Mercadão... tons of food and fruit!

Every sunday there is a fabulous food and fruit market right outside of Kharyna's house. We walked along sampling food the whole way!

I have no idea what these are, but how cool!

Look at how they dwarf the corn beside them!

Peppers! The bottom right ones are very mild and tangy, my favorites.

Calda de Cana.

This is a sugar cane... liquified. 

Needless to say it's amazing.

The slogan all over the booths that sell these say

something along the lines of "fountain of health"...HA!

Two of my favorite fresh juices.

Sugar cane (calda de cana)

and coconut (água de coco)

I'm in love with this sweet treat, traditionally from the north of Brazil.

Its a pancake made out of fried tapioca balls/flour, filled with cheese, coconut, and doce de leite (caramel). 

To. Die. For.

A close up!

Beautifully displayed spices for all of your cullinary needs.

Bacalhau

This is a flaky pastry filled with flaky fish, olives, green onions, and spices.

So oily and deliscious. 

Me in front of São Paulos Mercadão.

Sticking with the market food theme, Marianna took me to the Mercadão, which means "big market". This market is open every day, and is packed full of vendors selling the freshest fruits, veggies, and meats. You are able to walk around sampling whatever you like... its fabulous.

Here starts the long slide show of fruits, many of which I've never seen or heard of before.

So...I tried them all!

This fruit's name translates to "eye of the dragon"

It has a hard black pit in its center and the texture speaks true to it's name!

Chirimolla! (spanish spelling..)

This one I have tried in Ecuador, and it happens to be my favorite fruit.

Wow!

The strongest thing about this fruit is its color, the flavor is very mild.

A smaller but veerrry strongly flavored pinneaple variety, I've never tasted its like before.

Marianna and I in front of our favorite vendor's stand.

We probably ate R$50 (US$25) of fruit between us, for free.

So we bought some too!

Slimy, but deliscious.

AAAH it's an alien.

Fresh meat.

Slabs of Bacon! Thomas, this is for you.

mmmm....?

mocotó?

Feijão! (beans)

Brazil's traditional dish is Feijoada, made of beans, meat (usally pork), onions and spices.

This dish can usually be found accompanying any meal.

Frutas do Mar

(sea food)

An above view of the mercadão.

Beautiful stained glass windows surround the cielings.

Marianna and I, stuffed full of fruit :)

We couldn't help ourselves from trying some of the best bacalhau around though.

MMMMMMM! Bacalhau again!

I don't know how she did it, but that little lady was able to eat the whole thing.

 Another restaraunt specialty.

This picture classically describes my impression of Brazilian street food ratios.

Meat, bread, and cheese!

p.s. notice the "salad", yes, I'm referring to the invisible slice of lettuce.

I look so weird here, so I had to post this picture.

The fruit I bought wasn't ripe like the vendor told me it was, and inside revealed a sad face that I thought fit perfectly in the situation. But on the other hand, check out this sweet necklace that Kharyna gifted me. It's tradition is native to her home region of Bélem. The indiginous women there dive down into the river and collect this green clay, which they later form animals out of and gift them to their lovers. Usually the string is made out of their hair. This one is in the form of a frog, perfect! You can only be gifted these, and they bring you good luck and health. Thanks Kharyna, you rock!