Christmas Special – Where are the strawberries?

I realise you may still be digesting your Christmas dinner turkeys, roast potatoes, carps, herrings or whatever your family tends to have, but this is exactly why I want to tell you about Christmas in Brazil. Before you switch from your table-sofa-table-sofa-bed routine to New Year’s Eve preparations.

Let’s start with Christmas Eve. It’s not exactly a big thing in the UK whereas in Poland that’s what Christmas is all about: the huge evening meal on 24^th December. Here in Brazil, it’s something in between. Where I am (the outskirts of São Paulo), it was a simple family dinner, with one dish. A few relatives were invited. I had been told that the father would prepare something special - camarões no morango, prawns with strawberries. How exciting, I love prawns! Never thought you could serve them with this particular fruit, but hey, I’m open to new culinary experiences.

On the day, I got a little confused when I saw this in the oven:

In Poland we serve soup in bread, so I suppose you can serve prawns in a pumpkin. It looked really appetising. A white creamy sauce was poured next to the steaming rice, garnished with freshly chopped spring onions. The smell of garlic made my mouth water.

I sat down with my plate, ready to stick my fork in. But then I remembered. Strawberries! Where are they? I looked intensely at the pink bits but they were nothing more than cooked prawns. Still confused, I quietly asked my boyfriend. He started laughing. It was camarões na moranga – prawns in a pumpkin. The closest thing to strawberries was my red face...

P.S. I absolutely loved the dish. It was one of the tastiest homemade foods I have eaten so far. No strawberries, true, but the mushy pumpkin bits did the prawns just as well.

Fala japonês?*

There is a significant Japanese diaspora in São Paulo, and in the rest of Brazil, I imagine. And thanks to this fact, a myriad Japanese bars line the streets, especially in the centre. Some of the dishes, however, have been conveniently “brazilianised”; you can get, for example, maki covered in breadcrumbs and fried (!) or supersized temakisushi (well, a few times bigger than in London anyway) with salmon and mayonnaise. Delicious. Both of these.

Now, the vocabulary for the various dishes and utensils has, interestingly enough, been kept original. And while it’s understandable with maki, nigiri and sashimi, names already well familiar in most of Europe, there are a few surprises. So, for one, you don’t go asking for soy sauce, oh no. It’s shōyu you want. And I had my moment of embarrassment, and started to question my ability to speak supposedly fluent Portuguese, when I got asked by a waitress if I wanted to use hashi with my guioza (Japanese gyōza). And no, I did not think she said hashish. She simply meant chopsticks, which took me a moment, and a friendly whisper, to realise. It looks like I’m going to have to brush up on my Japanese...

Luckily, there are also bars/restaurants where you don’t have to use any of these words, you just pick and choose whatever you feel like eating. It’s self-service we’re talking about. And it gets even better as you don’t have to decide between Japanese or Brazilian food. You can have both! As a sworn foodie, I couldn’t believe my eyes the first time, and the only one so far, my friends took me to a bar like that. I was thinking about having a light lunch, so I passed by the steaming feijoada, meats and sauces with little interest (I had these for the first three days after my arrival) and headed straight for the sushi section. Oh meu deus! My hands were almost shaking with the anticipation of the delight I would experience with the fresh slices of sashimi, maki rolls and nigiri. Sizzling king prawns caught my eye, so I had a few of them, and I couldn’t resist the very Brazilian fried chicken hearts. Some mushrooms, a few green salad leaves and we’re done. Who’s going to waste time with boring (and heavy) things like rice. You pay per kilo so you want to make sure you get the best stuff. Miso soup on the side and watermelon as dessert are included in the price. So is the little cup of caipirinha, next to the lemon juice with ginger. I’m in Brazil after all.

*Portuguese for - do you speak Japanese?