Updated! World Cup 2014: Food And Drink Guide To Group A

Hey everyone! Cindy here (meridiansour on Twitter) and I’ll be contributing to posts about Group A (Brazil, Mexico, Cameroon and Croatia) and the big party that is the World Cup.

Here’s the first post, a little guide to eating and drinking revolving around the traditions of Group A teams to get the festivities started! Drop some messages and feel free to contact me on Twitter at @meridiansour.

Cheers!

Cindy

BRAZIL

Kick off the first match of the 2014 World Cup with the drink of the host country, the caiprinha. This simple beverage is made with cachaça (a liquor fermented from sugar cane), some brown sugar (the recipe says use super fine sugar, but seriously it tastes better with brown sugar) and couple squeezes of lime (at least half a lime’s worth). If you can’t find cachaça, which I can’t at my local liquor store, substitute with rum. Alternatively, if the lime crisis continues, you can mix cachaça with condensed milk to make a liete de onça.

Caiprinha

To soak up all that alcohol, have some salgadinhos, the Brazilian cousin to tapas. Typically these are small savoury snacks and usually I can eat half a dozen before I feel like I’ve had enough for a meal. While making a bunch of smaller dishes seem time consuming, luckily most of them can be pre-made in large batches and frozen. They include empanadas which you can switch up the filling and the coxinha which is a chicken croquette shaped like a leg or teardrop.

Empanada

Coxinha

If you have a sweet tooth, you can also enjoy brigadeiro, a classical Brazilian chocolate bonbon covered in sprinkles. They taste differently from traditional chocolates with the addition of condensed milk, which gives the chocolate a thick sticky texture.

Brigadeiro

CROATIA

Croatians are more hearty eaters than party snackers, and their cuisine is a combination of seafood, stew and roast meats. So for the ambitious and those who want to have a fancy dinner party for the World Cup, why not roast a whole leg of lamb and some stuffed peppers on the side? Or a pot of traditional goulash?

Whole leg of lamb

Goulash

And for dessert make krafne, their version of donuts which look like berliners but lighter and fluffier.

Krafne

PS. During the course of my research on Croatian food, I found out that a very uniquely Croatian dish was sea spider salad which super grossed me out because even if I’m eating insects, I stay away from spiders. Also don’t google this food if you’ve got arachnophobia like me.

Wine

A little known fact, Croatia has a robust old school wine industry producing very distinct varieties of wine (thank you Eric Asimov). Ask your local wine seller if they have anything from Croatia, they’re known for their fruity, almost citrusy whites such as Sauvignon Blanc, Reisling and Zlatina (which reminds me of Zlatan). If you can get ahold of it, rakija aka Croatian moonshine is also an excellent liquor from that region made from distilled fermented fruit. It’s usually homemade though and thus containing questionable alcohol content so drink at your own risk.

MEXICO

It’s summer, it’s hot and it’s Mexico, which means Horchata, a super creamy yet light rice/nut milk. I know you were all thinking about the obvious (Tequila), but since Mexico screwed over their own qualifications and needed help from their continental rivals USA to do it, they don’t deserve anything alcoholic. Here is a good recipe for the rice-almond drink and for all the people allergic to nuts, luckily pastry master David Lebovitz has one with just rice but equally refreshing.

Horchata

Mexican food is the best party food, so invite some friends to share while watching the game. Big platters of nachos, do-it-yourself taco bars and crisp churros rolled in cinnamon sugar dipped in warm chocolate sauce.

Nachos

Tacos

Churros

However, if you’re a pessimist or Mexico plays like they did during qualifying, then you probably need some comfort food, which means Menudo. This is the ultimate homey pick me up food, a rich tripe soup in a red chili base garnished with cilantro and lime. However Mexico does in the tournament though, they will be represented at the final in nachos form at my final watching party.

CAMEROON

I know the least about Cameroonian food, mostly because I’m not a fan of foods based on maize and plantain (foods from the Musa family are the only thing I don’t eat) as a staple. However, Cameroonian food is super varied and draws its influence from pretty much every other food cultures due to the fact it’s been colonized so many times by different countries. Those living along the coast eat a lot of fried fish, usually with the smaller fish species, so a batch of fried whitebait sounds perfect, these are the kind of fish you fry and eat whole, bones and all.

Fried whitebait

 

Cornbread is their main carb staple, this one actually stays quite true to the Cameroonian version by cooking it in a skillet, or if you don’t have a skillet, bake it in the oven.

Cornbread

While every culture has their version of meat on a stick, this recipe stays true to the flavors in North Africa/Cameroon with the use of lemon zest and yogurt dipping sauce.

Grilled meat kebabs

Lastly for the adventurous, bush meat is a main component of the Cameroonian diet, while cuts of pangolin or porcupine is hard to get here, squirrel is a good alternative. Try this dish of braised squirrel if you dare, or it can even be easily substituted for with rabbit.

Ginger soda

While the local drinks bil-bil (beer made from corn) and afofo (a liquor distilled from palm sap) will be super hard to get ahold of unless you’re actually in Cameroon. Instead, make this ginger soda that hawkers sell on the streets of Cameroon, which is probably quite cooling on a hot day.

– Cindy (meridiansour)

UPDATED: Because I forgot to add the Mexican food recipes! – Lozil