FALA BRASIL (Brasil speaks) Suriname is not only graced with a pristine rainforest, and cultural and ethnic

diversity, but also an abundance of natural resources, like gold and other valuable precious metals and stones. Due to this, the country has attracted many immigrant workers from neighboring countries, including Brazil. Its been estimated that over the last decade, about 40.000 Brazilian immigrants, which makes it about 10% of Surinames population, have come across the border to try their luck in the small-scale mining industry. To make their way successfully in Suriname, the Brazilians have quickly picked up on the local street language, Sranan Tongo, though they speak Brazilian Portuguese predominantely. Some of them can also speak Dutch, or any of the other local dialects, depending on where they live or work and the time they have lived in Suriname. Like all immigrants, Brazilians have also taken some cultural aspects with them from home, like their religion. Like in Brazil, the majority of the Brazilians in Suriname are Christians.

COMIDA BRASILEIRA (Brazilian food) The Brazilian immigrants have quickly integrated in the Suriname culture, especially when it comes to food. In the Surinames equivalent of small Belm along the Anamoestraat, you can find many food sellers or lanchonette, varying in sizes from a small stand to a small house. They sell various dishes for breakfast and quick lunches, for example: chicken and cheese pies, coaxihna, a pear formed pie filled with chicken or crab meat misto quente, ham or cheese toast tapioca: traditional soft cassava bread breakfast, rolled like a pancake and filled with cheese, grated coconut or butter lanzahna or pizza sweet desserts, like cakes, since some Brazilians would like to start off their day with something sweet suco: Brazilian fruitdrink

They also sell several drinks to wash down all those dishes: suco: Brazilian fruitdrink vitamina; thick smoothie of mixed fruits, juice and milk Guaran: Brazilian soft drink

Apart from the usual next-to-the-main-roads lanchonette, you can also find more elaborate lunch and dinner houses, haciendas, which sell traditional Brazilian food in either pre-weighted take-away containers or buffet-style, also sold per weight. They generally offer the following: churrasco: Brazilian style barbecued sausages, different cuts of beef, pork tenderloin, and chicken. White meat is generally marinated overnight with a mixture of garlic, salt and lime juice. Red meat are seasoned with sea salt only vatapa: soup made with half dried shrimps, flour, coriander. The distinguishable yellow color comes from the ob-oil used in the cooking process

tacaca: spicy soup originated from Belm, made with kasripo or the Dutch gomma, shrimps and coriander; served in a gourd. Tastes almost the same as an Indigenous peprewatra, but more minty manioba: young bitter cassava leaves in lard cooked for seven days on charcoal, and then cooked slowly for seven days again with pork and ox meat and several spices rice is served along with all major meals