Tom Meek Seafood pie at Muqueca in Cambridge has a broth that gets ladled over rice.
The Midwest Grill, just on the outskirts of Inman Square, used to be top of mind when folks would think about Brazilian eats in Cambridge. The spot served all-you-can-eat skewers of smoked meats, sausages and chicken hearts, but after teetering for months between open and closed, it now seems permanently gone. The good news is that Brazilian cuisine still lives a block down Cambridge Street at Muqueca, which has been been making cultural classics and more for upward of 25 years.
Seafood is at the heart of Muqueca, and it comes in so many alluring ways. The seafood stew and pie are fantastic, and I need to go back for the fried red snapper that drew my eye, carried past my table to a hungry customer on the other side of the open dining area.
The pie comes in a small baking tin, rich with shrimp, cod, crab meat and mussels sealed in a tender, potpielike crust that’s not flaky, but eggy and buttery like the crown of a moist muffin. There’s a bit of brothy seafood juice in it too, which is why is comes with a serving spoon to scoop onto a silky, smoky pyramid of rice. The flavors and textures play together like a world-class orchestra. It’s a perfect meal for one, or great to share if you decide to go in on some appetizers.
The seafood stew, or moqueca (yes, Muqueca serves moqueca), is a soup pot full of a rich, tangy tomato broth bolstered by coconut milk and plenty of diced tomatoes and onions, topped with shredded sprigs of fresh cilantro. You can get it with whitefish, shrimp, mussels or all the above. I went with shrimp. Like the pie, this dish comes in a community-style bowl with a neat mound of rice and a salad on your transfer plate. The broth is flavorful and rich, evocative of Thai soups, not as creamy as coconut curry or as spicy as tom yum, and more subtly accented and nuanced. The tail-on shrimp were plump, perfectly cooked and succulent.
Tom Meek An appetizer of fried yuca and linguica is almost a meal in its own right at Muqueca.
The appetizer slate also has much to explore. Fried yuca is front and center, either solo or with other gastronomical goodies. Get it with the grilled sausage (linguica) or dried beef. I did the former and it was almost a meal in its own right. The yuca is like home fries or french fries but lighter and airier, and is served with a creamy house red sauce, a tangy blend of vegan mayonnaise, sriracha and ketchup. Also on the small-plates list are juicy steak tips, fried fish filets and Brazilian croquettes of cod or chicken. For soup, there’s the must-have classic of sausage and kale, and for drinks, the sangria at Muqueca is high level. The service is too, and the prices are surprisingly wallet friendly. My only issue is that there’s no actual bar to sidle up to.
Muqueca, 1008 Cambridge St., Wellington-Harrington, Cambridge
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
