Dona Alzira's kitchen

Dona Alzira is the lady who washed the laundry at my granmother's pousada (a brasilian version of the bed and breakfast, I suppose) by hand for over 30 years. She is married to Seu Nonô, the man who, with the help of his donkey, brings the wood that fuels the wood-burning stove at my grandmother’s kitchen. He has been doing this three times a week for over 35 years. They live in Viçosa do Ceará, my family’s birthgrounds, located on the top of the Ibiapaba mountain range, a 5-hour drive from Fortaleza (the capital of our state of Ceará). Their home is beautiful, colorful, and full of light.

The kitchen is hands down the most lovely part of the house. It’s welcoming and bright; there is always something on the stove and freshly brewed coffee for the visits (in the northeast of Brasil we must always feed our guests). Paying a visit to them is a must every time I am in Viçosa. They have known me from the time I was born, and their unconditional love carries through in the food and drink they offer me with bliss.

the open market in Viçosa do Ceará

One of the greatest (and simplest) pleasures from when I was a child, was to burry my hands down the dried beans at the market. They are so smooth...

Siriguela: the fruit with a large seed and a tiny bit of sweet (and often times sour) flesh.

Visa and Mastercard at the open market in Viçosa? Is the whole world corrupted by corporations?

jaca • the jackfruit

There are some fruits in the tropics that you either love to death or would die if your life depended upon eating it (or even taking a good whiff). Jaca is one of such delicacies. It was brought from Asia to Brasil by the Portuguese colonists a few centuries ago and is there to stay. It is a massive plant, starting from the tree, which grows beyond where the eyes can see. The fruits can weigh several kilos and inside them are some enormous seeds. Their unmistakable smell is very very pungent and sweet, and can be sniffed from a distance.

There are two types of jaca: soft and hard. Which is better? It’s all a question of personal taste. The soft jaca (pictured) is gooey and impossible to chew. The flesh is very slippery and slides right down your throat. Whole. I prefer the hard jaca, which is more manageable to the teeth. When they are in season, there are so many of them that it becomes impossible for the town to consume the entire production, so many of these fruits end up rotting away on the ground. This is the case with many other fruits in Brasil. The earth is just so fertile in the humid areas that the abundance of food is often an incredible sight. Welcome to the tropics, my friends, the land of massive pungent fruits!

Click here for more on the jackfruit.