Translation of Seafood Dishes on Brazilian Restaurant Menus

Mar 14, 2011
Karin-Marijke Vis

Seafood Dishes on Brazilian Restaurant Menus - Coen Wubbels

The Atlantic Coast of Brazil offers a large diversity of shellfish and sea fish. Understanding Brazilian menus will help you order your favourite dish.

Are frutos do mar in Portuguese the same as fruits de mer in French? What is the difference between peixe and peixada? Seafood dishes on restaurant menus in Brazil can be quite confusing for the uninitiated, even after you thought you had conquered the basics of this complicated language.

Ordering food in Brazilian restaurants

There are many ways to make yourself understood when travelling in Brazil without speaking Portuguese. In restaurants you can indicate a dish on a neighbour's table, or – when allowed – in the kitchen, while the creative minds may mimic the kind of animal they'd like to eat. After that, it is keeping your fingers crossed while waiting to see what dish you will get served.

In seafood restaurants, it can be discouraging to have asked for an ensopada, thinking it is a soup, and to be served a coconut sauce. Or, to have asked for a pitú under the [correct] assumption it is a brand of cachaça [liquor of sugarcane], but to be served a lobster – which is the original meaning of pitú, from which the liquor brand stole the image.

Basic terminology of seafood restaurant menus – petisco or almoço

There may be as many ways to describe seafood dishes as there are menus; however, certain words are found on most restaurant menus along the coast of northeast Brazil. Knowing the right translation may not always ensure getting what you want, but will at least largely increase that possibility.

Note that the Brazilian main meal of the day is lunch; restaurants that serve a decent dinner [other than pizza, that is] are most likely found in big cities or tourist spots frequented by foreigners. To be served the best food, adjust to the Brazilian way of life and enjoy your main meal around noon.

First you will have to choose between petisco and almoço. Petiscos are small portions [although too large to be an appetiser], served with a salad and farofa – manioc flour sautéed in butter, sometimes with bits of egg or bacon. Almoço, by contrast, is a complete lunch served with rice, beans, pirão [fish sauce], farofa and salad.

Fish may be offered as filé, for example Filé de Tilápio or Filé de Surubim. Generally you can choose from:

Filé adoré – fish fried in olive oil.
Filé milanesa – breaded fish
Filé moqueca – fish fried in dendê palm oil, which is typical of the Bahian region in northeast Brazil.

Seafood menus – what are frutos do mar, peixe and peixada

The Brazilian frutos do mar is not the same as the French fruits de mer. The latter, consisting of small crustaceans and shellfish, is called mariscos in Brazilian Portuguese. The Brazilian frutos de mar, however, contains mariscos as well as any other type of fish. Whereas frutos do mar is sea fish, frutos do mar [rio] means fresh water fish.

The difference between peixe and peixada:

Peixe is always fried fish.
Peixada is fish cooked in dendê palm oil, coconut milk and condiments called tempero. In most cases you can choose from different types of fish such as Peixada de Dourado, Peixada de Robalo or Peixada de Arabaiana. Highly recommended! On request the fish can be cooked without the dendê palm oil, which for some people is too heavy to digest.

Eating fish in Brazilian restaurants

Except in highly exclusive restaurants and/or restaurants in very touristy areas, you won't find a menu in English. Bringing a phrasebook or a copy of this article to your seafood restaurant will help you understand some of the confusing terms on Brazilian restaurant menus and may get you the dish you want. Lovers of seafood may also want to read more about the different types of mariscos on Brazilian menus. Enjoy your meal!