What to do with a Cupuaçu
One of the food things I found most exciting when I got to Brazil was the huge variety of fruits available, most of which I had never heard of. Graviola, Caja, Umbu, Jabuticaba, Taperebá, Bacurí are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. No need to mention that I didn’t recognise half the names of the fruit I did know, like morango, maçá, abacaxí (strawberry, apple and pineapple respectively).
Regardless of my poor Portuguese, I was at the juice bars dotted all over town, I was presented with a huge list of bewildering fruit to choose from and did my best to try them all. Some are good, some are just OK. Possibly the most astonishing in terms of all-out flavour madness has the be Cupuaçu (sounds like coopwa-SOO):
The Cupuaçu fruit has a thick, hard shell, covered with a light brown dusty powder.
Hmmm, it doesn’t look very fruity does it? Looks more like a yam or some other root vegetable. Even at this stage it has a strong fragrance, but how do you get in through that hard shell?