Petiscos & Pão de Açúcar Coxinhas, Green Coconuts Casa de Carnes

[itaunas]

I posted a couple of times about Petiscos on Medford St -- a small Brazilian lunch counter, which serves salgadinhos (brazilian snacks), lanches (small sandwiches like a misto quente which is ham and cheese, and x-tudo -- brazilian hamburger with everything), and caldos (brazilian soups). Its been about 3 months since I have been back and I recently noticed that one of the salgadinho makers from Pastelaria Broadway was working mornings at Pão de Açucar (the brazilian market and buffet in Union Sq), so I decided to check out both.

Petiscos I caught on a bad day for the coxinha. The dough was a nice consistency (a bit thick and slightly gooey), but very overseasoned both with salt and paprika, and not particularly well fried (greasy). The filling was also salty and red. The odd thing was I tried a pastel de frango com milho verde (chicken with corn filling), that used roughly the same dough with no seasoning issues and the filling was perfect -- moist and brothy (I would tend to call a "pastel" like this a risole, but they definitely called it a pastel). They also had a smaller version of the pastel which they can fry to order (the square one is sometimes called a pastelao) which often uses a splash of cachaca in the dough and looks like a fried empanada, which was also good. The catupiry (brazilian soft cheese) was better than what most places use (philly cream cheese), but not true brazilian catupiry (perhaps a salvadoran cream). I like the size and texture of their coxinha, so am not quite ready to give it a downhill alert, but I wish I wasn't already in Medford when I tasted it so I could have complained about the bad coxinha.

Pastelaria Broadway is a bit larger than Petiscos and has recently added some additional lunch plates, to a largely similar menu. I note them mostly for their oversized salgadinhos, which I believe are still served at (what was and I think still is a sister store) International Market on Somerville Ave. I have had bad experiences with Pão de Açucar's coxinhas in the past, but wanted to give them a shot when I noticed the change in staff.

The coxinha at Pão de Açucar was pretty true to what is served at Pastelaria Broadway. Its an oversized (softball sized) coxinha, with a very thin crust and fried a bit firmer than at Petiscos. The filling was slightly salty, usual red tinge, quite dry which is normal. It didn't have much chicken broth, no green onion (or yellow onion), and the green flecks didn't even have any noticeable cilantro taste (probably cooked out, parsley is used more with fish). I probably would have been better to order this one with catupiry, but assumed they used Philly. Also had some pão de queijo (looked like the pre-made frozen) and probably ground meat pastels (or ham and cheese).

Pão de Açucar is definitely improved, but lacking a bit of selection and coxinha is large, but I prefer a smaller more doughy one. Petiscos was a miss on the coxinha, but good on the other items, so I plan to give it another go soon and complain about the poorly seasoned coxinha. In the neighborhood of Pão de Açucar, International Market might have better selection and the Padaria Brasil on Bow St appears to be open (this had closed, opened, had a for lease sign, and now open again) which is another option. However, for destination salgadinhos I would still go with either Petiscos or Pastelaria Broadway in the Somerville area.

I posted previously that El Valle de la Sultana had Green Coconuts and there was some interest. I noticed that Case de Carnes Solução on Bow street right after the Neighborhood had a large box full of green coconuts today. I shook a couple and they seemed to have some with plenty of coconut water. To the right of the butcher case and much larger selection than la Sultana. Nice for a refreshment when the temperature gets back up there (put them in the fridge for an hour before opening) or freeze the coconut water in a ice form and use the cubes in whiskey. The meat in green coconuts isn't really ripe enough for much eating or making coconut milk, but you can take it out to gnaw on or the squirrels will do so if you leave it out. :-)

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Petiscos (Brazilian Snack Bar)
513 Medford St, Somerville, MA 02145

Pastelaria Broadway
192 Broadway, Somerville, MA 02145

International Market
365 Somerville Ave, Somerville, MA 02143

Pao De Acucar
57 Union Sq, Somerville, MA 02143

Casa De Carnes Solucao
38 Bow St, Somerville, MA 02143

El Valle De La Sultana Market
290 Broadway, Somerville, MA 02145

[litchick]

Amazing run-down, thanks itaunas!