Fire It Up, When I Am Cooled Down!

cheese stuffed prime rib
boneless leg of lamb
boneless beef rib 
chicken drumstick
roasted pineapple
parmesan pork
parmesan filet
chicken breast
turkey breast
picana brazil
garlic sirloin
suckling pig
filet mignon
lamb chops
flank steak
top sirloin
beef ribs
rib eye
salmon

Food has a habit of following me. Even on Valentine’s Day. It is another thing however that the reservations were made a month ago!Its hearty and its heartwarming, all at the same time as you are ushered in CopaCabana Brazilian Steak House.

My first time at a Gaúcho eatery, I definitely was excited, and a tad guilty about already writing the evening unfold in my head for this post.

You start a typical evening at CopaCabana with its wide array of salads and soups, accompanied with some delicious bread.

I was told by the very proud salad chef Breno, that on Fridays and Saturdays they serve up to 20+ types of salads. I took my time sampling at least 7-10 salads and greens and I was already sohhhhh stuffed.    

I did not fuss much when P suggested I start with the meat and temporarily divert from the salads.  We were given a two-sided card – Cool It Down when you want to eat the salads and greens. Flip to the Fire It Up side, and that’s to beckon one of the knife-wielding young men to come to your table and serve all the meat that are aged, marinated, and cooked on-site by Brazilian-trained chefs. 
The carvers as they are called will take rounds to all the tables with the most succulent and dripping with flavor beef, chicken, turkey, lamb and pork. I was a little disappointed with the lamb chops that they served. It smelt too gamey for me.   I was being challenged by the carvers doing quick rounds at our table, and my own ability to multitask- take photos and mental notes of all we were eating. There was too much on my plate. No pun intended.I soon realized I was fighting a lost battle and went back to concentrating on the food.I think one of the roaming Gauchas called  Ramone (as the lettuce!) even fancied all that attention he was getting from a photo-hungry-food-hungry 30-something woman!At the end of personally sampling at least 10+ types “full rodizio” assortment of meat slow-cooked on charcoal, I did not have the stomach for any dessert and settled into eating strawberries from the all-you-can-eat spread. I consciously stayed away from the chocolate dip. After all my evening had been made sweet enough by P anyway! A Bollywood movie later to end the night made a perfect Valentine’s Day date with my husband. Well, almost. Just that the thought of doing two rounds of laundry on Sunday was not something I wanted to wake up to!