WHILE 1,500 people from Shanghai have flown to Brazil to enjoy the monthlong 2014 FIFA World Cup starting today, those who either don’t have the time or budget can still taste a bit of this passionate South American country in the city.

For most people in Shanghai, Brazilian food equals barbecue, and Latina stands for the highest level in this field.

“But we do not only have barbecue. We have more dishes and variety in different areas in our country,” says Ana Candida Perez, consul general of Brazil in Shanghai, who came here two years ago.

Perez prepares dinners at home for her family — authentic homemade Brazilian cuisines. Besides salad and soup, the most common dish at Perez’s home is Brazilian favorite feijoada. In Brazil, people eat feijoada more than barbecue, and it’s usually cooked by housewives at home.

Feijo in Portuguese is a kind of black bean. If it’s slowly cooked in salty sauces, it’s simply Feijo. If some spectacular ingredients are cooked together with the black beans, including salty pork meats, pork sausages and onions, the dish becomes feijoada, which is regarded as the national food in Brazil.

“Brazilian food is a heritage of Africans and Indians. Feijoada is a representative dish of the mixed cultures,” says Perez.

This salty, delicious dish is the best partner with rice, and Brazilians prepare rice in their own way — frying a little bit with oil, onion and garlic first, then put in water and boiled for 15 minutes.

“The rice will be much tastier than plain steamed rice,” Perez says.

In addition, a side food hard to miss on Brazilians’ dinner plate is fried cassava flour.

“We eat a lot cassava in Brazil, but it’s a pity that I cannot find it here. Friends bring them to me from Brazil,” Perez adds.

A member of the potato family, cassava is planted only in South America and plays an important role in Brazil. Cassava was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese, who also took it to other colonies in Asia and Africa in the 16th century. It is now also one of the main dishes in Africa.

“People in other countries may eat potato chips when they watch games in front of the television, but Brazilians eat fried cassava sticks instead of French fries,” Perez says.

With a strong passionate for football, Brazilians like to invite relatives and friends to watch games together. Everybody gathers in front of the TV to drink and eat snacks.

In these occasions, Brazilians usually drink icy cold beer and the most famous local cocktail, caipirinha.

Caipirinha is made with lime and cachaca, a typical Brazilian alcoholic spirit. Cachaca is distilled from pure, freshly pressed (within 24 hours of harvesting) sugarcane juice. Rum, on the other hand, is made from what is left over after the main sugar-removal process.

Cachaca can be combined with other fresh fruit and even with fresh peppers to make refreshing cocktails. Very popular combinations with cachaca are passion fruit, pineapple, pomegranate, crushed strawberry and coconut juice.

Besides fried cassava sticks, Brazilian people also eat fried shrimp, fried chicken and cheeses as typical snacks.

Empanadas, another favorite in Brazil, was brought to the country by the Portuguese colonizers.

Brazilians have their own version called empadas or empadinhas (little empadas); it’s also commonly known as pastel, which is a baked or fried stuffed bread widely seen as starters, snack in bars or available at weekend market that is called feira in every corners of the country.

Brazilian empanadas are more likely to have a round shape, like mini pie. They usually consists of a variety of meat, cheese, shrimp, huitlacoche, vegetable like hearts of palm (a very common ingredient in Brazilian cooking), sauteed onions, and black olives, and fruits like banana.

Brazilians Jun Taichi and Tania Caleffi opened their first Latina restaurant in Shanghai over 10 years ago. Now several branches are in the city — in Xintiandi, Xujiahui, Lujiazui and Jinqiao in Pudong. The restaurant serves authentic Brazilian barbecue and other traditional Brazilian dishes, normally charging 168 yuan per person during the weekday, with higher prices on weekend nights.

“Brazilians like their Xintiandi restaurant not only because of the authentic cuisine,” Perez says, “It’s like a club for Brazilian people living in this city. We can meet friends there, especially on weekends.”

More than 4,000 Brazilian people are now living in Shanghai, excluding those who haven’t registered with the consulate, according to the consul general.

There will be a special open house at Latina restaurant in Xuhui District (1 Hongqiao Rd) for the first match at 4am on June 13. During the FIFA World Cup, many activities will be held in the restaurants, which house big-screen TVs.

In Brazil, restaurants come in all types, including some that serve food supermarket-style and charge per kilo (including salad, meats, rice and fruits). But in Shanghai Brazilian restaurants serve buffets, like Latina.

The ingredients for barbecue are relatively easier to get in China, and Perez says she can get most ingredients for cooking at home from supermarkets, as well as wet markets for fresh vegetables and fruits.

“But it’s hard to get most ingredients for other Brazilian foods here, as Brazil, as the fifth-biggest country in the world, has various cuisines in different regions,” says the consul general, who was born in the south, famous for barbecue.

For example, Brazil has a special kind of bread, which foreigners call “cheese bread” that is hard to find in other parts of the world.

Widely known by its Portuguese name pao de queijo, the bread is eaten as breakfast, snacks before dinning or for any break time, often accompanied by a cup of coffee or fresh juice.

In fact, pao de queijo is technically not made of bread at all, but made with cheese and cassava flour powder. With egg, oil and cheese, the “bread” is extremely soft and elastic when it's fresh baked.

In Shanghai, this cheese bread is served in Brazilian barbecue restaurants. Now the powder of cassava flour imported from Brazil is also available in some Chinese food stores (the label in Chinese is Ì«¸Û).