Brazilian beyond Churrascaria: Feijoada at Sinha's Home

Chef Jorgina Periera of Sinha Elegant Brazilian Cuisine caterers will be opening her place from 2 to 6 p.m. Sundays for "Feijoada Completa" beginning Dec. 18. The $35 meal includes vegetarian and seafood appetizers, black beans with dry meats, rice, farofa, couvinha mineira, orange salad, fried bananas, vinaigrette and roasted beef. A vegetarian version will be available, and on Dec. 25 a holiday buffet features.

It's BYOB and there will be live music from Paulinho Garcia.

Sinha's only seats 35, so reservations are required.

I have been to one of her catered events and the food was wonderful.

Sinha's Home Restaurant
2018 W. Adams St., Chicago
(312) 491-8200
http://www.sinhaelegantcuisine.com

HI,

At $35 it is far cheaper than whenever ChicaGourmet has offered dining excursions to her home. BYOB certainly helps keep the price reasonable.

I was turned off by her a few years ago with the vegetarian feijoada; which misses the whole point. Is her food truly Brazilian or interpretive? I remember reading somewhere where she made things more to her wimsy than what a Brazilian would identify as <fill in Brazilian national dish>.

Regards,

Truly brasilien is totally interpretive, Brasil is a melting pot and the food of Brasil is not of restaurant cooks but of home cooks, which is inherently interpretive.

As to a vegetarian feijoada, while feijoada is understood as a certain mix of meat and beans, identified as the "national dish," the word feijoada simply means something like "a bean thing" in the same sense that Italians might say let's have a spagettata (sp?) meaning a pasta meal.

It is a common misunderstanding of brasilien food to think that it is meat heavy. Probably driven by the proliferation of churrasquerias, about which I shall say no more as I have already made my views on that subject known.

The beans that are eaten by brasiliens at lunch and dinner every day are not typically cooked with any meat (for seasoning even).

There are regional versions of feijoada that incorporate ingredients like pumpkin. I can well imagine how a good brasilien cook could make a wonderful vegetarian feijoada.

I have to agree that Jorgina Periera does a solid job making lots of truly Brazilian things that are not otherwise widely found in Chicago. I have tasted her food and sent some work her way for catering. She is from Rio, but cooks things that could be considered typically Bahian. While not meat-heavy, as Annie notes, many of the foods make good use of the deep fryer. Not surprisingly, lots of things will remind you of Afro-Caribbean snacks that are found in Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc. bodegas and cafes. I can't vouch for her beans, however, as I have not tried them.

I've had a non-vegetarian feijoada made by Jorgina, which was not as variously meaty as Brasil Legal's, but still pretty darn satisfying. This was at a dinner attended by mostly Brazilians and I encountered quite a few delicious things I've never seen/heard of before.

But you know she's a caterer of some repute--she's cooked for Paul McCartney at the United Center--so she adjusts menus to suit customer desires. When Sir Paul wants you to cook backstage are you gonna drop a few pig ears in the feijoada just to maintain your street cred?

When Sir Paul wants you to cook backstage are you gonna drop a few pig ears in the feijoada just to maintain your street cred?

True.

I just associated feijoada with piggy bits until today. I learned a bit from annieb's post that this is perfectly acceptable.

I'm somewhat encouraged JeffB (and LAZ) liked her food. I was getting mixed reviews from others.

Live and learn!

Regards,

I'm really sorry that I'm not going to be in town for this. It looks like a ncie introduction to Brazilian Cuisine.

YourPalWill wrote:I'm really sorry that I'm not going to be in town for this. It looks like a ncie introduction to Brazilian Cuisine.

It sounds like it's going to be every Sunday.

I had the real pleasure of taking in Jorgina's distinctive and wonderful brunch buffet today.

My group of four arrived at Sinha at about 2 pm with a bottle of cachaca in hand. I say this only because it should be noted that Sinha is BYOB.

