Pampas Churrascaria {Los Angeles, CA}

A day spent at the Farmers Market in LA always puts a smile on my face. Number one, I get to get my grubby little hands on some real deal French macarons and number two, the food selection is always amusing and delightful. Exhibit 1: Pampas Churrascaria, a Brazilian buffet stand. I've had Brazilian once before and because I am a carnivore at heart, I immediately fell in love. Meat is something that the Brazilians do well and something they also tend to do in pounds upon pounds. You will find no lack of meat here, nope definitely not.

First of all, the line was beyond ridiculous. We planned to eat at the Farmers Market first before heading to the LACMA, but the LA marathon ruined our plans and we had no access to food until 2pm! I still cannot believe I survived until then simply on just some green tea and half a muffin. So you can bet we were starved, but this place looked so good the line didn't bother us much. I loved how everything was self service, that way you can try a little bit of everything without being stuck with a plate of something you really don't like and feel bad about throwing out. But that didn't matter anyway because everything I got was delectable!

The selection of meats:

An empty box: Oh, the possibilities!

Self-service buffet line, where you pay by the pound:

Salad and veggie bar:

On this plate: Garlic rice, Chicken Strogonoff, Garlic Bread, Black Bean Stew, Bacon wrapped chicken, Garlic beef, Collard greens, Brazilian sausage (Linguica) and Plantains

On this plate: Sirloin Cap (Picanha), Lamb Leg (Carneiro), Fried Yucca, Collard Greens

A delicious bite of Cheese Rolls (Pao de Queijo): the most delicious little thing ever!

The Brazilian sausage (Linguica) was especially delicious!

For the meat, the bacon chicken was the only thing I didn't enjoy much, surprisingly. It was just a bit too dry for my taste. The Sirloin Cap (Picanha) was amazingly tender, juicy and well seasoned... ahhhhmazing. The sausage was also delicious as well. Their spicy chicken and garlic beef were good, but not my favorites.

Some of my favorites of their hot dishes were the cheese rolls (pao de queijo) which was almost similar to a gougeres but much better! It was chewier and much tastier too (sorry Tartine...)! I also enjoyed their garlic bread but that's only because I am a garlic fiend and tend to love all things garlic. Plantains are always delicious, so I had no doubt. Their fried yucca was interesting... it was kind of hard to bite through but the flavor was good, almost like a french fry but with more depth.

Overall, I enjoyed this place very much! My stomach was bursting half way through the meal but I managed to pillage on despite all cries from my over bloated stomach.