25. ENFIAR O PÉ NA JACA

Guess what? One of my favourites! And not only the expression, the whole meaning of it!

I have mentioned here before that I’m a foodie. You think of a person that loves eating, that’s me. Mr. Fiancé says that when we travel abroad on holiday, we do gastronomic tourism. A bit of history, a bit of sightseeing and A LOT OF FOOD.

Now, I’m a small person with no self-control, and it’s really easy for me to go overboard. I’ll always try everything at the menu and never skip dessert, and this behaviour of overindulgence is what we call “enfiar o pé na jaca”, to “stick your foot in the jackfruit”.

Apparently the jackfruit has nothing to do with the meaning or the literal expression, since the original saying was with the word jacá, which is a type of bamboo or vine basket. In the past people would travel and tie the basket on the back of the animals used for transportation, and if in one of the stops on the way they had a little bit too much to drink, it wouldn’t be hard for them to step in the basket when trying to mount back.

At some point the basket, jacá, got substituted by the jackfruit, jaca, and that became the expression.

The saying was used for alcohol-related extravagances, but now it’s used to pretty much every immoderation, like me with my food, or spending too much money on online shopping, or overreacting to a situation and so on.

“Enfiar o pé na jaca” would be, therefore, the equivalent for “to hit the bottle” or “to stuff one’s face”.

It’s an act to achieve pleasure, but it’s usually followed by a wave of guilt, so although I’m all favour to “kick the bucket” once and a while, you got to remember you have to pick the bucket back up afterwards. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check the post #12, “Chutar o balde”.)

Now, dear foreign, there are no limits on consumption on this blog, you can overindulge yourself as much as you like, it’s not gonna be a foot in the jackfruit.

Till tomorrow,

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