Rio Bonito

(This post is based on visits to the previous Astoria location, 32-86 47th St.) Like the Amazon basin, this Brazilian supermarket is home to many flavors just waiting to be discovered.

Flavor Brazil brand ice (200 g.; $1.99) was not the ideal medium for my first taste of cupuaçú (Coo-poo-uh-Soo), a wild-harvested cousin of cacao; I needed a few minutes to scrape free a well-frozen mouthful that combined the flavors of bubblegum, banana, and melon. Another display case may have stocked frozen cupuaçú pulp, for anyone who'd like to try it as a smoothie, or in some other guise. 

At the back of Rio Bonito, the prepared-food counter and café have always been unenticing, though to be fair, invariably I've looked in well after lunchtime. On a previous visit, I circled back through the shelves to pluck a jar of Reserva de Minas brand doce de abóbora com coco (680 g.; $5.69), a pumpkin puree, laced with small shards of coconut, that takes well to toast and muffins.

Rio Bonito
36th Ave. at 33rd Street, Astoria, Queens
(the former, 47th St. location is shown below)
718-728-4300

Comments

[ps07]

Doce de abóbora is usually made with butternut squash.

[Dave Cook]

Thanks. It's hard to know just what was used: The separate, English-language ingredients label is headed "pumpkin sweet paste with coconut," but the translators who prepare these labels often take an expedient approach. "Pumpkin" looks friendly and familiar to American eyes -- and if you hollow it out, like a jack-o-lantern or a matryoshka (Russian nesting doll), you can fit the other gourds inside. Perhaps figuratively, in this case.