salsas in the middle of the table:

On the left is a deeply flavored malaqueta pepper salsa, very tasty without being too fiery. On the right a Brazilian style pico de gallo, with red peppers and pickled onions.

Those condiments complemented our small bowls of flavorful black bean soup:

I liked the soup. While not creamy, the soup had a pleasant smokiness in the background and a bright spiciness upfront.

We also received a bread basket:

The breads were a reflection of the cuisine – these were not European-style baguettes, but breads that seemed at home in tropical and subtropical America – earthy flavored lightly sweet breads with mixed whole grains, nuts, and bits of fruit.

We had had some difficulties choosing our entrées – most of the choices looked good. I was severely tempted by the varieties of feijoada (the national dish of Brazil), but in the end we decided to focus on seafood.

I got the moqueca de peixe, a seafood stew in a coconut milk gravy over rice:
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The shrimp were large and of excellent quality. Underneath them, on the left side of the picture, is one of the two large sea scallops in the dish. On the right side is one of the two pieces of bacalhau. The scallops were fine and I was impressed by the preparation of the salt cod. The rice underneath brought together the seafood flavors with the slightly sweet touch of creamy ginger garlic coconut milk.

Jane received La Caleña, a different seafood stew on rice:

From where I was sitting, the entrée looked like a small fortress with red pepper walls and battlements composed of carrot sticks and zucchini wedges as if to protect the large shrimp and scallops within.

So I also took a picture from above:

The spicy broth and rice had tomato and seafood flavors. The red peppers and zucchinis were perfectly cooked – tender but firm. And they took on some of the flavors of the sauce. I thought a couple of the carrots were a little underdone though.

We traded plates back and forth and generally agreed it was a good dinner. Café Brazil did well.  I am obviously no expert on Brazilian cuisine, but almost everything tasted great, the ambience and service were fine, and I would love to go back and try more of the menu. I can see why this spot is a local favorite.

 

Comments

[caninecologne]

The seafood stew looks delicious especially with those meaty shrimps! I'm with you on those fried bananas...more of a dessert thing than as an appetizer. I like my sweets but after the entree.

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Both were good, cc.

BTW, I think about your nom de plume regularly after I've been mugged by my dog.

[Caninecologne]

Oh my!