Palmier’s Taste of Brazil Is, Overall, a Bland One

Some opportunities are too good to miss, and some are too good to be true.

In San Diego, it doesn’t happen every day that a French chef has the chance to hire an old cooking buddy--and one who just happens to be Brazilian--to help out at the range and occasionally whip up a few specialties drawn from the respectable repertoire of cozinha brasiliera .

Perhaps the very first instance of this, in fact, happened recently at the Palmier Bistro in Mission Hills. Chef Jean-Pierre Martinez, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Jeanne Driscoll, lately made room in his kitchen for Roberto Araujo Hasche, whom he met before moving to San Diego. Hasche has cooked at respected restaurants in Paris and Geneva as well as at the Maxim de Paris in Rio de Janeiro and at the exclusive Regine’s in Sao Paulo.

On most workdays, Hasche cooks Palmier’s traditional and most respectable menu of French bistro fare, but on Wednesday and Thursday evenings he offers an additional, fixed-price menu of his own devising that presents a choice of two four-course Brazilian dinners. Priced at $14.95 per person exclusive of wine, tip and tax, this menu reads well, but the cooking, at least as sampled on a recent visit, falls far short of inspiring one to climb atop the table and dance the carioca .

Brazilian cooking is, like our own Louisiana cooking, a creole cuisine. This is to say that Old World techniques and ingredients, in this case Portuguese and African, are married with New World ingredients and, less frequently, with native cooking styles, to produce a hybrid cuisine. (To this day, descendants of some of the blacks brought as slaves to Brazil eat a steamed grain dish called cuz cuz that is quite like the cous cous of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. This cooking is robust, relatively uncomplicated and makes a point of abundance. The unceasing fondness for rice and beans that was transferred from the Iberian Peninsula to Latin America is just as pronounced here as in Mexico and Cuba. Brazilian cooking generally refrains from overt spiciness, although there are some dishes, particularly garnishes for the frequently served national dish called feijoada , that revel in cayenne pepper.

Hasche’s Brazilian menu changes from week to week and, according to Driscoll, will at times offer such entrees as red snapper with julienned peppers and a coconut milk sauce and pork baked with tomatoes, white wine and raisins. Recently, the choice was between camarao a Paulista (shrimp in the style of Sao Paulo) and sauteed steak with rice and black beans. The other courses were set and began with a crab omelet, followed by a potato-and-sausage soup, the entree and a baked banana dessert.

The omelet, called fritada de Siri, not very surprisingly was done in precisely the same style as the Spanish tortilla, the thick, oven-baked omelet that somehow lent its name to the daily bread of Mexico, but otherwise has absolutely nothing in common with that staple. Served cut into a square, the tall, almost cake-like fritada included a more than generous amount of crab, flavored with onions and a few strips of bell pepper. For all that, the finished product was distinctly bland, and the lengthy baking had done little for the texture of the crab meat. A squeeze of the lime wedge served on the side picked up the flavor considerably.

The caldo verde , which roughly translates as “green soup,” actually was a potato-and-sausage combo that had the color and consistency of thick brown gravy. This is not a point to quibble with, but the potatoes had been cooked to an almost gelatinous puree suspended in whatever had been used for the cooking liquid. The flavor of the sausage, which was lavishly used, suggested a bit of garlic or a hint of spiciness, but this quality did not translate to the soup. It was good in its way, but unexciting, and a smaller portion would have sufficed.

The same spirit of generosity continued with the entree plates. The half dozen large shrimp used for the camarao a Paulista looked most appealing in their orange-colored oil and dusting of confetti-like granules of crisped garlic, but lacked any notable flavor, including, oddly enough, the flavor of the garlic that was present in some abundance. In the Brazilian style, the shrimp were cooked and served unpeeled, which made for messy eating. A small forest of hearts of palm, all standing upright, made an attractive garnish, but, although a bit of rice on the side would have seemed indicated, it was not included. The request for a portion was speedily honored, however.

Whatever it may be about Brazilian fare that sends folks flying down to Rio, that quality is difficult to discern in Hasche’s arroz , feijao e bife . A simple steak with black beans and rice is the Brazilian counterpart of the French steak frites , which is to say a standard cafe offering. The guest who ordered this entree lived in Sao Paulo for two years and, after taking several thoughtful bites, she said, “This is very unremarkable.”

The meat, if anything, seemed a little greasy and tasted as if it had been sauteed in solid vegetable shortening, which may be authentic but is not terribly appealing. The rice, even given its simplicity, nonetheless was excellent; most local restaurants serve some sort of gooey mush that they call rice, and it is pleasing to encounter this grain cooked properly. The beans, firm rather than soupy (which again may be the authentic Brazilian style) had been seasoned as sparingly as the rest of the dishes.

The dessert, called cartola , was one of those decidedly authentic dishes that forces us to ponder the question, would we rather eat authentic food or food that tastes good? There was nothing wrong with this peeled banana baked with a sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon and a layer of mild, Jack-style cheese, but to an American palate the cheese definitely interfered with the sweet marriage of the other ingredients. But then again, this is standard fare in Brazil, and if you wish to sample this cuisine you may as well follow through to the end.

PALMIER BISTRO

902 W. Washington St., San Diego

297-2993

Brazilian dinners, Wednesday and Thursday only

Four-course, prix fixe meal $14.95 per person. Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $45

Credit cards are accepted