A great meal in a great Manaus restaurant - Banzeiro
Manaus is, at least in the area I am staying at, not a mecca for gourmets by any stretch. That said, there are a few lists out there and one of the top restaurants is Banzeiro (best chef, best regional food, best tambaqui ribs - you get the idea) and so I got in a cab and went.
The food really was delicious and the service from Alison my waiter who spoke English since he was studying to be an English teacher and the hostess Diana who both stopped by so often it began to feel almost like I was a visiting dignitary. Or someone important. Mauro my airbnb host had made the reservation for me and I can not be thankful enough for his help in making my Manaus stay as pleasant as possible, including helping make this dinner happen.
A drink? Why yes. I'll have a caipirinha. How about a Amazon caipirinha? Sure, what's that? It's made with cupuacu. OK, let's try that.
First off, I was served a complimentary seafood/fish soup in a small cup, courtesy of the house and everyone gets it upon arrival. There is no bread served, but the appetizer arrived relatively quickly and it was a sight! A parsnip mousse (they called it a foam but it seemed much heavier than a foam, served on a tablespoon topped with two crunchy leaf cutter ants, which is a delicacy I had tried the other day on a Lo Peix expedition to one of the indigenous villages. Maru would have loved this; getting revenge on the sayes by eating them!
Then, their most famous dish - the ribs of the giant Tambaqui fish, grilled and served with a traditional rice and beans (and something else) combination along with farofa mixed with cooked eggs, chopped. Farofa is a manioc flour mixed with condiments that is served at every meal here.
The dessert was a baked banana dish, complete with sweet cream and shaved coconut. The top was a hard sugar shell and was fabulous.
The menu items are almost all for two people. This makes dining alone a little more expensive as the "half portion" is 60% of the value of the two person item. Not sure why this is but it's there on the menu.
At Banzeiro, they serve the food table-side, which means that they bring out - with my particular menu choice - three separate metal pans with the rice, the farofa and the ribs. They serve you and leave behind enough for a second helping. Unfortunately, with the air conditioning in the restaurant, this second portion is cold by the time you get it and that is kind of off-putting. And there was a table of 10 next to me, and it took two waiters a full 6-7 minutes to serve each person their plate from a mini buffet of items rolled up on a cart. I noticed the diners started eating as soon as their plate was set in front of them; none of this waiting for everyone to have their food before beginning. Maybe they too were concerned more about the food temperature than with what in some parts of the world is known as dining etiquette.
Interestingly the tip is always included and it is a modest 10%. People literally change their expressions when you leave even a few extra reais on the table. It seems to me that this is a negative approach since I certainly would tip more than a measly 10%, but maybe people here don't and so this is a way to ensure a gratuity.
BONUS PHOTO: Me and the Tambaquí