When you walk into Muqueca in Inman Square, the smell of shrimp, fish and rice fills the room. A small woman nicknamed Fafá shuffles through a tight kitchen, giving soft orders to the other cooks. The walls are painted in bold colors and nearly covered in artwork and fabrics. Tables are filled with families and friends, speaking in an array of languages.
The small woman steps out of the kitchen and walks to the front of the restaurant to welcome customers to her restaurant. Fafá is Maria de Fátima Langa, who owns Muqueca and has made it a distinctive place to get Brazilian food like moqueca, a seafood stew, in Cambridge.
Many of the diners are speaking Portuguese, and come because, for them, the restaurant is a place where home feels closer.
“The food at Muqueca has authentic Brazilian flavors, with delicious seasonings and that special taste that makes us feel like we are home,” said Nayara Toledo, a frequent customer who lives in Boston. “For us Brazilians who live far from home, finding our food, our language and a welcoming environment brings a very special feeling of being just a little bit closer to Brazil.”
That feeling has also kept Roberta Aranha coming back for years.
“Eating at Muqueca feels like I’m eating at my grandmother’s house,” said Aranha, who is from Rio de Janeiro. “There is no other place that I’ve found in the U.S. that makes the moqueca as Fafá does.”
Langa feels pride in what she’s built. “I know the effort it took to get where I am today,” she said.
“I’ll open my own restaurant”
She started 26 years ago with a dream of bringing the flavors of her home state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, to Cambridge. Her state is known for seafood dishes such as moqueca, a traditional Brazilian stew. What began as a small business she ran with her ex-husband has grown into a destination for locals and, especially, members of the Brazilian immigrant community, the largest such group in Massachusetts.
Before opening Muqueca in 2000, Langa, now 71, was studying hospitality management in New York. She wanted to work in a restaurant, but employers were reluctant to hire her because she lacked experience and was still learning English.
During one particularly difficult interview, she grew frustrated. “I told (the interviewer), ‘Then I’ll try to open my own restaurant, and I’ll get my own experience,’” Langa recalled.
Her then-husband, Antonio Gomes, eventually found a small former snack shop in Cambridge and bought it. Langa was reluctant to leave New York, where she had lived for years, but she saw an opportunity to pursue the career she had wanted.
Authentic flavors
At the time, she said, some Brazilian restaurants in the area served food with less seasoning to accommodate American customers. Langa wanted her food to retain its traditional flavors. “I remember people coming into the little Muqueca and saying, ‘Your food is too salty today.’ I would tell them, ‘No, my food isn’t salty. My food is seasoned.’” Customers gradually came to appreciate those flavors.
Sometimes she had to improvise, since some Brazilian ingredients were difficult to find in Massachusetts in the early 2000s, including annatto seeds, “urucum” in Portuguese, used to color and season food. Langa ground the seeds herself to achieve the flavor and color she wanted.
“She processed everything herself because she couldn’t find it here the way she wanted it to maintain the flavor,” said Cris Mussi, Langa’s longtime friend.
The clay pot effect
Langa makes her muqueca the traditional way, with firm white fish, onions, garlic, bell peppers, tomatoes, cilantro and coconut milk. She decided the restaurant should use traditional clay pots from her hometown of Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, to prepare and serve its stew.
That meant being a human shuttle. “Every time we went to Brazil, we brought (back) suitcases full of clay pots,” she said. For customers unfamiliar with the tradition, the presentation became part of the experience: Food arrived at the table still bubbling in the same type of pot used to prepare it.
As the restaurant became more popular, Langa spent long hours cooking while her husband managed the dining room and bought supplies.
“I remember Fafá opening the restaurant and leaving at two or three in the morning, chopping onions, chopping tomatoes, preparing everything for the next day,” Mussi said.
At its busiest, Langa said, the original location in Inman Square was so small that customers stood in lines stretching around the block, sometimes waiting nearly two hours for a table.
A bigger space
In 2009, the business moved into a larger space down the block to accommodate the demand. The restaurant now holds 60 people.
Mussi, who has known Langa for decades, said Muqueca’s success reflects the same determination she has seen in her friend throughout her life.
“Fafá is very dedicated. She is focused, and she sets a goal,” Mussi said. “For me, she is a great example. I know how much she worked, how dedicated she was and how hard she fought for people to recognize the restaurant, its food and Fafá herself.”
Today, Langa continues to greet customers and oversee the restaurant’s operations. “The restaurant is a lot of stress, a lot of work, a lot of responsibility,” she said. “I am the manager, I am the owner, I am everything there. I have to hire, I have to teach, I have to do everything.”
Still, seeing a full dining room brings her happiness.
“I love what I do,” she said. “It makes me very happy to see the restaurant always full. It has been 26 years, and the restaurant is still full.”
Achieving dreams
Credit: Lis De Sá Fonseca
For Langa, Muqueca’s success is not only about serving food. It is also about maintaining a connection to Brazil for people who have built lives far from home.
“When we don’t have family here, and we find someone who creates that bond of friendship and love, that is incredible,” Langa said. “We miss our families so much. Those are the people who help us carry on without feeling so much longing for that family connection.”
Heloisa Galvão, co-founder and executive director of the Brazilian Women’s Group, said Brazilian immigrants have helped sustain neighborhoods through small businesses, cultural events and services. “Where there are immigrants, the community revitalizes, the community becomes richer,” Galvão said.
But rising housing costs have also changed where immigrants can afford to live, pushing some families farther from Boston and its inner suburbs, she said.
Muqueca has remained in Cambridge through those changes, offering regional Brazilian cuisine distinct from the steakhouses and buffets that dominate much of the area’s Brazilian restaurant scene.
For Langa, staying true to that cuisine has been central to the restaurant’s longevity.
“I am very happy that they keep coming because the food hasn’t changed,” she said. “It is still the same.”
After 26 years, Langa said she is grateful as she reflects on the uncertainty she faced when she first left New York for Cambridge.
“I am proud because I feel that I arrived here happily,” she said. “I feel like I achieved my dream.”
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