Food Finds

Regarding food-finds, I think this might be my best week thus far. I love it when I get the chance to explore new places or when things pop up out of nowhere that I hadn’t seen before.

Let’s start with a little background. When I was in Curitiba the last time I enjoyed a delicious new food that I had not yet had the opportunity to try. At lunch one day I decided to be very Brazilian and go with the special like everyone else around me. Fortunately the special was chicken with passion fruit sauce. So tasty! However, the side was mandioquinha which I had never had before.

It was so good that I did a little research after that meal and learned that mandioquinha isn’t simply “little mandioca” as the name would have you believe. It is a different root vegetable also called arracacha, batata baroa and the Peruvian parsnip. It is smaller like a carrot with a brighter yellow color than a basic white potato and a richer flavor as well. They are native to the Andes and are grown and used in many countries in South America.

After seeing some pictures on the web I knew I had never seen it before, but I have had my eyes out like crazy at both the supermarket and the farmer’s market.

Okay, now fast forward to this week.

I decided to stop by the Tuesday morning feira after my run at the park because I needed some fruit and I hadn’t been to that one in a long while. I was looking up and down the rows when a small carrot-looking, white root veggie caught my eye. Could it be?

I asked the vendor and she said another name that I couldn’t quite understand although it had mandioca in it. I then asked if it was the same thing as mandioquinha. Yes! A very exciting find. I haven’t made it myself yet, but I’ll let you know how that goes.

Continuing on, today I decided to spend some time looking through the Japanese market here. I was taken to this market on my first visit to the city before we moved and I loved it then. The girl who was showing us around was pointing out all the different fruits all with new names for me to learn and as you can imagine I was mesmerized. I’ve been back one or two times, but since finding the feiras I haven’t spent much time there.

Another reason I hadn’t been back much was because the prices are a little higher than other places in the city. However, considering my last few maddening visits at the grocery store I’m thinking that for a place that looks like this when I shop, it is probably worth an extra R$10 on my bill.

I felt like exploring and the atmosphere was great for that. I was hoping there were some things there that I had somehow overlooked on my previous visits. As you would expect there sure were!

First let me say that I search hard for foods here. I will comb an aisle back and forth several times when looking for something I have in mind like a grain or spice. I go over it again and again to make sure I haven’t missed it. Then one day, things just show up. At times it seriously makes me feel like I’m losing my mind, however, I expect it is a lack of attention to detail on my part. Although, I do know things disappear and reappear around here all the time.

I was actually looking for quinoa because a friend told me they had it there. They did, but I wasn’t ready to part with R$17 to have a small bag of it. I may break down eventually, but today wasn’t the day.

I did come home with all kinds of other good finds though.

The girl that first took us there told us that grapefruits are pretty much non-existent in Brazil, but that this place would sometimes carry an imported variety. Well today was my day because there was a whole load of them. I hadn’t had grapefruit in forever so I picked one up and I was not disappointed. Just look at that pink, tart goodness.

A few weeks ago at a dinner with friends, we were discussing some tiny little bananas from the north that we had never had before. We learned the name was banana ouro (gold) and rumor had it that they were smaller than the banana maçã (apple) which is roughly about half the size of a banana in the States.

Well, I round the corner at the market and there they were. It is crazy how small they are. The second picture is a banana ouro next to a banana maçã.

Next came the spices. I’ve had a hard time finding my favorite herbs and spices around here. I look and look in the spice aisle, I translate names and go back to try to find them and still some never show up. Well, until today. I could not believe the spice aisle at this market nor the fact that I had apparently missed it on my previous visits.

I about fell over when I found hot paprika. I had purchased some in Hungary this summer and completely fell for its spicy flavor. Last week, much to my sadness, I found that bugs had gotten into. So there went the paprika that I would probably never have again. Oh, but I was wrong because they have it here! I also found white pepper. They even had Indian curry which I had yet to see here. I am stocked up on curry from our trip to Europe last summer though so I let that one be. It smelled amazing though.

So what a great days at the markets this week. Definitely a week mixed with finding new things and also my old standards. Can’t get much better than that.