get, like, overwhelmed by the just like they eat it like anthony: every day. leonardo paixao: every day. anthony: the infamous pequi, loved and hated in equal measure. it s described by both camps as tasting sweaty or like a barnyard. and if you bite too deep, you get a mouthful of hundreds of nano-spikes requiring professional extraction. and if you dig into the pit, big problem. leonardo paixao: big problem. anthony: it s just this thin layer on the outside. leonardo paixao: thin layer. and it s so, so strong. leonardo paixao: our vegetables she s my supplier. so this is taioba, this big tropical leaf here. anthony: this is the kind of fundamental mineria ingredient you didn t find in restaurants here until recently. leonardo paixao: and it s like it is part of like the forgotten vegetables. they used to weed it out of the yard because it grew all around. anthony: how do you cook it?
anthony: at the end of a long night, decisions good and bad, friends old and new, a night spent playing or a night spent working, all across the world wherever cooks stumble out of work late, there s a place like this nono. one of the few places that s open all night, serving the kind of thing that enlighten night-dwellers everywhere want and need, like mocoto. gentleman. leonardo paixao: hey, tony. nice to see you again. anthony: it s the city that never sleeps 24-hour mocoto, right? leonardo paixao: this place is very democratic because, like, everybody comes. late at night, taxi drivers, hookers, and cooks because anthony: yeah, why is it that like hookers and cooks are always welcomed at the same place, you know? it s like the same social standing. i m ready, man, i am hungry. i ve had nothing to eat all day. leonardo paixao: yeah? anthony: i am starving. anthony: mocoto is the ultimate in broke-ass, dunk-ass, peasant food.
okay, let them play a little bit. this won t last. and here we are. anthony: i mean, in the in the states and europe, it was women cooked at home. in restaurants, however, this was man s work. denise rache: obviously they would the ones that cooked there were men. but they learned all everything they learned was from their mothers. leonardo paixao: the techniques and everything passed through the generations of women, so that that s what it s all about here i think with bruna. anthony: bruna makes a point of hiring women, and only women, to work in her restaurants, particularly black women who she feels are the central if largely unacknowledged figures in minera culinary culture for hundreds of years. hello. hi. easy to find women cooks or hard?
she owns a restaurant, birosca, where she cooks the food of her childhood, the food she learned from her grandmother and her nanny. leonardo paixao: so when you are a kid here, your family obligates you to eat jiló. anthony: why? marise rache: because i think i think it was to teach children to eat different flavors, different sensations. anthony: leo is a friend of bruna s and of marise and denise rache owners of d artagnan, one of the first ambitious fine-dining restaurants in belo to be owned and operated by women. was it particularly hard as women starting in the business 20 years ago? marise rache: when we began, there wasn t a lot of women chefs. and we decided to open a restaurant because we like to cook together. denise rache: i think nobody trusted us. we have many friends and they have restaurants, they are chefs, and they said okay, it s a hobby.
cuisine, always your grandmother cooks better than your chef. when they eat it, you re so emotional about it, they fell in love with it and they except it very well. anthony: cheers, by the way. leonardo paixao: cheers. ivo faria da costa: cheers. [ ivo faria da costa speaking portuguese ] anthony: mineas is a central state, land-locked. you want to hit the beach? that s a seven-hour bus ride to rio. that, or you come here beach station. no beach? hire a water truck. economy in the shitter? turn up the music and dance. it s known here as the little slippery way. you adapt, you survive, no matter what, you have a good time and you don t go it alone. it s a philosophy that carries