carnivore's delight

Red Violin is a Brazilian restaurant over at Danforth and Broadview. A bunch of us had dinner there last night as a despedida for Marcelo who is going back to Brasilia as he has wound up his fellowship. It was a good thing I had barely eaten the whole day and lost myself in reading "By the river Piedra.." at World's Biggest Bookstore. This is now my new found hobby...reading away and finishing a book without purchase. Good thing it isn't like National Bookstore where all the books are wrapped in plastic. Reading is actually encouraged not merely advertised. But I digress.

The restaurant itself is housed in one of the old buildings of the district and bears a striking wooden facade. Lit tea candles illuminate the room and softlighting provides a relaxed and easy atmosphere which coaxes conversation. Our host announced that we should start with the appetizers and salad all laid out in the bar at the middle. It was a varied selection. Breads, salads (loved the mango ensalada!), eggs and different types of cheese -- there were servings of cubed white cheese with guava jelly on top which were just yummy. I had two rounds to whet my appetite. The next part of our meal was the main course. Red violin is a churrascaria, a restaurant where the specialty is churrasco, that is, to barbecue. True to Brazilian form, we were served espeto corrido style. Servers came one after the other bearing large skewers of different types of barbecued meat and slicing portions right to your plate. First they brought out chicken, then pork, beef then lamb. And kept on going and going until you said STOP. Each meat was prepared and presented in four different cuts and flavors. The best I sampled was the Picanha, a beef tenderloin cut that was just heavenly succulent. It was an all you can eat parade of meats, a workout for kidneys with protein to last a whole month and truly, truly, truly a carnivore's delight. Roar!


photo from www.stomp.com.sg