The front room of the house was already well filled with other guests, many of whom were sipping glasses of wine. Our bottle of cachaca was whisked off to the kitchen. Shortly thereafter, the first of several pitchers of caiprinhas arrived. There was enough for both our guests and other curious partakers among the crowd. For most dining with us today, Brazilian food and culture was a bit of a mystery.

When one arrives at Sinha, one should understand that it is not just for a meal, but for a Brazilian cultural experience, too. While the crowd enjoys a pre-meal cocktail or glass of wine, they are entertained by a fabulous demonstration in Brazilian Dance by a man and woman dressed in traditional costumes of Carnival.

During the cocktail period, Guests munched on passed plates of coxhina, a Brazilian croquette filled with cheese and a creamed chicken mixture as well as croquettes filled with cheese and hearts of palm. Both are consistent with the types of snacks that one can buy on the streets of Brazil from typical lanchonetes and juice bars.

When the meal was served, all 32 of the guests were invited to make their way to the lower level kitchen and dining room where a feast rivaling what one would find in the many excellent buffet and por kilo restaurants in Sao Paulo and Rio.

As is the tradition in all Brazilian households on Sundays, Jorgina's buffet centers around a feijoada completa consisting of white rice, black beans, deliciously fatty shredded pork hock, linguica, and sliced ham.

Each of the elements is served separately so that guests can build their own feijoada to their own specifications. The feijoada is served with a traditional farofa (toasted manioc flour) and boiled eggs. The feijoada was also accompanied by traditional Brazilian style collard greens, thinly sliced and sauteed crispy.

There was also a large plate of thinly sliced oranges to help with digestion of the heavy meal. Further back in the kitchen, there was a station set up serving really memorable piping hot and crispy acarejes, deep fried cakes of mashed black eyed peas split and filled with caruru, a stew of dried shrimp and hot peppers. Acarejes are a specialty of Bahia and were the undisputed stars of this meal. .

There was also an excellent baked dish of cod and shrimp finished in a lemony sauce, slow cooked beef spare ribs in gravy,a big pan of chicken cooked in a traditionally bland Brazilian cream sauce (which I skipped in favor of an extra short rib), various salads, hot vegetables, hot peppers in vinegar and sliced jalapenos deliciously filled with mild Brazilian cheese then broiled to delicious perfection.

The meal was concluded with a delicious light flan served with whipped cream and a strawberry and a chocolate caramel sweet.

As we left, the guests for the second seating were just beginning to arrive and we were able to enjoy their introduction to Brazilian dance once more before we departed.

The only down side of the day was that the weather was too chilly for Jorgina to open her beautiful patio for al fresco dining and a churassca.

Sinha is a great bargain at $30 per person plus tip. There was a terrific and diverse crowd today which made the already wonderful meal even more interesting. Jorgina was a great hostess working her way between tables and sharing her passion for her culture and its food with her guests.

I highly recommend a trip to Sinha if you haven't yet made one.

Sinha
2018 West Adams
312-491-8200
"Brunch" served every Sunday from 2 pm to 6 pm
Reservations Are Required

I had not heard of this place until about five minutes ago when I was invited to a holiday party there. I'm inclined to accept the invitation based on the largely positive reviews above, but I'm a little surprised to see not a word for almost two and a half years. Can anyone help me out with a more recent update?

Our Brazilian friends adored their dining experience with Sinha as a hostess (and if it helps round out her experience, she caters some of the World Music Festival concerts here in Chicago). They said the Carnival dance performance wasn't something they thought was traditional but they loved the food, the music and the energy. They were there in the dead of winter and only wished they could have taken the raucous dancing outside into her patio garden. They like to dance.

I am planning on taking my husband in January for his birthday. Seems like a super special occasion but slightly off the radar kind of place. For those of us who revel in this kind of a food experience.

bjt

Had an excellent meal here today. A large buffet or 3 of flavorful feijoada and accouterments. You could feel/see the African influence as well as some familiar tastes we would associate with the South.