CRUZ DAS Al-MAS: A BRAZILIAN VILLAGE — PIERSON 



39 



Dinner (Saturday) Lunch (Sunday) 



Canja °" with potatoes and Beans 



cabbage Kice 



Lettuce salad Maize meal 



Bread Roast pork 



Caf^ Roast ribs of goat 



Raw-cabbage salad 

 Bread 

 Caf6 



Dinner (Sunday) 

 Beans 

 Rice 



Maize meal 

 Roast leg of goat 

 Roast pork with green-onion 



sauce 

 Cafi 



These meals represent what would be considered 

 in the community tasty and substantial fare 

 for special guests. The variety is much greater 

 than would be common among either village or 

 farm families. Beans and rice, as has been noted, 

 are constant items in the local diet. During the 

 period in question, bread was difficult to obtain, 

 wheat flour being at times entirely absent from 

 the market. Chicken was the principal meat avail- 

 able. Beef was to be had only on Friday evening, 

 following the weekly butchering. Pork or goat 

 was rarely obtainable. The vegetable salads wei-e 

 a concession to the food tastes of guests and are 

 much less common in the community than these 

 menus would indicate. 



The time of meals is regulated more by the 

 stomach than by the clock. Cafe, or the first meal 

 of the day, is taken immediately upon arising. 

 Some families take nothing but coffee at this 

 time. Other families may also have bread, if 

 available, or iolo de fubd; if they are farm fam- 

 ilies, they may also take something more sub- 

 stantial, such as bean virado, manioc, or sweet- 

 potatoes. Almoqo is the first substantial meal of 

 the day. It is eaten sometime during the morn- 

 ing, often while at work in the fields. The hour 

 varies from family to family and from day to 

 day and often from person to person within the 

 same family. This meal is usually taken, how- 

 ever, sometime between 9 and 11 o'clock, depend- 

 ing upon the time needed to prepare the food and 

 to carry it to the field or upon the degree of hunger 

 of the children and other members of the family. 



If the man comes in from the field for almo^o, 

 he will jJrobably appear, as a farm woman put it, 

 "quando bate a fome" (when hunger strikes). The 

 children are fed whenever the food is ready, or a 

 child indicates he is especially hungry. All the 

 children may or may not eat at the same time. 

 Most families have afternoon cafe sometime be- 

 tween 12 and 2 o'clock. Again, they may have 

 only coffee; or they may also take bread, holo de 

 fubd, or similar food and, occasionally, eggs with 

 farofa. Jantai\ or the evening meal, will be eaten 

 when the man comes in from the field or the fam- 

 ily's hunger dictates, which may be any time from 

 4 : 30 to 6 : 30 p. m. This is the second substantial 

 meal of the day and ordinarily consists of more 

 of the same food which the family had for almogo. 

 On 4 of 17 farms visited, the family usually sits 

 at a table in the kitchen or dining room when 

 taking meals; as similarly does a fifth family at 

 times when the dining room is not being used to 

 store onions or other produce. On another farm, 

 the father and the older sons sit at a table in 

 the dining room, but there is no table in the kitchen 

 for the mother, girls, and younger children who 

 always take their meals there. On the remaining 

 11 fai'ms, the families are not accustomed to sit 

 at a table for a meal. Instead, each person takes 

 a plate of food and either stands, leans or sits in 

 any convenient place about the kitchen or other 

 room. On four of these farms, there is no table 

 in the kitchen or any other part of the house. 

 On another farm, there are two tables in the 

 kitchen, but both are used to hold pots, pans, and 

 other kitchen utensils instead of for eating pur- 

 poses. When the family uses a table, in most 

 cases, both on the farms and in the village, the 

 mother and smaller children do not sit with the 

 father and the older sons. Utensils used in eating 

 are referred to elsewhere (see Dwellings and 

 Furnishings, p. -16). 



PINGA, TOBACCO, AND CAFE 



Pinga is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting 

 the juice of the sugarcane."^ The erudite term is 

 aguardente, but this word is seldom, if ever, used 

 in the community. Pinga is the principal bever- 

 age of the local inhabitants. Beer and a few other 

 drinks, especially wine and cognac, are also used, 

 but to a much lesser extent. 



^ Chicken soup with whole pieces of chicken and rice. 



»' See Distillation of Pinga, p. 89. 



