Interesting Eats: Passion Fruit

Have you ever tasted a fresh Passion Fruit?

While almost everyone I know has heard of "Passion Fruit", hardly anyone I know has ever tried it. In fact, I myself had never tried Passion Fruit until about 2 years ago when I visited the Dominican Republic with my friend Amy. Passion Fruit were plentiful there, and we greedily ate several Passion Fruits a day and officially declared it to be our favorite fruit. There is just something about that sweet, tart flavor that energized me and made me crave it anytime I needed a pick-me-up, whether first thing in the morning, or as a quick snack before heading out in the evening.

Passion Fruit is pretty hard to find back home in the states, but I always keep my eyes out for it and snatch it up when I can. While they aren't cheap (about $2 for a fruit the size of a billiard-ball), I find they are well worth the price for a special treat - after all, it's cheaper and healthier than a gourmet cupcake!

A purple-skinned Passion Fruit (and a quarter for size compairsion)

How to Eat a Passion Fruit

There are two types of Passion Fruit - one has purple skin, the other has golden - but while they look very different on the outside, the flavors are similar with strong sweet and sour notes and a taste likened to guava. To select a ripe Passion Fruit, choose a heavy, firm fruit with wrinkly skin.

The Dominican way to eat a Passion Fruit is to simply cut it in half, stir in a teaspoon of brown sugar, and eat it straight out of the fruit.

You'll find the texture to be very similar to Pomegranate - small edible seeds encased in the fruit's pulp. Eat it as is, seeds and all, for a high-fiber, vitamin-packed snack.

The insides may not exactly be beautiful, but the flavor is amazing when mixed with a little brown sugar.

You can also add the Passion Fruit seeds to green-salads or fruit-salads to liven them up.

Hungry for more Passion Fruit?

Cupcakes: Or if you'd really rather have a gourmet cupcake than a piece of fruit - compromise and have both! MORE Cupcakes in River North makes a Passion Fruit Meringue cupcake that is pretty darn incredible, but they rotate their flavors daily so be sure to call first if that's what you're after(312.951.0001).

Jam: I found this Passion Fruit Jam at a Mexican-owned grocery store in Ravenswood. It's great on toast, saltines, or served with a cheese plate.

Travel: To truly get a tropical fruit-fix, take a tropical vacation! May I recommend Brazil?

Passion Fruit Mousse dessert at a hole-in-the-wall "by the Kilo" buffet in Rio De Janeiro

Passion Fruit (Maracuja in Portugese) is so common in Brazil that I bought this can of Passion Fruit nectar made by Coca-Cola in a convenience store.

Fresh Fruit juice is so plentiful in Brazil, look at the long juice menu I found in a Bar/Pizza Place in Sao Paulo!

(translations: Maracuja = Passion Fruit; Goiaba = Guava; Acai = super-food berries; Caju = the fruit of the Cashew Tree)

A fruit-lover's paradise at the Central Market in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Tasty Travels: PizzaRio!

Brazilians have fun with their pizza.

While in Brazil, I had pizza on at least 4 occassions. Normally, I'd never eat pizza so many times in one week, but the fun flavors and creativity kept it interesting for me.

Ketchup, Mustard, & Mayo

Their pizzas are very light on sauce. Instead, Brazilians prefer to squirt ketchup on top of their pizza slice. When ordering pizza in a restaurant in Brazil, the waiter will also provide a pile of ketchup, mustard, and mayo packets for this reason. I can see how the sweet tomato ketchup and creamy mayo go well on pizza (and confirmed this with a few bites with these condiments), but I didn't get the courage to try the mustard with my slices!

Catupiry Cheese

You'll also have the option to order pizza with Catupiry cheese. This Brazilian cheese is very creamy (almost like cream-cheese) with a delicious smoked flavor. If you order a four cheese pizza in Brazil, I can almost guarantee that Catupiry will be one of the cheeses used.

Sweet Pizzas

It's also quite common to have sweet "Dulce" pizzas on the menu. The pizza below has pineapple, peaches, figs, maraschino cherries, bananas, and cinnamon. Unfortunately it also came with ham, as my dear host family forgot to specify meatless when ordering. It's not easy being vegetarian in Brazil!

Tasty Travels: Mantioca

I just returned from a vacation in Brazil, my first ever trip to South America. Stay tuned for various highlights about the interesting foods I tried in my travels. Up first: Mantioca. (man-tee-oak-ah)

Mantioca is a root vegetable commonly eaten in Brazil. I'd never heard of it before, but it turns out I'd just never heard this name before. Mantioca also goes by several other names including Manioc, Yuca, and Cassava. And I've actually eaten it several times before... Yuca fries at Pollo Tropical (a chain common in Florida where I'm from), Yuca baked with garlic and lemon at a Cuban themed dinner party, and Tapioca pudding - yes, Tapioca! - it's derived from the Cassava root. And according to Wikipedia, Cassava is the third largest source of carbohydrates for meals in the world.

On this trip I ate Mantioca several times, in two main ways, sometimes both in the same meal:

1.) Mantioca Fries. Deep fried and lightly salted. They are starchier and thicker than french fries and incredibly satisfying. I had these at least 4 times throughout the trip including several restaurants, buffets, and the home-made fries below:

2.) Farofa (Toasted Manioc Flour). Similar in texture to panko bread crumbs, farofa is served along with Feijoada (fay-joe-ah-da), the national dish of Brazil. Feijoada is a bean stew, usually loaded with meat (but not on my plate!). It is traditionally served with a garnish of chopped collard greens, Farofa for texture, and Orange Slices. Careful though, sometimes Farofa is prepared with bacon grease. Pictured below, a sprinkling of farofa over my friend's traditional (meaty) Feijoada plate.

For a taste of Brazil at home, check out this recipe for Vegan Feijoada courtesey of Vegetarian times: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10331