Açaí

My apologies for pulling a Homer Simpson, but...

Mmmmmmmmm... açaí.

If you have no idea what the substance in the above photo is, then you've obviously never spent any significant time in Brazil.

This is açaí, my current culinary addiction, and something of which I had absolutely no knowledge until I got to Rio de Janeiro. During my first day in Rocinha, Chris picked up a small cup of it from the juice bar. I'd never heard of açai before, so he let me have a little taste. I went back down the next day and picked up a cup of my own.

Now, one of the first things I do when I get to a new city in Brazil, after finding a place to stay and getting my general bearings, is to ask when I can get some good açaí. Signs reading "Temos açaí" or "Açaí aqui" or "Copo de açaí, 300 mL" are like siren calls to me.

Açaí can refer to a number of things derived from the açaí palm and its fruit. As I've learned, in Northern Brazil, the açaí berries are generally ground up with manioc (cassava or yucca) flour and sugar and eaten as a staple carbohydrate. It's an ice cream flavour. You can get açai juice. In southern Brazil, açaí is enjoyed as açaí na tigela, açaí pulp blended with sugar and ice to form a kind of a fruit slushie, and often accompanied by granola and bananas. The fruit slushie is what I'm referring to when I talk about açai.

I'm not sure I can accurately describe the taste. When I first tried it, and before I knew that açaí was an actual berry, I thought it was a mixture of different other berries (like blackberry, raspberry and blueberry), with a hint of chocolate and / or vanilla mixed in. I think it's delicious, though for reasons unfathomable to me, I have run into a miniscule amount of people who think it's digusting. I mean, it's ground berries, sugar and ice. Throw in some granola and banana and it's like a party in my mouth and everyone's invited.

Apparently, it's quite the super-food too, containing high amounts of antioxidants, and a good mixture of carbs, proteins and fibre (though, I've also learned that the health properties have been vastly overhyped by the North American diet supplement marketers).

Also, it's supposed to be a good hangover remedy too. When I walked into The Lighthouse Hostel in the early afternoon after a long night out in Rio, spooning açai into my mouth from a cup in my hand, Sylvia, the vivacious owner of The Lighthouse looked at me approvingly.

"That's why you look so alert after a long night of drinking. Açaí is a great hangover cure."

Hey, I was sold, long before, on the stuff from the taste alone.

Maybe the reason I'm spending so much time in Brazil (looks like I'll be here for almost two weeks more than I originally budgeted) is that I'm afraid I won't be able to find açaí once I leave. God, that will suck.