One of our favorite grocery stores here is Pão de Açucar (sugar bread or loaf), a national chain that is named for a famous mountain near Rio de Janeiro. They have a great selection of fruits and vegetables, and we like to purchase a new one every couple of weeks or so just to try it out.
This fruit is a "caja manga" (KAH-jah MAHN-gah), it was a not easy to eat. It was mildly sweet, had a very tough rind and a seed with several tough tendrils that extended into the fruit. I'm not sure if these are used in cooking, but eating it directly was difficult.
I bought this pineapple because it had two heads. The next week we found a four-headed one at Sam's Club.
Brazilian pineapple, called abacaxí (ah-bah-kah-SHEE), is quite a bit different than the pineapples from sold in the U.S. that are grown in Hawaii and Costa Rica. Abacaxí is sweeter, less acidic and therefore less sour, has a lighter color, and the core is softer and more edible. These are some of our favorite fruits to eat here, and we get at least one or two per week. My favorite place to buy them is from the man across the street from one of the grocery stores who sells them from his wheelbarrow. His are generally less expensive. We pay about R$3 to R$5 each (between US$2 and US$3.50) in Brasília, though the price can be lower if they're on sale.
One of the things that has surprised about living in Brasília is that produce costs more than we had expected. I guess that's what we get for living in the interior.
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