 martinelli's Brazil Travelogues | | | |
|
| Page Views: 1,902 Last Visit to Brazil: - I Used To Live Here | FRUITS by martinelli - last update: Jun 15, 2002 |
FRUITS This travelogue qill guide you through the wonderful world of brazilian/tropical fruits. Learn and taste the wonders they are. Fruits in Brazil are very very cheap and, believe it or not, the best fruits you´ll get from street salesmen, not from supermarkets. Why? Because the street salesmen do not use agrotoxics - they have the trees in their backyards... |
ACEROLA This tiny little kind of berry is one of the latest affairs of Medicine. It isn´t only tasty and beautiful, but within each one of those 1 cm fruits you have the same amount of vitamin C of 20 oranges! An acerola will be ripe when red or purple. |
UMBU (Spondias Tuberosa) Umbo is a delicious sour-and-sweet fruit. Believe it or not, it´s from the same family of mangoes! It grows up in arid areas of Brazil and its taste is simply addictive! You can also buy umbu from salesmen on the street and eating 30 of them is a meal, although it´s smaller than a lemon. Rich in energetic action and carbon hidrates, it contains vitamins B and C. An umbu will be ripe when it´s yellowish green and soft. Green umbu is for experts only (lol). *under construction* |
AÇAÍ The modern fitness fever! Açai is a purple, almost black, amazonic fruit that fights anemia, has a lot of energy in it and is digestive. All those people from the "health geaneration" are addicted to a sort of shake made of açaí, milk, guaraná and granola. I myself, belonging to the "Coca-cola geaneration", simply hate this fruit... but as my grandpa would say "Taste and s-hole, each person has his own..." |
CACAU Although it is an amazonic fruit, the biggest cocoa plantations are located in the southern region of my state, Bahia. Imortalized in the writing of Jorge Amado, this is the fruit chocolate is made of. I hate chocolate, but will force myself to explain the different parts of cocoa. It's beautiful and hard in the outside, and its pill is hard and silky. You have to break it open to find the pulp. The scent of this fruit is the scent I imagine paradise to have. Covering its various kernels (attached to themselves like corn) there is a thin white delicious skin I simply love. Inside the kernels you will find this terrible cream chocolate is made of. Cocoa is also very good for your health, specially for the bones. |
CAJA As if it wasn't wonderful enough to have an extraordinary taste, this fruit originary of the African continent is good for your eyes, skin and mucus. And it's one of the most beautiful fruits in the world! Ah, caja! |
CAJU Now I am about to unveal a mistery most of you never even thought existed. This is Caju, also a very beautiful fruit, very acid and marvelous. Think the name is familiar? Well, that's the fruit the cashew nut is attached too. Cashew trees are very common in Brazil - like starts in the sky. When I was a child, my granfather had some of those in his backyard and our favourite hobby was detaching the nuts from the fruit, grilling them in a bonefire and eating all of it. Surprisingly the price of the cashew nuts is very very high, even here. (mouth-locking: cashew, as mangaba, has a milky substance that make your lips stick to each other when you bite it) |
CARAMBOLA Originally from Asia, carambola has developed wonderfully (to my luck and bliss) in brazilian soil. It is a beautiful fruit, waterful, tasteful, sweet and rough. The candy made of it is called "star candy" ("doce de estrela") because when sliced horizontally it assumes the shape of stars. Wanna make some doce de estrela? Just cut a lot of carambolas, put them in a saucepan with a bit of water and loads or sugar. Huuuummm.... |
COCO Be careful to pronouce this word carefully. The main stress sylab is the first one. If you invert the other you'll be saying "sh*t" instead of coconut and, well, I suppose they don't taste the same. Coconut is in my opinion the most complete fruit in the world - You can drink from it, eat from it, make spoon and plate from it, make art from it, play basketball and bowling with it and you can kill someone by throwing it on his head. Not to mention its water is so rich and pure you can inject it directly in your vein to make your blood stronger - actually that was a practise in times of the Paraguay war. Originally from the Indic Ocean islands, coconut is a national obcession around here. You can get it in all prices, sizes and maturity states. You can also make bikini tops from the shell. <b>- COCONUT LESSONS -</b> Once I taught people in the chatroom all about the coconut. Now I will teach you, dear visitor, all there's to know about those samples from heaven. <b>- GREEN COCONUT AND BROWN COCONUT - </b> Once a brit friend asked me what was the difference between the green coconut and the brown coconut plamtrees. I had to laugh nonstop. well, ladies and gents, NONE! The brown coconut is simply the ripe coconut. The green one is unripe. The riping of the coconut makes the shell decay, becoming brown and "hairy", the water turns into the coconut pulp (that we call "coconut meat") and they finally fall to the ground by themselves. The green coconuts you consume had to be carefully taken off the tree by brave man that climbed the coconut palmtree. <b>- WHAT'S THE BEST COCONUT TO HAVE? - </b> >> If you want coconut water - green