A Trip to the Feira in Maringá, Brazil
It seemed every person I talked to asked, "Have you been to the feira?" After hearing multiple descriptions from my Portuguese teacher about foods that were sure to stop the heart dead in its tracks, I was geared up for a fair food fest. You know the kind - local hang out, food booths and the scent of bubbling oil wafting through the air. So one Wednesday evening, I headed out to experience this weekly event everyone couldn't stop talking about.
As it turns out my first trip to the feira was all that I had expected and more. As I approached the parking lot of the local soccer stadium I started seeing something I hadn't expected - green! And orange and yellow and red! This wasn't just a fair, this was the farmer's market. The one thing I had been longing for since our move to Brazil weeks before - fresh produce and local flavor.
That night began my adventure into the local foods of this small city in southern Brazil that I've called home for the last 18 months. What makes a feira in Brazil unlike other places is the vast amount of exotic produce available at its absolute peak. I've never tasted fruits and vegetables with so much flavor, or seen so many varieties of the same fruit in all my life. Want bananas? You have your choice of about five different kinds. Limes and oranges overflow the tables in abundance. Watermelons the size of a small boulder and as sweet as sugar are stacked high in the booths.
After your brain recognizes the familiar, it moves on to realize there are some things here it has never seen before; jaca (jackfruit), goiaba (guava) and maracujá (passion fruit). Then you see the things that offer no translation. Jabuticaba - a grape-like fruit with a sweet pulp covered by a dark purple skin, acerola - a bright red cherry-type fruit, caju fruit - the fruit from which we get the cashew nut, and mandioca - a root vegetable used much like potatoes.
Contributing to the sense of awe you feel at seeing all these new things is the price you will pay for such extravagant bounty. When I first saw the signs hanging above the various produce I had to blink to make sure I was seeing things correctly. Tomatoes cost R$ 1 (about 50 cents US) for a kilo (2.2 pounds). Limes, onions, oranges and potatoes cost just mere cents. It is something I can never get over and I try never to take it for granted.
No words can fully describe the experience of being there in the midst of the feira. Whether it is walking up to buy local coffee and seeing bags as tall as my waist full of roasted beans, or watching a farmer stand in the back of a pick-up and cut the palmito (heart of palm) with a shockingly large machete.
While fresh produce is one draw of this event, if you go expecting fair food like I did, you certainly won't be disappointed either. Among the fresh vegetables, you have your choice of any one of three pastel
stands, each overflowing with crowds of people. Pastel is a puff pastry filled with a variety of ingredients - cheese, chicken, olives and beef to name a few. It is then deep fried in a massive vat of oil and served piping hot. If pastel is not your thing you can head over to one of the two corn booths serving pamonha, where cornmeal is mixed with milk and wrapped in a corn husk. It is then boiled in water and served to you with a spoon. You can have it savory or sweet and with or without cheese.
Choices still remain if you are not yet satisfied. Along with that smell of boiling oil is the unmistakable aroma of a grill at work. It smells pretty much like a football tailgate party. The shops that set up booths to sell their meats also set up huge grills serving espetinhos. Simply put, this is meat on a stick - chicken, chicken wrapped in bacon, ham, beef, pork loin - it is a low carb dieter's paradise.
Once the sweet tooth hits you can head to the tapioca stand. A food typical in the north of Brazil, tapioca is made from tapioca flour which comes from the mandioca root I mentioned earlier. The flour is sprinkled onto a hot griddle and shaped into a circle. The heat helps form the tapioca into a shell similar to a tortilla. Then it is topped with your favorite sweet -geléia degoiaba(a guava jelly), doce de leite (caramel made from sweetened condensed milk), brigadeiro (chocolate and doce de leite) or coconut - and folded into a burrito-like dessert, perfect for eating while walking.
These things are all good, but personally I save the best for last on my weekly trips to the feira. The culinary highlight of my week is seeing that, the individual whom I affectionately call "the sweets lady," has set up shop. This woman has taken traditional Brazilian sweets and perfected the art of their creation. You can choose from a big slab of doce de leite, pé-de-moleque- a dessert like soft peanut brittle, or cocada - shredded coconut with sugar or sweetened condensed milk served in a cup or dried like a candy.
Whether it's for the area's best produce, a quick dinner or a sweet treat, the feira is truly a place where the city comes together. Fortunately in many Brazilian cities this coming together occurs several times per week. If you want to experience regional food and the rich culinary practices of the locals, be sure to visit a feira if travel to Brazil should happen to be in your future. ■
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Lori Rice is a freelance health and travel writer. You can follow her adventures as a US ex-pat living in Brazil at Blondie in Brazil or explore her thoughts as a nutritionist, wellnes advocate and foodie traveler at Fake Food Free.
Lori Rice
Reader Comments (2)
That looks amazing, Lori! I follow you on Twitter (I'm @samcab) and always enjoy your musings on Brazil. It sounds like so much fun. The foods sounds INSANE!
Um, wow! I just ate and this made me hungry again... instantly.