Brazil's national dish is now available in Kensington Market

Kensington Market, a long time hotspot for all kinds of Latino foods, has now added Brazilian foods to the mix.

Segovia's at 218 Augusta Avenue is a little shop that sells Latin American sausages. It's run by Leonardo, a Chilean who moved to Toronto when he was four years old. Recently Leonardo's wife, who came to Canada from Brazil six years ago, started adding items from her home country to the shop, such as Brazilian bonbons.

Leo says the increasing number of Brazilian customers who came in for the goods started asking for Brazil's national dish, a type of stew called feijoada. In October, Segovia's started offering it on Saturday, as that's the day it's traditionally served in Brazil. "Then people started coming in on Fridays and asking if we had feijoada, and then on Thursdays, so now we serve it every day," says Leonardo. "It's Brazilian comfort food." A take-out container of the stew costs $8 plus tax.

Looks like a TV dinner, but tastes way better.

The dish is absolutely wonderful. It consists of black beans cooked with tender chunks of pork, smoked bacon and chorizo. It's served with rice, collard greens, toasted cassava flour, tomato salsa and orange slices. Each bite tastes different because of the combination of so many flavours.

It's worth noting that Segovia's also sells Chilean empanadas, and in fact, the better-known empanada joint next door, El Gordo, is an off-shoot of Segovia's and is owned by Leonardo's brother. Leonardo says his own empanadas are more traditional, "just like my grandma's." They contain wedges of boiled egg and olives.

El Gordo's empanadas, he says, are more commercial. In fact, El Gordo's empanadas are another product of a multicultural marriage—his brother's Korean wife created their kimchi empanada, one of the dozens of varieties that they sell.

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