Heart of the Matter

I did it. After nearly a year of Brazilian churrascos I finally ate a chicken heart.

A Brazilian barbecue has to be experienced to be believed. There are two ways to enjoy them - the first is in the garden with friends, accompanied by copious amounts of beer and caipirinhas and the second is at a specialist Brazilian churrasco rodizio. A rodizio is based on fixed price all-you-can-eat buffet-style dining and loose clothes are essential. My first, at a local restaurant, was quite bewildering. We were shown to our table and each presented with a pair of tongs and a wooden block painted green at one end and red at the other - green for "yes feed me" and red for "NO MORE, FULL UP". Before you get stuck into the barbecued meats you navigate your way around a huge sushi bar, a salad bar, a hot food counter and a pasta bar. Then the meats started coming... On average around 30 to 40 different meats circulate the room on huge barbecue skewers which are carved at the table, the diners using their tongs to lift the slices off as they´re cut. I couldn´t figure out how Brazil seemed to have so many different barbecue-able animals until I realised that 80% of the skewers all contained beef, which after feijao (bean stew) is pretty much the Brazilian national dish. The colours and flavours of the different cuts were all so different it was impossible to believe they were all parts of the same animal.

I was determined to try everything and made a good job of beef, lamb, chicken, pork and yet more beef but something made me hesitate as I eagerly held out my tongs for what looked like a small, smooth, slightly irregularly-shaped barbecued meatball. Some sign language to the waiter (at this point we still spoke no Portuguese) was answered by a wide smile, some flapping of his arms and the pounding of his hand against his chest... chicken hearts!

Chicken hearts are a national favourite. They are eaten in bulk at just about every opportunity, piled one on top of another on huge skewers and barbecued to... well, within an inch of their lives.

I admitted defeat the first time round and have rejected them ever since. But this week, fuelled by a couple of chilled Skol lagers in the sun, I finally plucked up the courage. I picked a juicy-looking specimen, took a hearty bite and... it was delicious in a kind of offally way. I was so excited I tried another. Then my brain reminded me of the reality of what I was eating, and as quickly as my urge to eat them had come, it disappeared. Would I try them again? Probably not, but it feels good to notch up another milestone on our Brazilian adventure.