Brazilian Bull

Greetings from the Arizona Rim country!  I am currently camping in the middle of a forest up in the mountains with not a soul within a mile (except for Patti).  Some people have a hard time getting cell service in their own house, let alone up here in the wilderness.  Ain't technology great?  There are many wild animals up here like Elk and Bear but if you are looking for a Brazilian Bull you will have to head to Chandler instead.  The Brazilian Bull restaurant is a unique dining experience.  It was here that I got the original idea of Fun Frank Fridays.  We sat down at our table and were asked what types of drinks we wanted.  Since we had been here before, we were well aware that we needed something light and not as filling, so we chose water rather than soda.  But if you choose to have soda, I am happy to say they serve Coke products.  The waiter did briefly explain the restaurant and control cylinder work.

The control cylinder is about a 4 inch cylinder painted in red, yellow and green.  When the red is on top, that means “Stop or I’m taking a break”, when you flip it over to green, then that means “Go or keep the meats coming”.  When you lay it sideways, that means. “I’m done and ready for dessert”.  This is very important to remember because as long as the green side is up food will keep coming to your table.  So I recommend if you need a break for a rest or if you don't want to have your conversation interrupted, don't hesitate to flip it to red.  They do have an extensive salad/appetizer bar that includes items as varied as squid salad down to meatloaf.  If you are a hard core carnivore, don't even bother with it.  Just keep your focus on having the green side up!

When you go over to the salad bar, you will notice it is less of a salad bar and more of a mini buffet.  I decided to go with a small sample of shrimp salad, a crab salad, squid salad and two large mussels.  I know that seafood is relatively light and I knew I would not be filling myself up before gorging on the meat.  Patti on the other hand was probably the smarter one of us.  She did not want to fill up at all, so what she put on her plate would not even satisfy even the smallest of rabbits.  She had three pieces of lettuce, one tomato and two beets with a touch of garlic cilantro dressing and hummus.  Even though everything looked good at the appetizer bar, this is NOT the reason we come to the Brazilian Bull.

 When we returned to the table from the salad bar, our server brought out a rice ball.  It was golden brown on the outside with a warm doughy consistency but with the flavor of bacon.  These are incredibly delicious but be warned , don't fill up on bread!  Because you are going to get more bread.  They also brought out these amazingly addictive, cheese flavored dough balls.  Served warm, they melt in your mouth!  It is a clever trick they must use to help fill you up before the main feature.

Next comes the special hot side dishes which includes fried bananas, garlic rice, beans, Farofa (Brazilian seasoning) and salsa vinaigrette.  All of these are very tasty and I particularly enjoyed the fried bananas.  Most restaurants that we have been here in Arizona, typically serve fried plantain bananas.  Plantains are normally more firm and meaty while regular bananas are smooth and creamy.  That is why I was pleasantly surprised that these were regular bananas.  Let me warn you again!  You will be sorry if you fill up on rice and beans!

Now for the main course!  At the Brazilian bull, all their meats are slow cooked on a skewer and brought directly to the diner on that skewer. The beauty of this is that you can control how much or how little meat you want.  You just let the server know when to stop. There is also no lack of variety when it comes to options.  In fact for dinner you have 16 choices.  I was able to try 15 of the 16 and went back for seconds on a few of them.  Some of my favorites were the bacon wrapped filet mignon, which was not apparently on the list of choices we were given.  But I did also specifically request the chicken hearts that I truly enjoyed.  Some of Patti's favorites were the Tri Tip, the ham and most of all the grilled pineapple.

 Each time they came to the our table, I received a small portion of meat.  Typically this is only two or three bites but by the time I was three quarters of the way finished there would appear another server with another skewer of meat.  When it comes to these skewers, timing is quite essential.  If you get meat from a skewer that has been replaced back in the heat and this was the case with our pork loin.  It was dry and tough.  I'm sure it would have been delicious if we had tried it sooner.  So when the server does come to your table take a look at the meat and see if it is appealing.   But there is always my motto, if you haven't tried it, try it now.   I recommend you do try it even it is a little bit dry, they will not be offended if you leave any meat on the plate.   They even continued to come to us and ask if there was a particular meat we would like to try.

So if you are a true carnivore and you haven't tried chicken hearts, go to the Brazilian Bull and try it now!