The 10 dishes to check out Porto Alegre, Brazil

Despite mentioning the predominantly European influences, we should really start the list with something less generic than regular European dishes famous across the globe. For example, Porto Alegre has vatapá, a dish of African origin introduced in Brazil through the Yoruba people with the name of "ehba-tápa". It is basically cream pasta made from shrimp and coconut milk with a bit of peanut and palm oil. Most often, vatapá is served with rice.

Decent vatapá is hard to find, but several good restaurants like Iaiá Bistrô offer magnificent meals with it.

Now for the European elements on the local food scene. The first one worthy of mention would be prosciutto, a dish of Italian origin basically consisting of uncooked, unsmoked, and dry-cured ham. Since we're discussing brazil, it would be logical to refer to the food as "prosciutto crudo", since this is the specific type of ham invented by the Italian chefs and popularized abroad. It's not just any dry meat but specifically prepared and served elements of a healthy and nutritious meal. Unless you overdo it, of course.

In Porto Alegre, prosciutto can be found at places like Jean Pierre.

Continuing with the topic of meat on our list, it's inevitable that we encounter feijoada, one of the most popular Brazilian dishes. Regular feijoada is a stew of beans with beef and pork common on any table in the Portuguese-speaking world. Porto Alegre is actually one of the first cities where this dish became popular and spread to become a stable of Brazilian cuisine. There are different feijoada versions, some more dietary recommended, some fattier, etc.

Check out restaurants such as Armazém do Sabor for decent feijoada.

We've been looking at port and ham before, but chicken should not be underestimated. Brazilian cuisine is very crafty with different kinds of meat, and a stew of rice with chicken is no less common than feijoada. A particular recipe has gotten the name galinhada, literally derived from the Portuguese word for "chicken". Galinhada's popularity can be easily explained by the simplicity of the recipe and the availability of components, yet one should not cast this dish aside for being less exquisite and rare than something else.

Galinhada can be found at restaurants like Spina.

Once again dealing with meat, we should note that even the foreign dishes become something special and different in Brazil. Churrasco, for example, is usually referred to as the grilled beef, but in Brazil, the meat can be different, only the means of preparing it on a purpose-built "churrasqueira", a barbecue grill with supports for spits or skewers for holding the meat and slicing it off directly onto the plate. There are various modifications of the dish, including "churrasco moçambicano", grilled meat from Mozambique.

Try places like Komka for good churrasco.

Moving away from the meaty side of the food scene, we should try something lighter yet still essentially Brazilian. Farofa is a toasted cassava or cornflour mixture that can be found at local stores as packaged food, but every Brazilian will tell you that the only proper way to make it is by following a household recipe. Restaurants offer a great variety of farofa dishes with a personal touch. The only real trick is to find an even more special modification in the region where everyone makes their own.

Try some options, including Pobre Juan.

There's one more sort of local food we haven't covered yet — sweets. Brazilia is a hot place, and even its pastries are usually fried, just like churros. A churro is a piece of dough fried thoroughly and containing jelly or caramelized milk. It allegedly started as food for Spanish shepherds, but now different countries with Spanish and Portuguese influences make their own churros as a restaurant marvel. It's easily made on an open fire and replaces almost any kind of candy or chocolate.

The aptly named El Churrero will take care of most of your churro needs.