Not everything that looks like a cucumber is...

Has anybody eaten a vegetable sponge? I am not talking about those that grow in the ocean, this is something common in Brazil and people use it to scrub themselves when they take a shower!!! I ate one and I am going to confess right now!!! Considering that I am the one with whom so many things happened because I am not so normal I hope no one will doubt my story. Too bad aunt Nair is already gone because she would confirm this very fast. Now, before I tell you the story, let's establish that everyone knows what a vegetal sponge is. Some of the English speaking readers of my blogs (there is a mirror of this blog in Portuguese) I know that there will be people out there (and maybe even some young Brazilians) who never saw a "bucha" (pronunce boo-shah), the luffa. 

Here goes: You can see up there some dried vegetable "buchas" cut in pieces. It looks ugly but it was just like that and if it is still popular in Brazil (tell me if you are in Brazil) and we would buy them in the street market to use when we showered. They invented the fake sponges eventually, but who knows from what time they started using buchas? The vegetal bucha is the fruit of a vine that bears green and yellow flowers, from African origins, taken to Brazil by the slaves. Here is an example of such flower which by the way is beautiful: 

 For those who don't know, the Brazilians improved the way they market buchas and I was looking in the internet and found this:

As y ou can see there are wigs made of bucha, bucha mounted in fabric whic is better to hold when you taking a shower, and Lampião and Maria Bonita (Brazilian Bonnie and Clyde) made of bucha. 

Well, the story is that I went to visit my aunt Nair in Ferraz de Vasconcelos (a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil) one day. I liked going there because the majority of the streets were not alphalt and it was interesting to explore for they were not like the streets of São Paulo, they had trees and hills that I liked climb down... not up... but I liked everything there. There was also a lot of cousins that I loved to play with. But one day, I am not sure why, I was alone exploring the region. In a street that was not very far from Aunt Nair´s house, I saw a vine of this kind: 

     

If you have never seen a cucumber vine it looks just like it. And that is exactly what I thought. I saw a whole bunch of cucumbers hanging on that vine and I could not resist. Do you think that the cucumbers that are hanging on the side of the street are for you and you are not stealing? I hope not. The vine had a lot of "cucumbers" that were hanging on "my side" of the fence giving me the right to get one, what I did in a second. Don´t think that I am crazy, take a look at the buchas before they dry them and sell them in the street market!

Well, I took a bite of that strange "cubumber" and immediately noticed that the flavor was not right. I thought it was not ripe and that was what was wrong with it. So, I took it to my aunt and showed it to her. I still remember laughing at me. "Mineiro!" (that was my nickname because I was born in a state called Minas Gerais) "That thing is a bucha young man!" Ahahahahaha... I did not think it was funny then but now I remember that moment tenderly. She was laughing there not believing that I had taken a bite of a bucha. I am not sure how I survived by childhood anyway. There are lots of stories to tell you here that if my mom was alive she would pass out because it was like falling from a wall here and another one there and losing my breath and staying on the ground trying to breath again, things that moms are not suppose to know. She ended up knowing about the bucha because Aunt Nair told her. Now you are all warned. You can use it as a popular proverb: Not everything that looks like a cucumber is!