The Amazing Cashew Juice at New York Pao de Queijo

Last week after I scored those green tea Oreos and Nestlé Crunch bars, I also had planned to check out the stuffed pao de queijos at the aptly named Brazilian eatery New York Pao de Queijo. It’s located on 30th Street just north of Broadway, kind of hidden away. I guess you could call this a “hidden gem” of sorts. Everything I’ve eaten there I’ve really enjoyed, including this delicious cashew juice.

When they first told me about cashew fruit juice, I thought maybe they were talking about cashew milk, but no—this is juice from the fruit of that tree. The woman behind the counter said, “You know, there is the cashew nut, and the cashew fruit, and this is the juice from the fruit.” More from Wikipedia:

The fruit of the cashew tree is an accessory fruit (sometimes called a pseudocarp or false fruit). What appears to be the fruit is an oval or pear-shaped structure, a hypocarpium, that develops from the pedicel and the receptacle of the cashew flower. Called the cashew apple, better known in Central America as marañón, it ripens into a yellow and/or red structure about 5–11 cm long. It is edible, and has a strong “sweet” smell and a sweet taste. The pulp of the cashew apple is very juicy, but the skin is fragile, making it unsuitable for transport. In Latin America, a fruit drink is made from the cashew apple pulp which has a very refreshing taste and tropical flavor that can be described as having notes of mango, raw green pepper, and just a little hint of grapefruit-like citrus.

It was delicious! Very refreshing, not super sweet and with a bit of a tang, with definite citrus notes along with a bit of a pleasant musky element often found in tropical fruits.

Sue was with me and she got a very tasty passionfruit juice, which you can see in the distance. It had a stronger flavor than the cashew juice, which was very light.

And remember that stuffed pao de queijo I mentioned earlier? Well, we got them, and let me tell you—they are a meal! A delicious, delicious meal. Mine was stuffed with dulce de leche, and Sue’s was stuffed with guava.

You can easily see the guava sticking out of one of them, but it’s hard to tell where the dulce de leche is. But let me tell you – by the time I got to see the caramel filling, my fingers were super sticky, so I didn’t get to take a closer photo. These buns had just come out of the oven, too, so things were hot, hot, hot. The dulce de leche got all melty, and paired with the slight saltiness of the pao, it was seriously delicious. Very filling, too.

Other menu items that come recommended (props to Sue on that, too) are the X Brazil Burger, which comes topped with cheese, bacon, egg, brazilian sausage, corn, potato sticks, lettuce, and tomato; can you say OMG?!? And there is the Batida Brasileira, which is a drink made of banana, papaya, strawberry, oat and honey. I am also fond of the little brigadeiros (a.k.a. docinhos), especially the chocolate and coconut. They are little balls of sweet magic. I really want to try their version of tiramisu and the cheesecake, too.

New York Pao de Queijo, 31-90 30th St., Astoria, NY 11106, (718) 204-1979, www.newyorkpaodequeijo.com

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Wednesday Blogwrap | Brownstoner Queens July 10th, 2013

[…] Pool Lap Swimming [Boro Magazine] Bayside High School Gets Over 14,500 Applications [Bayside Patch] Trying Out Cashew Juice at New York Pao de Queijo [We Heart Astoria] Chatting With Ridgewood Market’s Clean Plate Co. [The Glorified […]

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Jennifer July 10th, 2013

Very interesting! I didn’t know there was such a thing as cashew juice! I’ll be on the lookout.

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