Brazilian Romeo & Juliet: Romeu e Julieta

This is a real tough recipe. haha  You'll need guava paste (Portuguese: goiabada, pronounced like: goyah-bawda), which is of course made from guavas, a fruit originally from the New World, but the Spanish and Portuguese took guavas back to Europe and elsewhere; for instance, the Spanish took guavas to the Philippines, and the Portuguese introduced the fruit to India.

  

This snack or appetizer was seemingly developed in the Brazilian region of Minas Gerais in the 1700s by Portuguese colonists, as Brazil was then a colony of Portugal. Remember, Brazilians speak Portuguese, not Spanish. Minas Gerais has its own fresh cheese, but it can spoil after a relatively short time, so you're not likely to find it outside of Brazil, but you can use other types of cheese. I've made this with Greek feta cheese, Mexican Cotija, farmer's cheese and fresh mozzarella. The idea is to pair a somewhat "salty, tangy" cheese with the sweet guava paste. Guava paste is often available in Latino grocery stores, and "perhaps" in some supermarkets, but it is easily found online, and guava paste is not typically very expensive. By the way, in spite of its visual resemblance to jellied cranberry sauce, it is much firmer in texture than that easily found (in the U.S., at least) product.      

 

Ingredients:

 

queso fresco/fresh style cheese or other white cheese (see above for suggestions)

guava paste

toothpicks

 

Cut the cheese and guava paste into pieces of "about" 1 to 1 1/2 inches long and about 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick. Put pieces of each onto some toothpicks and you're done. Hey, I said this was a tough recipe! Serve with some crackers, but I've also had it with toast. 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY: 

Guava-This word seems to go back to the Arawakan language family, which is from the native peoples of Central and parts of South America, as well as some of the Caribbean islands. Arawakan "guayabo" meant "guava tree," but it might well have also referred to the fruit of the tree. Spanish initially borrowed the word as "guayabo" in the early 1500s, which then was altered to "guayaba," and was applied to the fruit. This was then shortened to "guaya," and "guaba." English borrowed the word in the mid 1500s.