Recife: Accommodation and Gastronomy

Recife is currently the most important city in the Northeast region, a dynamic commercial and industrial hub. To meet the needs of both corporate and leisure travelers, it offers a wide range of hotels, with approximately twelve thousand beds, including both large hotel chains and independent hotels.

During the high season (January, February, July, and December), occupancy rates reach nearly 100%. The seafront of Boa Viagem Beach offers tourists the best hotels in the city and the beauty of Recife’s most important beach.

Aerial view of Recife city, capital of the Pernambuco State – Brazil

Typical Cuisine

The typical cuisine of Pernambuco was born in Indigenous villages, in the homes of enslaved people, on rural estates, in monastery kitchens, in spaces dedicated to Candomblé rituals, and by the sea. Many original recipes from other continents were adapted using ingredients readily available in the region, resulting in unique combinations of flavours and aromas.

The most popular dishes include: carne de sol (sun-dried beef), queijo coalho (grilled curd cheese), arrumadinho (a dish with beans, dried meat and salad), escondidinho (a kind of shepherd’s pie with cassava), sururu (a type of mussel), caldeirada (fish stew), chambaril (oxtail stew), carne salada (salted beef), bredo de coco (amaranth cooked with coconut milk), quibebe (pumpkin purée), tapioca, angu (cornmeal porridge), mungunzá salgado (savoury corn stew), sarapatel (offal stew), buchada (goat offal stew), and feijão de coco (beans cooked with coconut milk), among others.

A traditional northeastern Brazilian food, tapioca stuffed with roasted coalho cheese

There is also an endless variety of homemade sweets that form part of Pernambuco’s traditional cuisine: sweet potato preserve, jackfruit, guava and sliced banana sweets, starfruit and green papaya preserves, nego bom (banana sweet), black and white coconut sweet, cashew nut toffees, torta de bacia (bowl cake), puff pastry biscuits, and the ultra-famous bolo de rolo (rolled sponge cake) and bolo Souza Leão, which have been officially recognised by law as Intangible Cultural Heritage of the State of Pernambuco.

It’s time to board our historical vessel once again, which will now take us to the southern coast of Pernambuco.