Mani: Brasilian Tastes In A Pleasant Atmosphere

Highly anticipated “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants” was recently revealed and when I took a look at it, I saw that I was not wrong when I said the culinary world which had been monopolized by French cuisine decided to direct its interest towards local cuisines, taking advantage of the local ingredients grown and popularized in certain areas.

As it is the case, the list covered new places that have never been this trendy which include Lima and Peru that I recently shared with you as well as Mexico and Brazil.

Today when someone mentions “Brazilian cuisine,” probably the first thing to come to our minds would be the same thing: Alex Atala

As he had been a rock singer and a DJ, he accidentally became a chef so as to get a visa to Europe. Following his years of self-teaching, he returned to his country and globally promoted Amazonian ingredients with his dishes. I will soon share with you a detailed article on my friend Atala and his D.O.M. Today, I’d like to mention another important restaurant that successfully promoted Brazilian cuisine to the whole world, which is Mani Restaurant.

Only Local Ingredients

As it is very close to D.O.M., Mani is again located in Jardim Paulista. The restaurant was opened in 2006 by Helena Rizzi and Daniel Redondo who met each other at El Celler Can Roca.

Mani offers a humble welcome to its visitors with a bench surrounding a single tree and its hand-written name on a piece of blackboard hanging besides its entrance. When we entered the dim-lit atmosphere filled with diners keeping their voices low so that they wouldn’t disturb each other, it suddenly felt like a cute restaurant in Alaçatı.

I even liked the restaurant more when I saw its cozy concept different from the stereotype of “fine-dining” restaurants that have a formal atmosphere. Mani has nothing to do with complicated molecular or fusion cuisine. It focuses only on local dishes and recipes, and it definitely deserves its 1 Michelin Star and being “the best 42. restaurant in the world.” The only problem with the restaurant is that its staff doesn’t have a good command of English.

%70-80 of the menu is paired with local wines and the portion sizes are as almost big as the ones in the U.S. Special tasting menu we chose started with “tapas,” a Spanish name for snacks and appetizers. The accompaniment of the tapas was a sourdough served in a hessian sack. The bread looked like a humongous popcorn. As it was the size of “tosmelba” of the old Bonjour, it was as crunchy as baguettes.

The first dish was ceviche, almost the national dish of Latin American, which had raw cashew nuts in it. With some shredded ice on top, the dish cooled our palates like a sorbet with its Far Eastern aroma. Following the ceviche, Mani’s cold soup featured jabuticaba which, unlike the fruits we know, grows on the bark of the trees rather than beneath the leaves. Portugal, Spain and Brazil are three countries where cold soup is very popular. Although I didn’t like jabuticaba that much, yet again the dish had a palate-cleanser taste.

Marrow is, for me, always one of the top dishes genuine to the countries with tropical climate. It is generally obtained from the young palm trees like coconut, palmito, açai and sabal trees, and tastes like artichoke and asparagus. Mani’s take on marrow actually consists of two kinds of marrow (pupunha, açai) that are fused into one another. As such, the dish tastes like a real marrow and becomes even more magnificent when it is flavored with mustard vinegar and spinach.

“Mandioquinha” is one of the root vegetables that grow in tropical areas. Gnocchi was another local dish that featured mandioquinha and araruta, another type of root vegetable grown in Sao Paulo. Made with one of my favorite vegetables, white asparagus penne was served with grated “pequi nut.” As I’m used to eating thick, white asparaguses that grow up to 25-30 cm, I’m surprised to see the type of asparagus used in the dish was quite thin and a bit greenish that looks like the ones grown in Far East. But again, penne was as tasteful as the ones served in Italy.

The following dish was coca which looked like a spectacular painting. Garnished with pomegranate seeds, the combination of bonito fish and eggplants was in a perfect harmony. It was as if two different side dishes that we can find in a fish restaurant came together. Following a chic presentation of Lagos fish, escondidinho, a type of pastry, was again one of the best local dishes of the night. When I touched it with my fork, it suddenly died down reminding me of Turkish puff pastry. Hidden inside the pastry was a filet of dried meat.

Right after the escondidinho, they served to the table another dish which actually didn’t exist on the menu. When I saw the appreciating faces of those who tried it, I couldn’t help but took a bite from crayfish and I was absolutely right about my choice since as Amazonian greenery and pasta which was pretty much like vermicelli met each other, it tasted like heaven!

Our last dish, muscle with tubers wasn’t as great as the ones preceding it. Despite that, açai and cheese pudding from Serra de Canastra put a sweet end to our night at Mani.

I’d recommend Mani Restaurant for those who want to try Brazilian cuisine although some of the dishes were a nod to European cuisine, they were only made with Amazonian ingredients and for those who are not into trying the crazy creations of Alex Atala. Don’t forget to book a table if you happen to visit Brazil!

Bon appétit and enjoy the taste of life.