Porta da Selva – Paris (75012) en

Finally a good Brazilian restaurant in Paris that explores as much the known ones ( Feijoada, Picanha) as well as the northern and north eastern specialties                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The products used are good, the room gets loud quickly, and the service can get a little off but all in all it’s an excellent spot for those that want to know how the specialties really taste.                                                                                                                                                                  Note: Beware, some of the readers complained to me about bad service ( smiling at first, and then nowhere to be found at the end)

Located in pleasant Chaligny St., short, wide, lined with trees.                                                                                                                                            It was taken over 8 months ago, it was a Portuguese restaurant before. The room is the one square, pretty loud I have to say, but it’s alright. It’s clean, decorations are pretty nice.                                                                                                                                                                 For an intimate dinner, might be hard. Let’s just say that that night we were 9 and in front of us there was a table of 15-20 people, so I didn’t see it in the calmest conditions.

In the kitchen, they’re cooking :). You can see it’s organized, and what little we see of the kitchen, it looks clean.                                    In the dining room, there was a lady and a young man. At first we were surprised by a few things. For example the server asked us to wait for menus because they were all being used by other tables, looked like there weren’t enough menus for the restaurant.     As time went on, we go to know the server, and things went well.

I was there at night, but lets point out that during the week at lunch it’s an all you can eat buffet for 12,50 and 14,50 on weekends. Not bad for a brunch! ( but I haven’t tried it).                                                                                                                                                                        And at night there’s a 20%  discount offered with La Fourchette for appetizer-main. I don’t usually promote these offers but since it can be used sunday to thursday nights, for the menu, seems like a good idea to point it out.

Appetizers                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Fritter mix: Salgados sortidos                                                                                                                                                                                                     Quibe ( meat fritter), bolinho de bacalhau ( cod fritter), coxinha ( chicken fritter), risólis de queijo ( cheese fritter) and fried cassava like fries                                                                                                                                                                                                                                They weren’t greasy, very tender, fresh. I immediately felt confident that this was a good restaurant.

If you want to try something new ( something other than a Caïpirinha) , you can try this classic drink that mixes cachaça and maracuja

Main
Maniçoba

A delicious northern dish, specifically from the Pará state, ( original state the owner is from). The ides is to cook cassava leaves for 8 or more days so that they become a powder. Pork meat is seared in it.                                                                                                                     It’s delicious, the cassava leaves become like spinach, the person with me is originally from Brazil, and totally adhered.

I’ll add that the meat used was of quality, there was pork belly( if I’m not mistaken) and sausage .
I couldn’t finish it, so I asked to bring it home. I got three nice little packages: an aluminium box for the meat and sauce, another for the rice and a plastic bag for the cassava flour ( that you can also mix with the rice). Classy.                                                                          I reheated everything the next day, it was just as good.                                                                                                                                                    The picture is very ugly, and I apologize for it.  I take pictures with my Iphone, and there wasn’t much light that day.

Other dishes that were ordered that night:                                                                                                                                                                                      -Moqueca: one fish, one shrimp, one chicken, typical north-eastern dish from Brazil that consists of a marinade seasoned with parsley, coriander, lemon, onions, coconut milk, palm oil ( dendê de Bahia) and chili. It’s served with rice.                                                  -Picanha: piece of beef seasoned with garlic and olive oil, and then grilled                                                                                                                     -Vaca atolada: Beef with cassava purée, typical dish from the Minas Gerais state ( southwest Brazil)                                                               -Pato no tucupi: Duck cooked with tucupi, typical dish from the north (Pará), the tucupi is prepared from cassava juice that has been pressed. There is then a method to take out the fish from the cassava juice because when not warm or fermented is toxic and becomes what is called tucupi.

A serious and authentic Brazilian restaurant, offering more than the known dishes, and all this with good prices and good quality products.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         It’s a very good spot.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Plus, I really liked that Chaligny St. which adds to the adventure into the unfamiliar.