Cheese Bread

There are a great many foods that I would list among my favorites, but I am quite convinced that if I were ever rather implausibly stranded on a desert island where I had to choose only one food to eat for all of eternity, I would choose pão de queijo – Brazilian cheese bread.

First off, it’s gluten free, which makes it super cool in my book… and also not poison.

But that’s not the point. The point is that I’m on an island – and Lord knows how I got there – with some half-cocked chef who, despite presumably knowing how to make any food I might desire, will only make one recipe. Forever. And given all of those parameters, the choice is not hard.

Minas Gerais, the supposed home of pão de queijo, is sort of like that island, although I assume I could go looking for other food should I so choose. But with pão de queijo on every street corner, why would I even want to eat anything else?

For breakfast, I can buy one the size and shape of an airplane neck pillow for a whopping 50¢. For a hearty lunch, I can get a sandwich made with pão de queijo and chicken or sausage for $1.50. And if I need dessert, there’s always the option of filling it with doce de leite (caramel) instead.

And the pão de queijo in Minas is good stuff, the genuine article. I found a metro stop in Rio that sold consistently good, warm pão de queijo. I found a Brazilian snack bar in Somerville that made a wonderful, eggy version. I even tried my hand at it a few times. But Minas takes the cake. Or the pão de queijo.

This isn't cheese bread. This is a mango. And it was delicious.

This is fruta de conde (or pinha)... it is my favorite fruit in the world and tastes like a mango/pineapple/pear ice cream. Yum.