As seen on the Ventura star :
Discover the delicious flavors of Brazil at Moqueca in Oxnard
Heaven in a clay pot
By Rita Moran
Friday, January 2, 2009
Heaven in a clay pot
It’s rare to discover a restaurant, a cuisine and a language all at once, but that’s what happened when we climbed the stairs to Moqueca Brazilian Cuisine in Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor.
A sleek new elevator also is available to whisk diners up to the restaurant, which opened about a month ago on the second floor of the rebuilt Marine Emporium Landing.
Regardless of how you get there, Moqueca is an excellent introduction to the flavors and style of Brazilian cooking.
It’s also serene and classy: The dining room is furnished with tables draped in burgundy and cream linens, and the dark-wood chairs play off the gleaming tones of the bar. A wall-mounted TV plays Brazilian music videos.
Seating also is available on an enclosed “outdoor” patio, where daytime views likely are even better than the lighted ships we saw silently cruising by in the dark.
Moqueca’s owners arrived four years ago from Vitoria in Brazil’s Espirito Santo state, located on the country’s southeast coast. Members of the multigenerational group worked at other restaurants in Southern California before fulfilling their dream of bringing their native cuisine to local shores.
The name “moqueca” is a nod to the most prominent dish from their area. It combines seafood and/or vegetables that are cooked and served in a traditional clay pot that also is known as a moqueca. The new restaurant features lots of other native dishes, but the moquecas are the flavorful core of the menu.
The first thing we noticed as we sat down to the elegant table was the silverware, which was set with a knife at the left of the plate and two forks to the right, the exact opposite of what we are used to in the United States. It briefly crossed my mind that the table setter had gotten confused, but I looked around and all the tables were set the same way, which we later learned is the normal manner in Brazil.
Our next challenge was the language of the menu, Portuguese, some of which had the ring of familiarity. Peixe, pronounced “peh-shay,” for fish, is close to the French peche, pronounced “pesh.”
We quickly learned one of the easiest and most useful words: obrigado (thank you).
We started our Brazilian experience with a typical cocktail featuring cachaa, a liquor made from cane juice, paired with a number of fruit variations. We were already leaning toward a caipirinha made with limes when our friendly server — and one of the family of owners — confirmed that it was the most typical of the drinks. It turned out to be a refreshing mixture, slightly reminiscent of a mojito.
We sipped our caipirinhas with our appetizers of casquinha de carangueijo ($5), fresh crab mixed with seasonings, topped with Parmesan and baked in a shell-shaped dish; and quibes ($8), deep-fried minced beef and crushed bulgur wheat mixed with mint leaves, parsley, garlic and green onions.
The crab was lightly spiced and delicious. The quibes were mildly flavored, torpedo-shaped treats enhanced by a honey-mustard dipping sauce.
Our server graciously divided a bowl of fish chowder ($9) into two smaller bowls after we told him we wanted to share the experience. The steaming chowder was full of fish and another blend of seasonings that were at once slightly familiar and slightly unusual, a combination we found was repeated throughout the evening.
Moqueca offers other traditional dishes, including grilled entrees, risotto, paella-style arroz de polvo (octopus) and even a Stroganoff, but it seemed appropriate to go for one of the moquecas. So we ordered the moqueca de peixe com camarao ($42), or fish moqueca with shrimp, designed to serve two.
It arrived simmering in its flat clay pot, with large pieces of sea bass, some shrimp and a mixture of tomatoes, cilantro, onions, olive oil, urucum (a seasoning harvested from a prickly red fruit filled with seeds) and malagueta pepper.
Water isn’t added during the cooking process, but everything was moist, tender and full of flavor. With the moqueca came a dish of white rice and a little bowl of pirao, a fish stock thickened with yucca flour. It was an unusual and very satisfying dish and a happy introduction to moquecas, the dish, and Moqueca, the restaurant. Our dessert of pave de abacaxi ($8) turned out to be a layered dish of homemade pineapple preserves, flan and Chantilly cream. It was perfect for two to share with cups of hot coffee.
