Little hiding places for yummies - Ribeirão Preto

This is going to be my first post of four on food in the interior of São Paulo. Much like in the US, there is a whole new level of "comfort food" (and drink...but that's tomorrow) in the interior of this country. This is the fried chicken of the Dutch Essenhaus in Michigan. This is the deep-fried butter of the Iowa State Fair. This is not to show your medical team about how you are doing on your diet.

The above picture is an "escondidinho". This means a little hiding place. You can hide many things under a layer of mandioca (yucca), or if you prefer it could be potatoes or mandioquinha (errr, don't know how to translate that one. Neither does wikipedia--it is NOT in between a carrot and celery. Seriously now, people). By the way, mandioca has quite a few unpronounceable synonyms depending on which region you are in.  In the northeast (where this dish is originally from), mandioca is known as "macaxeira" and may also be known as "aipim." There are about four more synonyms in wikipedia, all of questionable faith.

Back to hiding things. The most famous "escondidinho" is "escondidinho de carne" and under the layer of yum is dried beef. Why does this all sound yucky in English? Not sure. But I will carry on. The "escondidinho" above is of bacalhau, or dried cod, and is not my favorite. In fact, you could hide bacalhau under a large brick and my sniffer would detect it and reject it. Bacalhau is not my thing. Here it is prettied up by some nice olives and potato slices. I stole an olive and passed it on...

Tomorrow, we shall discuss the Territory of Chopp.

Escondidinho de carne. Recipe and photo here: http://mdemulher.abril.com.br/blogs/anamaria-receitas/2012/02/18/escondidinho-de-carne-receitas-deliciosas/