![]() The ketchup served with them was the tastiest dish in the meal. The adults could either try to chew a bone-dry filet mignon, with the texture of an old garage sponge, and less flavor than a dog biscuit – or they could indulge in the buffet laid out for the kids, which consisted of something that may or may not have been hamburgers.īoth the filet and the burgers came with a pale simulacrum of French fries. The family (my wife’s side, thank you) had decided to offer no choices. I spent some time thinking about the banquet menu at Samba simply because – not to mince words – I recently endured an event from hell at a local hotel. There’s also a champagne buffet brunch on weekends.Īnd for those looking to do something different for a wedding or birthday, there’s a banquet room with a banquet menu of many choices. There are side dishes of Brazilian rice (flavored with garlic and parsley), gaucho rice (garlic, meat and parsley), black beans (garlic and onions), farofa (yucca flour with butter and bacon), corn on the cob, sundry potatoes and cheese bread.Īnd, should you still be a bit peckish, there’s an appetizer menu of calamari fritti, popcorn shrimp, spicy chicken wings, fish tacos, lobster tempura, pot stickers – even a mini Brazilian meal served on skewers. There’s top sirloin, garlic beef, beef kabob, tri-tip, New York steak, pork loin, pork ribs, pork sausage, chicken, bacon-wrapped turkey, and leg of lamb.Īnd, as the pitchman says late at night, there’s more! Once the skewers start arriving, they never seem to stop: There’s picanha, an irresistible order of top sirloin, the signature dish in most Brazilian steakhouses, which is sometimes marinated in garlic, sometimes flavored with peppers, and sometimes both. Samba is the only churrascaria in town that offers a view – though the view may fade from sight as you dig into the meat, which arrives (like the sea) in waves large and larger. (Though if you want to try, on Friday and Saturday nights the Samba Lounge turns into a disco thanks to DJ Matteo, who does his spinning from 8 p.m. Show up on a Friday or a Saturday night, and at 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 p.m., you’ll find your meal being enhanced by a crew of Brazilian samba dancers who do the sort of energetic dance you and I couldn’t possibly do – especially after a few rounds of meat. Still, it’s hard to resist dishes such as marinated eggplant with capers a salad of potatoes and hearts of palm the soft, slightly sweet Brazilian bread filled with cheese called pao de quel jo and the traditional Brazilian stew called feijoada. In other words, you can stuff yourself pretty well at the buffet, though of course that would be a mistake, for it would leave that much less room for the beef. The buffet consists of an assortment of salad items, which under more modest circumstances would make for a perfectly pleasurable evening’s repast. Veritable cows, sheep and pigs carried about restaurants on a pike, roasted to a turn, expertly carved at your table by gents with machetes, who feed you until you beg for mercy or the check, whichever you may prefer.Īs is usual at our several Brazilian barbecue shops, the drill at Samba consists of some fiddling about at the buffet before throwing yourself into carnivorous indulgence. But really, why go to a Brazilian churrascaria, if you’re not going for the meat?īeef is so highly revered in Brazil and Argentina that sometimes I get the feeling that South America is just one big Lawry’s – a land where meat is king, and vegetarianism is an aberration punishable by the forced consumption of massive amounts of beef.įriends returning from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and the like tell tales of awesome meals of gargantuan proportions, at the center of which is lots and lots of meat. There’s a sumptuous buffet of salads and vegetables (and also meat). So these days, if you want to eat at Samba you have to do it for the sheer love of meat. You might lose the weight at first, but then, you put it back on, and wound up weighing more than ever. I really was in hog heaven.Īnd like most things that are too good to be true, well, after awhile it became obvious that it didn’t quite work. What a wonderful diet – gluttony rewarded with a svelte, Paris Hilton-thin body. The more meat we ate (if I remember correctly) the thinner we became. I mean, that was the way we were supposed to eat, right? The diet suggested – no, demanded! – that we consume all the meat we could. Back in the great days of the Atkins Diet, it was easy to justify a massive feed at a Brazilian steakhouse like Samba in the Redondo Beach Marina. ![]()
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