G Bittencourt dos Santos

Teardrop Chicken

When I want to introduce someone to Brazilian culture, I bring them out west to eat coxinhas. They marvel at their first coxinha. The teardrop shape and its fine golden flakes. What’s in it?, they ask. Chicken with cream cheese is a convenient lie we tell you, us Brazilians in the States. They’re actually made with a cheese mined from cows in the farms of Minas Gerais. Its name is “Catupiry,” a remnant of the extinct Tupi language. A word I sacrifice to serve the frankish tongue. My friends, both American and Americanized, do not realize this. Besides they’re more into the favelas, Anitta’s ass, and correctly spelling coxinha for their foodie post. I laugh out loud when they ask me to remind them of the teardrop chicken, and I feel a tinge of sorrow.