Friday, September 12, 2008

An important speculation

The Brazil Nut. Doesn't it have a real name? Surely they call it something more familial, more endearing, more personal in Rio. Consider the pecan which is North American. Maybe it is referred to as the America Nut elsewhere, but we certainly would not call it that in Peoria. Right?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where would Charley's Aunt be (from) without them?

M. Knoester said...

You should watch more House, M.D. There's an episode where the CIA requires his help for one of their agents who got sick in South-America and they suspect he's been poisoned.

One of the clues is that he's been eating a lot of chestnuts. But these turn out to have been Brazil nuts, because in Brazil they are called castanhas-do-ParĂ¡, chestnuts from ParĂ¡, which is a northern province of Brazil, as far as I know not known for it's nuts but rather for ore and wood.

Wikipedia tells us that their scientific name is Bertholletia excelsa, and that in their native Bolivia (not Brazil!) they're called almendras. Besides the one Paul mentioned, cream nut is another historical name for the Brazil nut.

Doralong said...

I guess Bertholletia excelsa wasn't quite as snappy for marketing purposes.

dantallion said...

Well that's pretty freaking offensive

dpaste said...

Quiet day today?

Java said...

Curiosity is a marvelous thing.

M. Knoester said...

I tried to hide the "cream nut" in a lot of other text, but I expected someone to pick up on it... ;)

Although it might cause some confusion with other creamy nuts, I think I'll never call them Brazil nuts again.

Anonymous said...

Reading above I now understand why in Germany they are called Paranuss. I always thought they mixed up Paraguay and Brazil, but, no, they are just more geographically specific.

cb said...

Having lived in Peoria, I can assure you that we did NOT call a Pecan an "america nut".

We saved that honor for the Walnut- which was used in every church dessert.