Cajú is also one of Brazil's iconic fruits. It is the cashew fruit, the name cashew comes from that Brazilian Portuguese name but that in turn comes from the Tupi (and indigenous people of Brasil) acajú. I thought it was amazing when I learned all this.
And now I understand why cashews are so expensive in the U.S.: because for every fruit you only get one cashew.
That thing that appears to be at the top of the fruit is toasted and then opened to retrieve the cashew.
This is the tree that I saw, sorry if the picture makes it hard to see but it looks like a pear a little hook coming out of the bottom.
[wikipedia picture of cashews, castanhas in portuguese]
I think the riper ones are the ones that are past red and more like orange or even almost yellow but not green (unless there is a green variety). And it's supposed to be sweet at that point, but I think the one I tried was not ripe enough.
My mãe told me to eat it with salt on it and eat it like that. I think it's worth trying, but make sure it's ripe! I will warn you that it has a certain chemical reaction in one's mouth that kind of makes it feel really shiny kind of like when you eat a lot of spinach and it can be sour. This is why you must try it very ripe. But lots of people love it including my EAP peers, so go for it.
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