Coxinhas

I was thinking about the food that I miss from Brazil. For example, Brazil has a whole category of food not typically found here, at least not outside of a waiter-carried serving dish from the last wedding you went to. "Salgados". Salgados translates to little salty filled pastries, which is a good description. There are many types, generally all served warm, in all shapes and sizes, with fillings ranging from ground beef, chicken, shimp or heart-of-palm (Brazilians' love heart-of-palm, but I never acquired a taste for it). One kind in particular that I miss is called a "coxinha". A coxinha [pronounced "co-sheen-ya"]is shaped by hand to look like a pear, made of some-sort-of-potato, with shredded chicken inside then deep fried to a golden brown. Not exactly what a sane person would call healthly, but damn tasty nonetheless. The regular size ones are large enough for a between meal snack all by themselves, but there is a mini variety which can be eaten a dozen at a time. The soft potato insides gush out a bit when you bite into one, but that's part of the experience. They are sometimes also stuffed with shrimp or catupiri, Brazilian cream cheese, but I always got the chicken, aka "Coxinha de Frango".