The Magical Fruit

My little sister doesn't eat fruit. Up until last year I think the only fruit she'd ever eaten was an apple. She did get brave and try some cantaloupe, but she still isn't really fond of anything that isn't a vegetable, grain, dairy product, meat, or fat. I'm the exact opposite! I think fruit is the best thing since.....well, since the Garden of Eden!!! When I received my mission call to serve in Brazil, I had no idea what tropical paradise meant. Now I know paradise means: being able to walk down the street and have a variety of fruit trees baring a luscious harvest just waiting to be picked. I have now been home from Brazil 9 months and I still get a little disappointed every time I walk through the produce section at the grocery store. So, in memory of my fruitful mission, I thought I'd give you a little taste (excuse the pun) of what Brazil has to offer:


Pinha (also known as Ata or Fruta do Conde): In English, it's a Sugar Apple. I'm pretty sure it's called pinha because it looks like a pine cone. Fortunately, it doesn't taste like a pine cone. The inside is white with black seeds that look almost like watermelon seeds. Very sweet. Interesting fact: this fruit is used as a hair tonic by some societies in India. Also, the seed can be ground up and applied to the hair to get rid of lice. Be careful, though, because if the ground up seeds get in your eyes you can go blind.

Caju: Did any of you who have never been to Brazil know that cashews come from the bottom of a fruit? This was a total shock to me! Imagine my surprise the first time someone told me we were going to drink cashew juice! The cashew fruit does, in fact make, a lovely juice. The first time I ate the fruit though was a very odd experience. The skin of the caju is very fleshy and when you take a bite, it feels like the fruit is sucking up the moisture in your mouth.


Maracujá: Passion Fruit. This is my absolute favorite fruit! It's pretty tangy. You scoop out the orangish goop (about the consistency of snot) mixed with the seeds, throw it in the blender and make it into juice, mousse, or a goose (okay, maybe not a goose, but jelly didn't rhyme). Passion fruit contains harmala alkaloids. Because of this it can make you sleepy after you eat it.





Guaraná: I never actually ate this small fruit, but I sure drank a lot of it. Guaraná makes a tasty juice, but is even more famous as a soda. Interestingly enough, the sale of guaraná soda exceed that of cola in Brazil. If you're interested in purchasing some, the foreign food section in some grocery stores have guaraná soda. According to an old myth, guaraná's domestication originated with a deity killing a beloved village child. In order to console the villagers, a more benevolent god plucked the left eye from the child and planted it in the forest, resulting in the wild variety of guaraná. The god then plucked the right eye from the child and planted it in the village, giving rise to domesticated guaraná. Gruesome story, tasty drink.

Mamão: Papaya. In my opinion it tastes like cantaloupe mixed up with a vanilla cookie. They grow on the weirdest looking trees! The trees can grow to be very tall but the trunk never gets to be more than about ten inches around. The tree has no real branches but at the top, leaves shoot out. The fruit itself grows on the trunk and looks quite a bit like a gourd. What a plant!





Açai: You know, the famous new superfruit loaded with antioxidents. Looks like a grape but grows on a palm tree. It has a weird sweet but bitter taste. It is especially good when mixed with banana and served on granola.







Pequi: This is a very potent fruit. As you walk down the streets in Tocantins during pequi season, you can tell in which houses someone is cooking with pequi because the smell is so strong. I like the taste, but many don't because it is so overwhelming. You have to be very careful when eating pequi because in the very middle there is a spiny pit. If you get a spine lodged in your mouth, it can be difficult to remove.



Coco: Not to be confused with a similar word in Portuguese, spelled the same was but with the addition of an accent, which means poop. Imagine my surprise telling someone I love to eat poop pie. I have found the the coconut is a very versatile fruit. It can be eaten fresh, dried, cooked, or as a popsicle. You can drink the milky liquid in the middle and it's supposed to be like nature's Gatorade. Also, when you're finished eating what inside, you can use the tough part of the seed to make really cute earrings.

Acerola: This little cherry-like fruit has the Vitamin C equivalent of 32 oranges!!! I guess they'll have to change the saying to "an acerola a day keeps the doctor away." They're delicious straight off the tree, but be cautious when you are picking them. The tree is covered in a fine powder and if you get too much if it on your skin, you'll start to itch like crazy!




Carambola: Star Fruit. Carambola had a relatively neutral taste. It's especially good in juice. Something interesting I just learned about carambola is that individuals with kidney trouble should avoid consuming the fruit, because of the presence of oxalic acid. Juice made from carambola can be even more dangerous owing to its concentration of the acid. It can cause hiccups, vomiting, nausea, and mental confusion. I never had any problems eating it, though. At least, not that I can remember........



Tamarindo: This is a very odd fruit that I tried to avoid at all costs until I one day had it in Popsicle form. What a treat! It's sour but sweet. After that, a began to develop a taste for tamarindo juice as well.





Abacaxi: Pineapple. Okay, I know everyone and their dog and their dog's mom have eaten pineapple, but I had to add this in because I think it's amazing how pineapple grows! I'm almost embarrassed to say that I used to think pineapple grew on a tree. I don't feel too bad, however, because for the longest time my dad thought all drinking fountains in Hawaii had pineapple juice instead of water. He was only seven or eight, though.



Jaca: I thought I'd finish our fruit-filled tour with the strangest of them all. This fruit grows all along the trunk of the tree, from top to bottom. It's not rare to see a jaca growing by the roots of the tree. The fruit can grow to be larger (and heavier) than a bowling ball. The skin is made of what looks like hard goosebumps and when you crack it open it is filled with fibery pods that you can pop out and eat. This is another fruit that could fall under the category of potent because you can smell it from far far away.