Brazil 8 - Pinhao

Now this is something wacky. Something you don't see everyday, and for good reason - this is only found in Brazil.

See the first pic of the tree? It's a pinheiro, a tree that dates back to dinosaur times, and is found only here in the South of Brazil. It's a pine tree thingy - but with a difference. You can see how beautiful it looks - it is heavy on top and spread out like an umbrella - around the city of Curitiba they are everywhere and I never get sick of looking at them. They are just so beautiful, I think of them as works of art.

Anyway...enough of the agriculture lesson. What you see in the bottom pic is a bowl of the seeds of the pinheiro, and they are called "pinhao". And oh my. They are delicious. The ones you see there were collected from the yard of my first family's house - they had fallen out of one of the pinheiros, and are washed and ready to cook. These were put in a pressure cooker, but I've also eaten them roasted in a fire, any way they are cooked they taste FAB!

Once they are cooked, you have to bite the thick end to push it out of its skin, then shake a bit of salt over it, and pop it in your mouth while it's warm...mmmmmmmm....wonderful wacky texture, sort of nutty and gummy, with the warm saltiness....bloody deliciousssssssssss. I could happily sit and eat about a hundred of these special gifts from nature....mmmmmmmm.