Xapuri is the most famous comida mineira restaurant in Belo Horizonte — a sprawling thatched-roof complex on the edge of the Pampulha district that recreates the look and rhythm of an old Minas Gerais farm. The food is cooked over wood-fired stoves and clay ovens by a team of cooks visible from the dining room: feijão tropeiro, leitão a pururuca (crispy suckling pig), torresmo, couve, and tutu de feijão.
It is enormous, often busy, and the kind of meal that runs to three hours if you let it. Live music — usually viola caipira, the Brazilian rural guitar — plays through the afternoon. Sundays are particularly busy; weekday lunches are the easier visit. Reserve ahead.