Passion fruit

Not the actual passion fruit, maracuja, I hate that stuff. In general I don’t miss much any of the tropical fruits, sure I could enjoy a manga (I never understood why when translated to English they changed the name of the original fruit from manga to mango) but most of what is considered exotic here and pretty easy to find in Rio are not my cup of tea (or sorbet). My passion is for figs.  Peaches and blackberries come in a close second place; fruit-wise I live on the wrong coast.

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed show his love for me by going into the only place we know that sells them, it is not a place we drive by in a regular basis, quite the opposite but he was driving by it going from one job meeting to another and for my surprise, and ecstatic pleasure, he went inside said grocery store and ask about figs. He got me the biggest box of figs I ever saw in my life.

Of course I already ate 5 of them! Yes, not just one or two, so big is my hunger for this strange fruit. Not strange from where I come from but very rare here. The season for figs is very short, I believe even at the west coast, where you can find them in every market, here in New England it is a whole different story. In almost 8 years I only saw them in a store twice, and they were not in good shape, and until today I only got to eat them twice, once on my birthday, on a salad I order at a restaurant and the second time at the opening of a photo exhibit a friend did.

Figs remind me of my father, he was awfully fond of them too and also of my grandfather, in his case the favorite was not the raw fruit but when it was turned into a hard paste to be eaten with a special cheese not found around here.

It feels like I am already celebrating my birthday. Thanks to He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, figs and sweet memories.