Eu Gosto de Comida

The next few days I spent with my friend’s mother, who worked night shifts at the nearby hospital. She took me to the local park where we feed geese and sat on the benches outside the tiny library in the middle of the grounds, reading our books as the sun’s rays warmed the papers. The good weather didn’t last long, however, as it never does in the tropical heat. With dark, grey clouds fast approaching we collected our bicycles and started to head home but obviously not fast enough. Water came crashing down in buckets of cats and dogs. We found shelter in one of the shops along the street. While waiting for the rain to stop, we pathetically attempted to play darts.

It was quite common for it to rain while I was in São Paulo. Thunder and lightening would argue outside in the late afternoons while I took the time to relax and read my book inside.

My favourite past time was our frequent visits in the mornings to the street fruit and vegetable markets. The local area had at least one market on everyday, just in different locations. This meant that for my lunchtime dessert I received a platter of fresh, tropical fruits to choose from. And while at the markets sellers would offer us slices of their fruit to taste (I learnt fast to come with an empty stomach). We ate mangoes, grapes, pawpaw, pineapple, sour apples, watermelon, peach and lots of delicious lychees. I didn’t get to try any dragonfruit (pitaya) though, although apparently we have it in northern Australia.

Once our basket was bursting with fruit and vegetables, we would sit by the vehicle that sold freshly squeezed juices, using the engine as the power source to squeeze the fruits. Our favourite ingredient was sugarcane. The vendors of Chinese decent would shove long, bamboo-like stalks into the compressor, adding in your desired accompaniments such as lime, lemon, passionfruit, mint, etc. Once we asked for fresh coconut juice. The vendor stabbed a hole into the top of the coconut with his 'mean-looking' machete and stuck in a straw. Once we had finished the liquid he then sliced off the top entirely, handing us both pieces; one to eat and the smaller piece to scoop out the inside of the coconut. Genius!