What is "prato-e-faca"

Prato-e-faca (literally "plate-and-knife") is a Brazilian folk music instrument which consists of a plate and a table knife.

It may be played in basically two ways. It the first way the plate is held "as though it were a custard pie the musician was preparing to throw in his own face, and the edge of the plate is scraped by the knife. In the second way the edge of the plate is tapped with the edge of the knife.

Prate-e-faca is a part of a minimal Samba ensemble.