coconut, going slightly yellow. There's a lot of water in it and it's sweet. >> If you want coconut meat - yellow or brown coconut. The meat is hard and crunchy! Yum... <b>- WHAT'S DANGEROUS ABOUT THE COCONUT - </b> >> Romantic as it might seem, I'd not really advise you to sleep under a coconut tree... >> Don't let the coconut touch your clothes. There is a substance on its outside that will provoke uneraseable brown and ugly marks when in touch with material. <b> - COCONUT WATER x COCONUT MILK - </b> Forget all you thought you knew until now. Coconut water is not the same as coconut milk. For starters, coconut water is almost transparent and depends on no human action. Coconut milk, in the other hand, is the coconut water plus the coconut meat plus ordinary milk, all mixed up in a blender. <b> - DOES SIZE MATTER? - </b> NO! It doesnt matter the size of the coconut, but the pleasure it provokes. *lol* Frequently the smaller coconuts have the biggest quantiyy of water. Each fruit may contain from 250ml to 1.600 ml of liquid. |
GOIABA I don't remember the name of this fruit in english, but it's probably very similar to its name in portuguese. This delicious fruit is frequently feared... it is very tasty and might be sweet or sour depending on what kind of goiaba you get. Why is it feared? Because they are almost always inhabited by tiny worms (they look like earthworms, only smaller and whiter). It only hapens when they are ripe. Thinking those worms are nasty is stupid, though, since they are 98% goiaba and 2% worms. |
JABUTICABA Here goes my childhood again. One of my grand-uncles has a big house by the Rio de Contas river, with a huge backyard full of fruits. When a child we (me and my cousins) used to make contests on who could eat the biggest number of jabuticabas without touching them. This 'sport' was only possible because those fruits do not pend from a branch, but are attached to the log itself (observe picture). Purple-black in the outside (the colour of my eyes! :) ) and wite in the inside, with one to four tiny kernels, jabuticaba does wonders for your intestine and mouth health. Despite what one may think, it's ripe when it's black. |
MAMAO This is mamao, known as "papaya" in most places. Mamao is very good, specially if you have diarrea or some other kind of intestinal weakness. Banana as well, did you know that? Mamao is wonderful. You might not recognise it in its leaves because they are still in a very unripe phase. Its leaves are very similar to marijuana's (but don't have the same use, for chrisssake! lol). The inside part of the papaya pill is excellent for your skin, so when you're done eating it, lock yourself up in a room and rub it on your face. Let it dry and then rinse it off. You'll see the results immediately. |
MANGABA Not very beautiful in the outside, I wouldn't recommend the unexperienced tropical fruit eaters to eat this fruit "au naturel". Prefer the juice or the icecream. It has the same kind of milky substance that makes your lips sticky. If you need new experiences in your relationship, eat a mangaba then kiss your "significant other". It's gonna be really funny! |
PITANGA Doesn't this one look like acerola? Well, it isn't acerola. Pitanga is sweeter and, in my opinion, more delicious than acerola. I like to eat a bunch of it with marshmallow or whipcream. It's good for your digestive system (purifies) and for your bones. |
TAMARINDO If you're not an experienced tropical fruit eater, stay away from tamarindo! Extremelly sour, this fruit will only bring bliss to those of strong taste. It's licqueur, though, is delicious and so is the candy made of it. I love it. Original from Africa, it prevents diarrea. |
JACA This ugly heavy fruit is absolutelly delicious! I have no idea where it's originally from, but I'd risk to say Asia. Jaca is dangerous, though. It has a protection liquid inside that will stick to your mouth, fingers, tongue and altough it's not poisoning it's very annoying. If this should happen to you, the only thing that will get you rid of the liquid is kitchen oil. So when you're to eat jaca, have always some kitchen oil with you, clean its surface with paper towel and eat with a fork to avoid bigger accidents. Prefer stiff jaca. The not-stiff jaca will provoke nausea in the least experienced - not for its flavour, but for its consistance. The smell of this fruit is also very good... |
> Add to your Custom Travel Guide [What's This?]
| martinelli's Brazil Travelogues | | | |
|
 Comments for martinelli about Brazil | | | | |
Mikebond Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:39 UTC
Interesting tips about Brazil! There are 35 rated pages about Salvador da Bahia now, so your "Salvador needs a VT page" tip is rather old... Kisses from Italy, Michele | Cham Wed May 17, 2006 17:12 UTC
your pages on brasil are phenominal, i've never been so captivated reading vt tips! I can't wait to read more! Thank you so much for sharing! | pocketpiglet Mon May 8, 2006 11:05 UTC
Interesting page about Brazil! I spent more than 25 years drinking tap water there and never had any problems. Or perhaps the water is the source of all of my problems?! LOL !!! Abraços :))) PS In the south tap water is really safe, everybody drinks it :) | Marisola Sat Mar 25, 2006 01:30 UTC
Love the music lyrics! Thanks! I've never seen so many travelogues!!! You might have a record! |
|
|
email me
add as friend
