What is it with food that's wrapped in dough? The world loves it. Just off the top of my head, I can think of famous "pockets" such as the empanada, pierogi, vereniki, samosa, gyoza, spring roll, calzone, steam bun, spanakopita, pot sticker, and Cornish pasty. Brazilians are not left behind without their own version of a pocket food, the pastel.
The pastel is made of a simple white dough which you can make yourself or buy ready-made at the store. On the inside, the pastel is filled with meat or cheese. My father-in-law buy dough at the "feira" (street market) and makes his own at home, but I think most people don't bother and simply eat it freshly made at the market.
 |
| Filling the pastel |
 |
| Frying until golden |
 |
| Cooling on the steps |
 |
| Enjoying after a play in the kiddie pool |
Here's a photo of the locals enjoying pasteis at the market stand every Friday. I thought it was hilarious that the stand is called "ICHIBAN"! Like the instant Japanese ramyen noodles? Folks love to sit on plastic stools, enjoying their freshly fried pasteis and drinking "caldo de cana". Caldo de cana is sugar cane juice. They take the cane, shove into a machine that looks like an old fashioned laundry machine with rollers and sounds like an rusty old lawn-mover, and squeeze the liquid out of the cane. The light green juice tastes like you think it will taste; liquid sugar. For me, one sip and it feels like my teeth are melting and my heart is about to jump out of my chest, so I don't drink it, but Brazilians LOVE it. Geraldo recently said: " Ah, I can't believe I waited this long before I had a pastel and drank caldo de cana, now I feel like I've finally arrived in Brazil."
No comments:
Post a Comment