CEASA Gave Me a Taste of Autumn I'm Missing

Today I got a taste of "Fall" Brasilia Style.

This is what I think of when I think of fall. Pumpkins, corn being harvested and leaves changing.

Note to readers. It's not autumn in Brasilia. It's spring. We're on opposite season schedules. Didn't want you folks to think I was confused or something.

Today Vanessa and I went to CEASA. CEASA is a weekly market open on Saturdays which has aisles and aisles of fruit, veggies, flowers and other food. According to their website over 500,000 pounds of food are sold each week in 350 different stalls. Wow. It's about a 20 minute taxi ride from my apartment. Cost for taxi about R$30 which is about $15 USD.

Some of the 500,000 kilos of food being taken to a stall.

We'd visited CEASA earlier this year with some other newbies and EAB super staff. Going here a second time was such a completely different experience. Much more confident and had our knew what we were coming for...some fruits, veggies and I really wanted a few new plants.

Here's a glimpse of some of the fresh produce being sold. You can get anything here. Oranges, apples, strawberries, cilantro, peppers, tomatoes. To lots of unique Brazilian fruits which I think taste great in juice but still aren't a part of my regular diet or purchases. When they are, I'll write about 'em.

We wandered around the market for quite a while and while wandering around we made friends with a few Portuguese speaking Brazilians. They were happy we were trying to learn Portuguese rather than using a list with words written in Portuguese we were trying to speak with them. Both Vanessa and I noticed that we understood more than thought we did and usually debriefed after walking away from someone because we were able to confirm stories or put the pieces together more.

One man in particular spoke with us at great length. He was selling corn, pamonha (pronounced pah-moan-ya) and curau (ku-rau). I wanted to try pamonha since I hadn't yet and felt it was time. He gave me a sample and it was yummy. Similar to corn casserole or pudding. It's served in a corn husk and is a paste made from corn and milk.

One of the two pamonha I bought. Yum!

Vanessa saw there was some custard like corn thing as well. She bought one and devoured it (disclaimer because I know she'll want one, she hadn't had breakfast yet hence my verb choice and her quick eat). I had a taste and loved it. We decided to revisit our friend on the way back toward our exit.

This time I also bought one and we asked for the custard's name. It's called curau. Then our new friend told us in Portuguese how he made it. Here's what we gleaned using our Portuguese...corn, milk, butter, cooked together, sweet. We also learned he takes Sundays off and his store is open during the week but in another location at CEASA.

Our new friend asked us intially if we were Brazilian (nice but no way) but was happy we were trying to use our Portuguese, asked us where we were from and shared that Chicago lost the Olypmic bid and that Barack Obama is America's president. I told him I was from Chicago. Definitely going to visit this friend again.

After we made our fruit, veggie and corn purchases, our bags were full, getting heavy and I envied the carts others had brought along. I inquired today about the price of a cart and it was R$70. Yikes! Vanessa suggested this was probably due to supply and demand. Cart will have to be bought elsewhere and have it for next time.

We schlepped our food across a parking lot to the CEASA flower market. We'd been there before where I'd purchased a beautiful orchid and pepper plant. The flower market, just like the produce one has amazing prices. About half to a third of what we pay in the grocery stores and the variety is 100x as much as the grocery stores so the money spent on a taxi both ways more than makes up for it. This time I bought a few house plants. See my new friends below.
This one Vanessa thinks looks like the Snorks cartoon. Kinda does. It's in my kitchen.
Some bamboo for the coffee table. Asia's always going to have it's influence on me.
Another new house plant by the door. Hope to buy a little table for it soon.
As you can see, we both made quite a few purchases. Just had to snap a shot while waiting in the hot sun for our taxi. Oh and "fall" temps today were in the 80s.
We asked for some help calling a taxi and after about 20 minutes it arrived. Our driver was extra nice, drove at a slow pace and helped to watch out for our plants as he drove. It was just a great morning with V.

So at least I saw some pumpkins and corn stalks because the view from my window and sounds of the cicada sure don't jive with my Midwestern fall association. I'm trying to adjust and finding creative ways to do it. And seriously, the high pictched sounds in the video are the cicada. Not techie stuff, it's the bugs.