Top right, clockwise: Avocado, pinha, cacau, tea cup (for size reference!)People have been asking me about what exotic fruits I´ve been eating here... and... to tell you the truth, I haven´t been eating too many `exotic´ ones, since... I´m not such a fan! BUT! I´ll still talk about them, anyways...
I guess I´ll start off with the ones I dislike, haha! (Even when I eat foods, I tend to eat the bitter/blah-tasting things first, then save the best things for last, muaha!) Onwards, ho!
* Papaya - self explanatory, we have this in the states, as well...
But, just in case, let´s call on our buddy, good ol´ wikeeee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaya
Interesting thing that I just found out on this link - Papaya´s also called `paw paw?!´ I always thought that Baloo from `Jungle Book´ was just making up words in his song, Bear Necessities, but.. I guess that`paw paw´ actually meant something! Good to know...
* Mango - eeeyeah. I´m not a HUGE fan of this, but, I admit - with the Thai dessert, Coconut-flavoured sticky rice, mango is so-so. Although I don´t really like the taste, I love the colour and how people (like my dad, aww!) cut it up so it looks like an orange sea-anemone.. haha! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango Brasil is apparently the top 7th producer of Mangoes..
* Maracujá - aka.. Passion Fruit, but... MAN.. am I NOT passionate about this fellow.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maracujá It´s made into a lot of desserts (pudding, with the seeds floating on top), juices, mix with cachaça... yeah.
* Cacao - yes, the fruit of my lover-for-life, chocolate! My HM´s friend has some cacao trees, so she brought one over, and we cut it and ate the `meat´ surrounding the seeds (which are dried/roasted for chocolate), and.. yeah. Not too much of a big deal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacao Just as a sidenote, in Brasil, most of the chocolate is made by Hersheys, Lacta, and Nestlé (actually.. Nestlé seems to be EVERYWHERE here... as well as Kraft!!)
*Cajú - aka, the fruit of cashew nuts (castanhas de cajú)! I was pretty amazed when I first saw these, since they´re so odd-looking, yet beautiful! I also couldn´t believe that there´s really, only one cashew nut per cashew fruit! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew I love Cashew nuts, but.. cajú juice is... not my preference. A lot of other people like it, though!
-------
Fruits that eu ADORO (yes, this separate list deserves a WALL to separate it from the others) hah!:
*Bananas - normal and terra (aka, plantains) - I´ve been eating bananas practically everday, in smoothies (with chocolate), with cake, boiled, grilled with cinnamon sprinkled on top, or as my favourite breakfast of all time - nutella spread onto toast with sliced bananas on top. I´m actually afraid I´m getting tired of bananas, since I sometimes eat 2-3 per day... oh no! Actually, did you know that eating bananas potentially increases your risk of being bitten by a mosquito?! Those buggers are hungry for shweet blood... eeks! dun dun dun!
* Coconut - Coconut yogurt, coconut in cake.. coconut in icecream, mixed with chocolate icecream.. mm!
* Pineapple - aka, abacaxi - love! We usually have 3 pineapples in the fridge at a time... mwa!
* Kiwi - I notice that this list seems VERY boring so far, since these fruits are pretty common in the US, but.. they just taste, SO good, here! Okay, I´ll try to be more interesting, now...
* Guava - aka, goiaba - yummy slightly-sour skin with slightly sweet-gooey-seeds, inside... is seemingly everywhere: juice, jams, in candy, in cookies (like, fig newtons!), with chocolates... I especially liked having guava jelly/paste in a beiju (http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapioca Basically, a tapioca tortilla, folded over filling, like a crepe, almost) with melted fresh cheese.... mmmm...
* Jenipapo - not to eat, but to drink. Naturally alcoholic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenipapo Apparently, in the West Indies, it´s called a `Marmalade box?!´
* Pinha - it looks like a green pinecone.. and has mushy things attached to each `scale´ of the fruit, inside. Each mushy thing is basically the `meat´ of the fruit surrounding an elongated oval-shaped black seed (that you spit out). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_squamosa Apparently in English, it´s a `custard/sugar apple?!´ mm... gostoso..* Rambutan - yeah... not too commonly eaten here, but... delicoius, all the same! I always love seeing piles of rambutan... so pretty! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan
* Avocado - aka, abacate - So, when I first started eating this during lunch/dinner with my salads w/lime sprinkled on top, my HM´s friend kind of looked at me funny. Apparently, in Brazil, Avocado is seen as a fruit, so, it´s weird for some Brasilians to imagine eating avocado as a meal/non-sweet thing. They probably do this in other cultures, too, but, I did enjoy eating it as a dessert, as my HM prepared it: mashing up or blending the avocado, adding sugar, lime juice, and milk (or, milk powder, which is more commonly used, as I´ve mentioned). Just as how avocado is sometimes used in American sushi (I stress this, since Avocado is not used in real Japanese sushi!!) to add a creamy-factor, this dessert is pretty creamy, and I want to say that it almost tasted like a cheesecake that used lime... mmm...!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment