50 free Brazilian Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Brazilian food is five cuisines wearing one flag: Portuguese sugar and salt cod, African palm oil and black-eyed peas, Indigenous manioc, tucupi and guaraná, Italian pasta and pizza, and the Japanese and Arab snacks of São Paulo. The national dish is a bean stew, the national cocktail is built on cane spirit, and the most famous sweet was invented to win an election. These 50 questions cover the country region by region: feijoada and brigadeiro, pão de queijo from Minas Gerais, moqueca from Bahia and Espírito Santo, acarajé, vatapá and caruru, churrasco, picanha and the rules of rodízio, açaí bowls and the numbing jambu of Pará, pequi rice in Goiás, chimarrão in the gaúcho south, and the snacks that hold it all together: coxinha, pastel, quibe and bolinhos de bacalhau. Easy questions cover the national dish, the national cocktail and cassava; the expert tier asks about the Kikongo root of quindim, the Sateré-Mawé word for guaraná, the buffalo in barreado, the clay pot of Goiabeiras and the island that sent Brazil its first sugar cane. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation. Play it solo or print it for a food night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which bean-and-meat stew is considered Brazil's national dish?
Feijoada
It is traditionally a Wednesday or Saturday lunch in the Southeast, with farofa and rice on the side.
Q 02What is Brazil's national cocktail?
Caipirinha
Cane spirit, lime, sugar and ice; it reached third place in TasteAtlas's world drinks ranking in 2024.
Q 03Cachaça, Brazil's native liquor, is distilled from what?
Fermented cane juice
It is the world's most popular cane spirit, almost entirely thanks to Brazilians drinking it at home.
Q 04Brigadeiros are chocolate truffles made from cocoa powder, butter and what?
Condensed milk
They are rolled in chocolate sprinkles and sit in little paper cups at every Brazilian birthday.
Q 05The brigadeiro was created to promote the presidential candidacy of which man?
Eduardo Gomes
Confectioner Heloísa Nabuco de Oliveira named the sweet after the air force brigadier's rank.
Q 06Pão de queijo gets its chewy, elastic texture from the flour of which root?
Cassava
Both sour and sweet starches are used; the rolls are naturally gluten-free.
Q 07Pão de queijo originated in which Brazilian state?
Minas Gerais
Wheat was scarce around the mines near Ouro Preto, so cooks made bread from manioc starch instead.
Q 08Coxinha, the teardrop-shaped chicken croquette, literally means what?
Little thigh
Its shape is meant to resemble a drumstick; one legend ties it to a son of Princess Isabel who would eat only that cut.
Q 09Moqueca is a Brazilian stew built around what?
Fish or shrimp
The base is tomatoes, onion, garlic, lime and coriander; regional versions add annatto, palm oil or coconut milk.
Q 10Bahian moqueca is distinguished by coconut milk and which oil?
Palm oil
Dorado, shark, whiting and sea bass are the usual fish; the Espírito Santo version skips both ingredients.
Q 11Açaí na tigela, the açaí bowl, originated in Pará and which other state?
Amazonas
The frozen, mashed palm fruit is served as a smoothie in a bowl, usually with granola and banana.
Q 12The word guaraná comes from the language of which Amazonian people?
Sateré-Mawé
Their origin myth is built on the split fruit, whose black seeds in white arils look like eyeballs.
Q 13Picanha, Brazil's most prized beef cut, is known in the UK as what?
Rump cap
Americans call it top sirloin cap or coulotte; the fat cap stays on until the steak is cooked.
Traditional churrasco picanha is seasoned with just what?
Q 21Which Bahian spread of okra, dried shrimp and nuts in palm oil goes inside acarajé?
Caruru
It is cooked down until it reaches a spread-like consistency.
Q 22Pastéis are believed to have evolved from which dish adapted by Asian immigrants?
Fried spring rolls
Chinese and Japanese vendors are thought to have adapted the recipe to sell at São Paulo street markets.
Q 23A square pastel traditionally signals which filling?
Meat
Half-moons are cheese; an empty one is a 'wind pastel'.
Q 24The dessert Romeu e Julieta pairs cheese with a paste made from which fruit?
Coarse sea salt
It is skewered and cooked over charcoal, fat side intact.
Q 15A restaurant specialising in churrasco is called what?
Churrascaria
Churrasco began with nomadic gaúchos roasting freshly butchered beef over wood fires in the south.
Q 16In which service style do waiters circulate with skewers of meat for one fixed price?
Rodízio
Pizzerias and sushi restaurants use the same system, one slice or piece at a time.
Q 17In a 'comida a quilo' restaurant, how is the food priced?
By weight
You fill a plate from the buffet and pay for what it weighs; it is the easy option for vegetarians.
Q 18What is farofa?
Toasted manioc meal
It is toasted with butter or oil, bacon, onion or olives, and sprinkled on for crunch.
Q 19Vatapá's name derives from words in which African language?
Yoruba
The Afro-Brazilian paste blends bread, shrimp, coconut milk, ground nuts and palm oil.
Q 20Acarajé, the Bahian street snack, is a fried ball of which legume?
Black-eyed peas
It is split open and stuffed with vatapá and caruru.
Guava
Goiabada with Minas cheese is the classic pairing.
Q 25Quindim is a glistening yellow custard of sugar, egg yolks and what?
Ground coconut
Baked in a large ring mould it becomes a quindão, served in slices.
Q 26The word quindim comes from dikende in which Bantu language?
Kikongo
The word describes the gestures and humour of adolescent girls.
Q 27Pamonha is a paste of fresh maize and milk boiled inside what?
Corn husks
It can be savoury or sweet and is a festa junina staple.
Q 28Pinhão, boiled and eaten in southern Brazil's winter, is the nut of which tree?
Araucaria
Paraná cooks use it in dishes like Entrevero de Pinhão and pinhão pierogi.
Q 29The Center-West's signature rice dish is seasoned with which Cerrado fruit?
Pequi
The fruit is also called the souari nut; Goiás stuffs it into pastéis too.
Q 30Chimarrão, the drink associated with the gaúcho, is made from what?
Yerba mate
Tererê is the cold version; the south is also Brazil's biggest grape producer.