Tutti-frutti

I LOVE TO EAT!!!!!!!! Food in Brazil is so freakin' good. I love everything. I have not eaten one thing (and I've tried a hell of a lot) that was terrible or even remotely close to that. One of my goals was to eat my way through Brazil and I think I am accomplishing that quite well. The most amazing thing here is the fruit. There are 5 kinds of bananas here!---not including plantains which are quite large, green and don't taste at all like a regular banana. The most surprising part is how different and how much MORE everything tastes. Bananas, for example, I have eaten since I was a baby. However, bananas in Brazil have a very distinct taste. Not to mention the smell....sweet Jesus.....walking by a fruit stand makes me salivate nowadays. Mangos smell the best; you can smell a ripe mango about a block away in the center of the city--it's that strong. I've decided to devote this blog entry to my love of Brazilian food. Although almost of all of my previous entries have mentioned food in some way, haha. It's just too good to ignore. Here are some of my most notable food encounters....

Starting on the left we have--- caqui (kah-key; round, red, looks just like a tomato), maça (mah-sah; Brazilian apple), maracujá (mah-rah-coo-shah; passion fruit, yellow with a little stem), pera (peh-rah; pear), in the center is tangerine and the spiny green fruit is called fruta do conde (froo-tah doo con-jay; fruit of the duke)

Fruta do conde is Felipe's favorite and has quickly become my favorite as well. It has such an aromatic taste it's like eating perfume (but not the overwhelming, old-lay variety). This is the inside...

I don't know if you can see very well, since the photo is a bit dark, but the inside is white with a bunch of little pouches. Each of these little pouches contains a hard, black seed but everything white inside is edible and tastes wonderful. You scoop each part out with a spoon, suck each pouch to release the seed and then spit the seed out. It's quite a challenge to eat this fruit and it takes a while to finish one, but the taste is definitely worth it.

Above is, of course, a pineapple (abacaxi; ah-bah-kah-she) and beside it is a papaya (mamão; mah-mauw). Since I'm speaking of food, I thought I'd throw in this photo too. It's not fruit but, it's a photo of Felipe's dad (Protasio), mother (Sonia), sister (Ana Cecila-all the way from Germany to meet me even though she's quite pregnant) and brother-in-law (Christian-German). Felipe was sick that evening and stayed home but, I had a great time eating sushi and drinking with them. I drank a caipirinha, which is sort of the national drink of Brazil. It is cashaça (Brazilian version of vodka made from sugar cane, sugar, and lime. A few of those can knock the biggest guy on his butt.