Salgados

I have only come to fully appreciate the amazingness of salgados during my latest stay here in Brazil. I’ve always known that they existed, but I never ate them often during my last two stays in Brazil. This time, however, they’ve become one of my staple foods.

The term “salgado” is very widely-encompassing and basically describes any of a large number of small things to eat. Literally translated, it means “salty,” which contrasts with the sweeter dessert-like items, termed “doces (sweets).” A lot of salgados look like croissants and are filled most commonly with cheese or meat. They can also be square or circular, though, and can be filled with things as diverse as shrimp, hotdogs, or palm hearts. The only common denominator is that whatever’s inside is surrounded with baked dough.

The main reason why they are so amazing is because they are really cheap. Ironically, that is part of why I didn’t eat them often in the past. I usually ate at places with flashy, American-looking signs that were clean and looked nice, but because of that, they were also more expensive. Cheap salgados tend to be sold in little hole-in-the-wall sidewalk restaurants that have handwritten signs and tend to look rather run-down. I avoided them because I didn’t trust their standards of cleanliness.

However, one night during Carnaval Laura, Vianney, and I were hungry and one of those little restaurants happened to be the first place we came upon. We stopped in for some salgados, and I’ve never looked back since. I’m aiming to save as much money as possible since I’m here for so long without any means of income, so I’m willing to risk cleanliness for cheap food. The best part is, I have yet to get sick from anything, so those restaurants must be cleaner than they appear.

one of the nicer-looking salgado restaurants

Salgados are also sold in little food kiosks outside of PUC. My favorite place sells a salgado and a small plastic cup of Coca-Cola for just under $1.25. If I’m not overly hungry, that’s enough of a meal for me. Different salgados are cooked throughout the day, so it’s always a bit of a gamble as to what’s going to be there when I order. I usually get ones with cheese or chicken. On lucky days there are ones with chocolate! It seems to me that the chocolate ones would be more accurately called “doces,” but I guess they just get grouped together with all the regular salgados in this case.

my favorite salgado kiosk

a sampling of salgados