Woodspoon serves regional Brazilian specialties such as moqueca, a seafood stew.

NATALIA PEREIRA’S menu expresses the flavors from many cultures (African, Indigenous Brazilian and Portuguese among them) she knew growing up in Minas Gerais, an interior state of southeastern Brazil that, like California, experienced a gold rush that triggered mass immigration and often brutal societal shifts. An appetizer of favorite Brazilian fried street snacks illustrates the cuisine’s many global tributaries: It includes an oval, minted variation on Levantine kibbeh; Portuguese-influenced bolinho de bacalhau (cod croquettes); and shrimp and coconut pastels, crackling dumplings that bring to mind both empanadas and wontons. Pereira’s most beloved dish is arguably empadão de frango, which she translates as “Brazilian chicken pot pie.” You will know why when you crack the biscuity crown and spoon out the well of creamed poultry, olives, corn and hearts of palm. Lately I’ve been even more drawn to the complete meals she calls grelhas, especially the skewered, bacon-wrapped chicken arranged among ribboned collards, soft plantains, rice, beans and the ubiquitous Brazilian condiment of toasted cassava flour, farofa. Unwind in Woodspoon’s cozy Bohemian dining room full of mismatched chairs and pillows — an individualistic space that conveys Pereira’s artistic soul nearly as well as her cooking does.

• 107 W. 9th St., Los Angeles, (213) 265-7017, woodspoonla.com/restaurant