Brazil within reach via Sodre’s in Brownsville

Pictured is Sodre’s Cuisine dish called Tapioca Tacos. (Travis M. Whitehead | Valley Morning Star)

BROWNSVILLE — The quiet elegance immediately greets me as a host in fine black attire escorts me to a table next to a large window.

He places a menu before me and returns a minute later with a “complimentary” piece of bread and a tiny metal pitcher with a sweet sauce. He says the names of the bread and the sauce, but I cannot understand because the names are fancy and unfamiliar.

Part of the reason they are fancy and unfamiliar is because this is a Brazilian-themed restaurant called Sodre’s Cuisine at 508 Springmart Blvd.

I had explored the map on my phone and had sought several places along Central Boulevard. I like driving down Central Boulevard and Southmost and Boca Chica because those streets are older and have personality, and they have restaurants who have fed generations.

El Piqin Sabores Mejicanos caught my attention. It did not appear to be a very old establishment, but I liked its style and design and the menu was very good. So, I drove down Central Boulevard in search of El Piqin Sabores Mejicanos and was quite dismayed to find an empty parking lot and a “closed” sign.

I was most disappointed as I had thought this would be a perfect restaurant for me to visit, but then I continued flipping through my phone. I did not like looking through my phone. I prefer always the old-fashioned way, the exploring and the discovering and the surprising of that exploration, the serendipity of it. I like the wandering aimlessly along the streets and looking closely at what I see and stumbling across something extraordinary and simple.

But …

Something on my Smartphone grabbed my attention.

“Sodre’s Cuisine” described as Brazilian cuisine.

Brazil: Now that is a country and a culture that has always intrigued me but of which I know very little. I just know I have heard of many things with “Brazil” attached to them and they always seemed quite marvelous.

But then another “but.” It’s in the newer part of town in the more upscale part of town and most visible to everyone, and I prefer the places less known in areas less traveled.

Two things, though, convince me to visit Sodre’s. The restaurant opened only a few months ago, and it serves Brazilian. I have never had Brazilian cuisine. I did write a food page many years ago with a woman from Brazil and I remember her food was very good. However, a Brazilian restaurant with a full menu was rather different, and I determined to see for myself what it had to offer.

So, I’ve come here now and I’m sitting in a chair of velvet black upholstery and I’m looking over the menu. I see things strange and exciting across the pages.

The “bobo” is a creamy shrimp stew with yucca charcoal served with pepper sofrito and a side of rice.

The “plantain moqueca” is a vegan friendly dish with soft-cooked plantains, grilled tricolor bell peppers, and a coconut moqueca sauce.

Pictured is Sodre’s Cuisine dish titled Cobo. (Travis M. Whitehead | Valley Morning Star)

Hmmm …

Then there is the platano gnocchi, the summer octopus, the citrus caper shrimp,

the …

Cabo. There is a listing for something called “cabo”, and the name immediately takes me back to that extraordinary week I spent in Cabo San Lucas some years ago. It was a media trip arranged by the brother of a colleague and we wined and dined in the most expensive restaurants in the city and I stayed in a $500 a night hotel room — and it was all free.

The Cabo on the menu does consist of fancy restaurants and wine cellars and hotel rooms. The cabo here is made of octopus and shrimp served over creamy coconut milk. Now that sounds like quite something and I think that is what I will try. That and the “tapioca tacos.”

While I wait, I take time to more fully observe my surroundings. A panoramic photo of Rio de Janeiro and the “Christ the Redeemer” image wraps around the bar. The photo shows the image looking out over curving beaches and white surf and a city teaming with activity. Translucent bubble lighting descends from the high ceiling, gold streaks arch across the black walls, and two groups of patrons sit at their tables.

I would think that such an upscale place as Sodre’s would attract an upscale clientele, but these patrons are not upscale. They are dressed in old jeans and T-shirts and ball caps. A man and his son take their leave and two young men in shorts arrive.

Pictured is Sodre’s Cuisine dish called Tapioca Tacos. (Travis M. Whitehead | Valley Morning Star)

My tapioca tacos have arrived. The very word “tapioca” invoked remembrances of my mother’s delicious tapioca pudding, but the tacos do not have tapioca pudding. They have panela cheese and buttered carne de sol and cilantro and onion.

It is all mysterious and delicious and I’m feeling very much in a South American mood and I remember the strange and extraordinary meals I had in Ecuador and Peru when I traveled there in the 1980s. The tacos are so delicious that I lose for a minute my senses and I devour them rapidly rather than take my time with each bite.

My “cabo” plate arrives and again it is strange and it is glorious in its strangeness both to the eye and to the palate. I do not know how even to describe these flavors. They are at once sweet and savory and there is a subtle tartness to it all. I enjoy these dishes.

The listings are expensive but not so expensive as to exclude anyone wishing to spoil themselves. The quality of the service and the dining room and the flavors of the food are ready to create an extraordinary experience for any kind of clientele, whether they arrive in cutoffs or in the fine formal wear of the people I pass on my way out.

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