Outback is as Australian as Habib’s is Lebanese – 06/23/2023 – Cozinha Bruta

Imagine the following situation:

The world’s largest Habib’s, located in Burbank, California, has a permanent line out the door, with up to two hours of waiting.

But the customers don’t seem bothered. They are happy because they will have a top and differentiated experience of the exotic cuisine of Arabia, a veritable sensation throughout the United States.

Americans, by the way, do not even suspect that Habib’s, in fact, is a Brazilian chain of snack bars, founded by a Portuguese raised in Paraná. The gringos are completely delighted with the authentically Lebanese atmosphere.

They are believers that in Beirut, people dress like the genie in Aladdin’s lamp. They swear, through their dead mother, that the most typical Lebanese dishes are the four-cheese bib’sfiha and the kibbeh stuffed with cremely®.

There was even the case of a Mormon missionary from Oklahoma who, while traveling to the Middle East, was terribly frustrated because she couldn’t eat bib’sfihas. Maybe it was the pronunciation. Maybe she hadn’t gone to the right restaurants.

Swap Habib’s for Outback Steakhouse, Lebanon for Australia and the US for Brazil. We have, in broad strokes, the phenomenon that correspondent Terrence McCoy reported in The Washington Post.

The text makes people laugh –half nervous, half ashamed– with a priceless description of Brazilians’ surreal obsession with the Outback.

A resident of Rio, McCoy is intrigued by the success of the restaurant chain – 100% American, but which uses boomerangs and stuffed koalas to pretend to be Australian.

Brazil is by far the Outback’s largest international market.

In the United States, it’s just another half-baked roadside themed restaurant. It competes with oddities like Medieval Times – where diners eat roasted chicken with no silverware while watching a mock knightly tournament.

McCoy came to São Paulo, more specifically to Center Norte, to visit the largest Outback store in the world – twice the size of the largest Outback in the United States. On a given Monday, he heard from a hostess that the queue was miles long because the place is “very chic”.

In fact, many Brazilians think that fried onions from the Outback are the manna of the desert and that ribs in barbecue sauce are a delicacy from the gods. Drooling with the Australian charm, you feel in Sydney, in Brisbane.

A modest item, a bit simple-minded even, is the ultimate symbol of absurd adoration for the Outback: the couvert bread. The network serves a warm, soft, dark and slightly sweet bread, made from white flour and cocoa.

They call it outbread or, in the long description, “our iconic Australian bread”.

Brazil loved this bread and incorporated it into the national food repertoire. Every self-respecting bakery offers Australian bread. Supermarkets sell mix to make Australian bread at home.

Now, take a good look: go try to find bread like the Outback in Australia. It might be easier to find fried kibbeh with cream cheese on the streets of Beirut.

PRESENT LINK: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release five free hits of any link per day. Just click the blue F below.