Hot Hot Colorado Vacation 2012: Pt. 2 -- Pigging Out As The Brazilians Do

One nice part of visiting Colorado is that my parents kindly offer to watch our kids while we have a "temple date." The Denver Colorado LDS Temple is much more conveniently located than our "home" temple (the one in Mesa, AZ) for a short getaway. To get to Mesa, we usually have to drive upwards of two hours...with our kids. The Denver Temple is about 25 minutes from my parent's front door (20 if the traffic is good!). You do the math.

Anyway, we had a lovely time at the temple. It was nice to sit and commune quietly with the Lord for a little while. I was able to both thank Him for the help I've received over the last year, and ask His help in dealing with my trials and setbacks. I was filled with a somewhat new feeling...a feeling that it's okay to feel sorrowful about some things, so long as we have faith in the Lord to support us through those feelings and do our best to overcome them on our own.

And now (not to change the mood too drastically), it's time for the "shameless plug" portion of this blog, wherein I rave about another place that cheered me up on our date: Rodizio Grill, the Brazilian steakhouse we had lunch at following our trip to the temple. At one point there were many of these restaurants around the Denver area, but this one is actually the last remaining, and it's located in Lower Downtown Denver (LoDo to the natives).

If you haven't ever been to a churrascaria (pronounced "sho-has-ka-REE-ah"), I highly recommend it! Brazilian-style steakhouses (at least in my limited experience) are well worth the trip, though they may put a slight strain on your checkbook and a considerable strain on your waistline. Most of these steakhouses have just one option: all-you-can-eat salad bar and meat. It's called "The Full Rodizio" at this particular restaurant. There are usually a dozen or so meat choices, all of which are roasted on a large flaming rotisserie-style grill thingy. As you can tell by my scientific explanation, that means these roasted meats come off the grill hot, sizzling, and dripping. The unique aspect of these restaurants is that the meat skewers are brought straight from the flames to your table, carted by several helpful (and always male!) waiters (the website calls them "gauchos," but I seriously doubt any of these guys ever actually herded cattle):

They bring along a small cutting board and a huge ol' knife. The restaurant provides every guest with their own set of tongs, the better to grab the slices of meat as the guy's slicing it off for your gustatory pleasure.

Mmmmmm....here's a picture of some of the meat I ate. Each "gaucho" brings over a different kind (the wait staff is organized by what meat they serve, not by which tables they wait upon), so there were about ten to twelve guys who brought it all over in shifts. Several cuts of sirloin were offered, as were linguica (a mild sausage), tangy marinated chicken, and (our favorite) turkey breast wrapped in bacon. Also off the grill were an assortment of grilled vegetables, and fresh glazed and grilled pineapple. Soo delicious!

These "gauchos" will drop by your table every 3 to 5 minutes or so, as long as you can keep up with the flood of food. This little wooden toggle sits on every table, and you can pause for a break simply by turning the red side facing up. Once you're ready for more meat, you flip the toggle back over to green. Simple!

But there's a lot more to eat here than just meat (lovely as that may sound! Before starting the Protein Procession, the restaurant gives you a small basket of appetizers. These include fried bananas (yum!), fried cheese cubes (double yum), and these little babies (yummiest of all!):

 They're called Pao de Queijo; they're little bread "puffs" made from yucca flour and cheese. They're light, airy, slightly crisp on the outside and slightly gooey on the inside from the cheese. So. Delicious. A must-have.

Beyond the appetizers is a huge gleaming salad bar that, no kidding, is the rival of any salad bar I've ever had...anywhere:

Sure, it's got a lot of the usual trappings (a green salad, tuna salad, potato salad, fruit salad, etc.). But it quickly takes a more exotic turn the further around the table you go...you'll also find salads made exclusively of marinated mushrooms; marinated quail's eggs(!); hearts of palm; pickled beets; grilled pork; soybeans and corn; cheese and spinach; crab; fresh mozzarella and herbs; and so on.

My mouth is watering just recounting all these delicious salads!!

 Besides the main circular salad bar pictured above, there are also a bunch of hot plates just adjoining, with a whole other array of warm delights, including whipped potatoes, beef stroganoff, rice, and the most traditional Brazilian dish of all...feijoada. It's a simple but tasty dish: a black-bean and meat stew, served over rice, and served with sauteed collard greens and sprinkled with farofa (grains of yucca flour, with a consistency similar to grated Parmesan cheese). I've made a simplified version at home a few times myself, but it was wonderful to have a more "authentic" version here:

 Also in the above picture: some grilled vegetables, mashed potatoes, beef stroganoff, and, in the bowl to the left, some cold strawberry soup--an excellent palate-cleanser!

As you have probably surmised by the many pictures of plates filled with food, Nathan and I packed quite a bit away during our visit. At a traditional churrascaria, people can stay for hours, eating at a leisurely pace. Unfortunately, we had babysitters and couldn't linger for too long, so we had to eat at Rodizio Grill the American way...by stuffing our faces and keeping the conversation to a minimum. Our stomachs were pretty distended for the rest of the day afterwards, but we didn't regret it one bit!!

The meal was definitely not cheap ($19 just for lunch!!). However, I still think it's TOTALLY worth it, if only for a rare, special occasion. We'll definitely head for Rodizio Grill again...someday. When we've recovered. If you, gentle readers, get the chance, you should try it out for yourselves!