Despite its upstairs location, Moqueca appears well on its way to being discovered: On the night of our visit, we saw fellow diners skillfully digging into their clay pots, having clearly developed a taste for the food, the family-oriented service and the language.
— Rita Moran visits restaurants unannounced and pays for her meals. If you know of a new, unusual or just plain good restaurant, please contact her at ritamoran@earthlink.net.
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As seen on the Ventura reporter:
I'd like to eat, Brazilian from the sea:
By D.K. Crawford 12/24/2008
Moqueca: Brazilian Cuisine
3550 S. Harbor Blvd., Suite 201
Oxnard, CA 93035
204-0970
$5- $62
As I entered Moqueca, my ears filled with Brazilian music and I noticed a sleek bar on my left. Deep cranberry-and sage-hued walls bracketed a bank of open glass panes that ran the expanse of the L-shaped restaurant. In the patio area, more glass walls surrounded us and gas heaters took away the chill.
Moqueca is an homage to the sea. It features dishes from southeastern Brazil, a cuisine that often utilizes seafood. From its awesome harbor views to thoughtful touches throughout the restaurant of fish sculptures, seashell napkin rings and bas-relief sea creature tiles in the bathrooms, you are reminded of what the restaurant celebrates.
The most intriguing drink offers were two Brazilian beers, Brahma and Xingu, and Caipirinhas, the national cocktail of Brazil made with the Brazilian alcohol cachaça.
Caipirinhas are sort of like Mojitos on steroids — 86 the mint, add more oomph and a touch more bite. I tried a Straipirinha ($9, a Caipirinha with strawberries), and found it tremendously refreshing and dangerously seductive.
We started with the frito misto ($14), a platter of lightly battered and fried baby white fish, shrimp and calamari with a homemade yogurt sauce. Each piece was a crispy, light bite, the sauce lemony and crunchy from shallots.
We also sampled the casquinha de carangueijo ($5), fresh lump crabmeat baked with parmesan cheese, which came as an individual serving in a warm clay pot. The crabmeat was savory but dry, not succulent as we’d hoped.
Our final appetizer was the quibes ($8), small, fried cigar-shaped rolls of finely minced beef and crushed bulgur wheat with fresh mint, parsley and seasonings, served with a honey mustard sauce.
The quibes had a great texture due to the fine mincing, and the fresh mint shone. I found the honey mustard sauce both complimentary to them, and yet discordant. For me, it covered up the flavors. Our table was divided between which we liked best — the Quibes or the little fishes.
Our entrees were the fish moqueca ($38), pichana ($22) (a steak dish) and we splurged with the lobster moqueca ($62). The moquecas (pronounced Mo-Key-Cas) arrived in black clay pots in which they’d been slow-cooked in for 24 hours.
Moquecas are seafood, onions, tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, peppers and urucum, a seasoning that comes from a prickly fruit. Each moqueca serves two and comes with rice and an extra dish of sauce or pirao on the side that is thickened with yucca flour.
The Lobster Moqueca had three butterflied tails that were tender, buttery and sweet. The sauce was smothered, golden perfection.
The steak dish featured a charbroiled sirloin cap that was designed to be sliced, dipped into a dish of vinaigrette, then into a small container of farofa (yucca flour lightly roasted with spices and smoked meat). The char of the steak combined with the hint of vinegar and crunch of yucca flour tasted exotic.
For dessert, we ordered the pave de bombom ($8) and the mousse de maracuja ($7), a passion fruit mousse.
The pave de bombom of layered chocolate candy bar crumbles, milk flan and chantilly cream was decadent — flavors of dulce de leche, crème brulee and pure vanilla bean laced with a hint of chocolate.
The passion fruit mousse was sweet and tart, a pure passion fruit essence enrobed in a light, sublime mousse. These desserts were the surprise hit, and two of them easily satisfied five people.
Our experience at Moqueca was charming, warm, festive and exotic.
I will go back for dinner on a special occasion and want to try some of the lunch specials to enjoy more of the flavors economically. It is an enchanting new niche in the Channel Islands Harbor.
