Visiting a Farmer’s Market

Does anyone else enjoy visiting grocery stores as a tourist activity? For me it is a must do wherever I travel. I love looking at the produce I can’t name, discovering snacks I couldn’t have dreamt up if I tried, and imagining what I would cook if I had a kitchen nearby. It’s also my favorite place to buy gifts for friends back home.

Rio is not a foreign country to me, however, I left when I was 17 so I did not have the love for a grocery store (or for fresh produce) that I have today. Many of the things I encounter here are not available in the US, and it was an incredibly fun learning experience to figure it all out.

Food Curious? Here are some fun facts from this visit:
🥑 There are over 500 kinds of avocados in this world although 95% of California’s crop is Hass. This one was called Quintal.

🥒My maxixe confusion was fair… it is a type of cucumber which is technically a fruit but we serve it more like a veggie.

🍆Jiló is a tiny type of eggplant.

🖍Urucum is called achiote or annato here and can be found in powder form, which is made from the seeds. I had never seen a seed pod before. This is commonly used as a natural food coloring for packaged foods.

#travelideas #riodejaneiro #feira #cobal #gastronomiabrasileira #braziliansabroad #brazilianexpats