Siriguela

I'm having a great time. A couple of days ago we went to Academia da Cachaça (I love that place!) After my usual Caipirinha (Cachaça, Lime, Sugar, Ice), the waiter suggested that I try a different flavour (Andrea was acting as interpreter). He described a fruit from the North East of Brazil called "siriguela". I have to say, the siriguela caipirinha was great.

Siriguela are small orange coloured fruit, about 2cm to 3cm long, with a comparatively large stone, maybe related to plums (they are structurally similar though smaller), I don't know. The juice tastes like tangerine, though with less acid, and the meat and skin is not as tasty and a little fibrous. The waiter explained that the tradition in the North East is to drink a shot of straight cachaça and then eat a siriguela (like sucking lemon after a tequila). He even brought me a free glass of neat cachaça so I could try this myself.

By the time I got to the end of the meal I was a bit tipsy. Put salt in my coffee instead of sugar and had to send it back (confusing little packets everywhere). Andrea and Violeta had to roll me home.

P.S. I think the scientific name for siriguela is Spondias Purpurea L. and it is also called purple mombin, red mombin, Ciruela, Cerigüela, etc.
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