breadfruit

Yesterday, Dona Miuza, who cleans our house and helps with laundry twice a week, brought us a fruta pão that she’d found near her house. I’d heard of breadfruit before, but had never seen one.

I was curious to see what it would taste like. It’s delicious with butter, she assured me.

You have to cook it before eating it. In fact, it’s the only fruit I can think of that you can’t eat raw. (It's not poisonous, just flavorless, like a raw sweet potato). Dete cut it into sections, removed the seeds, and boiled it.


I was kind of disappointed. It does not, it turns out, taste anything like bread.

It is starchy, more like a bland sweet potato, or the tubers they call yami here.

According to a book I’d read, breadfruit originated in the East Indies, and was naturalized in Polynesia, where it’s purported that people can exist on breadfruit alone.

I suppose it’s possible, but I can’t imagine it would be a very enjoyable existence.

The boys liked it, though.