Maracujá

Maracujá!!
deserves more than two exclamation marks!! ! It is another iconic fruit native to Brasil (and Paraguay and northern parts of Argentina; now also enjoyed in several other tropical areas thanks to food globalization) this variety is yellow and pretty big compared to the little purple kind found in other places. As you can see compared to my hand, they are about the size of a grapefruit. These have a lof dimples in them but I'm not sure if that's common of the ripe ones or what, but I see a lot of them very dimply.

The rind is shiny, light, and airy and pretty thin. Inside are a lot of dark seeds with yellowish pulp around them. The video below shows the inside bettter.

Maracujá is very popular as mixed into drink, or by itself as a juice blended in the liquidificador (blender) and then run through a colander.

This fruit tends to have calming effects, which I personally attest to. My mãe sometimes brings a glass of suco de maracujá to me while I'm studying, and there's no way I can reject it. A few minutes later I am falling a sleep! [although that might just also be an effect of the reading, (thanks mom, I guess I inherited that trait)]

Passionflower is also used in relaxing teas to ease tension or stress. (I am all into herbal medicine. yeah!) And is it also the most beautiful flower I have ever seen.

At a farmer's market selling maracujá in bunches.


I had taken a large gulp of the drink above thinking it was maracujá juice and it was maracujá liquor! hahaha, it burned but it was delicious.

And of course the famous maracujá mousse, which I have mentioned before a few times.

The maracujá seeds are also sometimes placed at the top of such desserts for decorative purposes.

[photo by Patricia Scarpin]

I want to try some of these!! :) yummmy.

first meals

29/08/09- 02/sept/09

29/08/09; our first almoco together awee... it was really good. we had panqueca, beans, chicken, lamb, rice, some pasta with tomato sauce. and a saladPanqueca

above: it's like these rolls of crepe-like food with filling. in this case it was ground meat and cheese and a tomato sacue wth oregano and garlic, and also that melted cheese on top. but the filling can also be shredded chicken or even sweet fruit panquecas that are more like pancakes with finely chopped fruit and yogurt on top

Pavê

I'm pretty sure that when i had this above [i love those little cups] they called it pavê, but i don't know if the traditional pavê is a little different. to me it was like dessert that's made with 3 layers with ice cream, condensed milk, and a pie-crust type thing, possibly a little chocolate in it.

peixe, fish. it was delicious but you can pretty much see everything in the picture. the head is my mãe's favorite part.

Mousse de Maracuja

oh this is one of my favorites! Maracuja is really popular in Bahia, i believe most of Brazil and according to my Portuguese friend, also in Portugal. Passion flower! and it's really amazing, his was kind of like an icecream it is frozen but creamy however not as creamy as ice cream. if you haven't had passion flower, it tastes really sweet and a little sour kind of like how strawberry is a little of both but if i had to compare it to somethind i'd say the taste is like tangerine,strawberry,peach, and a little bit of grapefruit, but something else too. i don't think it's really comparable but it's delicious. i have a lot of maracuja juice . i'll write a blog on just the juice though later.

"Salada"

In my family pretty much anything that has vegetables is considered a salad. When my mom was saying she was going to cook some chicken she was going to cook it with salad, as in she put some potatoes in it and carrots and tomatoes and cooked it. Whatever though i'm really glad that i'm getting veggies. and look at this eggplant! i love beringela *

Quiabada

Quiabo (okra) soup. i really like okra and it actually plays a really big role here in bahia with all the acaraje and caruru parties.

If i get a name for this i'll post that up but this was like a coconut cake, it was really gostoso too. it was very moist and a little tiny bit chewy with a semi-crusty outside which is a textural favorite for me.