Fatima “Fafa” Langa Gomes
were working as tour guides based in New
York, shepherding Brazilian tourists to
places of interest up the East Coast. “One
day, going through Cambridge [Mass.], we
saw a little Brazilian restaurant for sale,”
Langa Gomes recalls. “It was a by-the-pound buffet, but we thought we’d like to
show Americans real Brazilian cuisine—a
different kind of cooking, like that from
Vitória, the island where I grew up in
Espírito Santo, my state in Brazil.”
So, a decade ago, the couple moved to
Cambridge to embark on the second phase
of their lives and “to do what we know best,”
Langa Gomes says. They named the 50-
seat restaurant Muqueca. It’s the name of
one of the most traditional dishes, moqueca,
prepared in Espírito Santo. The couple ordered
clay pots from Goiabeiras in Espírito Santo
that have been made by the descendants of
the same families for almost 400 years. “You
can’t cook the moqueca in the same way as
the native Brazilians did for centuries without
these pots,” Langa Gomes says.
“Basically, moqueca is a way of cooking in
the clay pot,” Langa Gomes explains. “If I
use a different type of pot, you’d taste the
difference. Our ancestors learned from
the Indians hundreds of years ago. In most
places—in different states of Brazil—the
cuisine is more from the African influence.
Ours is more from the Indian.”
Langa Gomes’ fish moquecas incorporate
tomatoes, onion and annatto (or achiote)
seeds sautéed in olive oil to produce a rich
radish color.
Everything is prepared fresh, to order.
Seafood Pie ($18.95 per portion) takes
the most prep time of any dish— 25 to 30
minutes—and is also the only seafood dish
made in the oven. “It’s an original dish, only
from Vitória,” Langa Gomes says, “but there
you’ll only find it at Easter. Here, I serve it
every day because many people from Vitória
live only about a half-hour from the restaurant,
and they miss this dish from home.”
Moqueca, one of Brazil’s most traditional
dishes, is also one of the most popular to
come out of Fatima “Fafa” Langa Gomes’
kitchen at Muqueca in Cambridge.
NATIONAL DISH
Feijoada—considered by many to be
the national dish of Brazil—was actually
brought there by the Portuguese. Langa
Gomes prepares the black bean stew with
fresh and dried meat, pork, sausage and
bacon, to be served with collard greens,
fried plantain, farofa (yucca flour fried
with annatto seed, olive oil, finely diced
onion and garlic) and orange ($15.95).
She boils all the meat to remove the fat.
“Most restaurants in Brazil, and now also
in the U.S., typically serve feijoada only on
Saturday, but here, it’s every day,” she says.
A few miles down the road in Allston, Mass.,
feijoada is served Friday through Sunday
at the 90-seat Café Brazil. Owner Valter
Vitorino began working in restaurants in his
native Brazil when he was 11. Now 61, he
says he still enjoys it. Much to his surprise,
his best-seller these days is rabada, or beef
oxtail, slowly simmered and served with
aromatic vegetables ($16.95).
“We do a lot of delivery to the universities,”
Vitorino says. “I’m lucky here, because my
customers are from all over the world.”
The most popular dish here—where
cooking is done on one 12-burner gas
range—is the moqueca, in various
iterations: Fish Moqueca, $13.95; Fish
with Shrimp or Mussels Moqueca, $17.95;
Shrimp and Mussels Moqueca, $18.95; and
Plantain and/or Tofu Moqueca, $11.95.
She often takes a whole day to prepare
the ingredients for one huge pie—salted
cod, shrimp, crabmeat, mussels and palm
heart—enough for about 50 servings. When
ordered, it’s sliced in a wedge-shaped
portion and finished with beaten eggs,
sliced onion and pitted olives for decoration.
New York-based award-winning journalist
Karen Weisberg has covered the
issues and luminaries of the food-and-
beverage world—both commercial and
noncommercial—for more than 25 years.
