I Heart Food

I think I´ve mentioned in every email I´ve written to people that I am eating very very well here. And it is true, people! I keep saying that I have yet to have a bad meal here or even a mediocre one. I LOVE BRAZILIAN FOOD. You know those verses in the Bible where it talks about receiving back 10 times as much that you give up for Christ? It´s as though with every meal I have here, God is saying, "I´m so sorry for all that crappy food you ate in Japan." (except the cooking of my amazingly talented friends there!) :)

Some of you may be wondering what exactly Brazilian food is. Well, the basic staples are beans and rice. That may sound boring, but it is seasoned to perfection with onion and garlic. Beans and rice are usually eaten at least once a day with a meal. I love it. Also, of course, Brazilians eat a wide variety of fresh fruit, especially apples, tangerines, bananas, mango, papaya, pinepple and passion fruit. They also often drink fresh juices from these fruits. Grilled chicken and beef are also served a lot.

Some Brazilian foods you may not know about (but will wish you did) are things like churros (maybe these are available at some places in the states, I don´t know), brigadeiros, and pasteis. Churros are possibly the most sinfully delicious food in the world. It´s a pastery about the size and shape of a paper towel roll, fried like a donut, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and then filled with a cream called "doce de leite". Doce de leite (literally sweetness of milk) is a lot like caramel, only smoother and creamier I think. Yes, this is a sinful dessert. I can only handle maybe one a week. Then there is the brigadeiro, which is also a marvelous Brazilian invention. It´s like a little chocolate-caramel ball that is rolled in chocolate sprinkles. Yuuuuummy. Finally is the pastel (plural is pasteis), which is hard to describe in a way that makes it sound as good as it is. It´s like a fried pie with meat and cheese and onions and good things like that. Very yummy. And cheap. I love how cheap stuff is here.

And on top of all these wonderful things, everyday I have the joy and pleasure of eating lunch at the house of my boss/friend/brother in Christ, Jorge. Jorge´s mom, Isabel, is an amazing cook. She makes everything from scratch and it is so amazing. Even foods I normally despise are amazing. For example, the other week she made spinach. Gross, right? Well it was amazing. Yesterday we had cauliflour (I have no idea hwo to spell that, and spell check disappeared from my blogger thing). I normally hate it. But it was so delicious I had a second helping. Then today we had kale. I think it´s called kale, at least. I don´t know the English name for it, because typically we´re not crazy enough to eat the stuff. It´s kind of like seaweed. And normally I hate it. But as you guessed, today it was delicious. Isabel is precious for many reasons, including her cooking (as well as her bubbly personality and incontrolable urge to pamper anyone who walks in her door).

Ya know what else I have become addicted to? I don´t think we have this exact product in America, but here they have something called a Hersey Cookie and Strawberry bar. I know we have the cookies and cream bar in America, with the little bits of cookie in it, but here it´s a milk chocolate bar and the little cookie bits are flavored with strawberry! Lord have mercy. I love it.

Yes. I love food. It´s a good thing I´m walking so much, because if not I am sure I would be morbidly obsese by the end of August.

I´m sure there will be more food blogs in the future. :)