LONDON and BRASÍLIA, Brazil, Dec. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Amazonian gastronomy might overtake classic European cuisines in popularity in 2023. Food from the northern region, Pará, has been on a steady increase in popularity in recent years and 2023 is being marked as the year it explodes into the mainstream gastronomy scene of the world.
Amazonian cuisine is based on ingredients found in the rainforest and includes dishes such as: cassava cake, fried banana, couscous with butter, pupunha, tapioca with tucumã, a fruit widely used in the region, and cheese, sweet tamale with chestnuts or the traditional x-caboquinho, made with tucumã.
The standout cities for travellers wanting to sample Amazonian cuisine:
1. Belém – the Amazon kitchen (Pará state)
If you walk along the huge colourful market of Ver-o-Peso, you will experience the food culture of the jungle region with all your senses. Hundreds of stalls sell different fruits, fish, spices, medicinal herbs and other local products. The tasty acai fried fish, as well as tapioca and maniçoba-based dishes are offered. The Maniçoba – a dish of indigenous origin, which is prepared from leaves of cassava plant is one of the most delicious.
2. Manaus – dining in the heart of the Amazon (Amazonas state)
Amazon fish, a fundamental part of the table for those who live in the North, are simply delicious and completely different from saltwater fish. Soft and always well prepared, even those who don’t like fish start to be interested in these local dishes. Roasted tucunaré, pirarucu de casaca and tambaqui ribs are super popular dishes on the menus, which have affordable prices throughout the city.
The most celebrated dishes of the region:
1. Duck in Tucupi
This dish is one of the flagships of Pará cuisine and consumed in the most important religious festival in the Amazon, the Círio de Nazaré. Tucupi is a liquid extracted from the cassava root, separated from the gum, cooked, and fermented for 3 to 5 days until it becomes the most popular sauce in the region. The flavour is intense and very peculiar. In this typical dish, the duck is roasted, shredded, and boiled in tucupi with various seasonings.
2. Tacacá
This kind of broth, served in a natural gourd, is typical of Pará (on every corner there is a “Tacacazeira”, the cooks from Tacacá), but it is also easily found in Acre, in Amapá, in Roraima, in Amazonas… tapioca, shrimp, pepper, jambu (an Amazonian herb that leaves your mouth a little numb) and, of course, always tucupi.
3. Tambaqui stew
Tambaqui is one of the main Amazonian fish and is so meaty that its ribs are the most used part, both roasted and fried. Its flavour is very remarkable, which makes this dish part of the culinary identity of the North. Several parts of the fish can go into the stew, to further extract its flavour, and vegetables, seasonings such as pepper and coriander, and lemon are added.
4. Maniçoba
Of indigenous origin, this dish is known as “feijoada from Pará” – with one, shall we say, important difference: it does not contain beans. It is made with wild cassava leaves, which go through a production process like that of tucupi, with several days of cooking.
5. Açaí
Açaí, a symbol of local culture, is present in almost all parts of Brazil. But it is in the Amazon that drinking açaí is part of the cultural identity of the inhabitants. The ritual inherited from the riverside people, savoured with fried fish and cassava flour, is part of the daily routine of all the people of Pará.
6. Fish Mujica
This Amazonian dish, also of indigenous origin, is consumed mainly as a starter in the Amazon, the recipe aims to use parts of roasted fish, usually Tambaqui. In the broth, olive oil, vegetables, seasonings, different peppers, shredded fish and white flour to thicken.
7. Pirarucu de casaca
Dubbed the “Amazonian giant”, Pirarucu is one of the largest freshwater fish on the planet and one of the symbols of northern cuisine. Its meat is clean, without bones, smooth, tender, and very palatable even for those who are not used to eating seafood. The recipe for Pirarucu de Casaca is widely consumed in the Amazon and is served in layers: shredded fish, cassava farofa, fried plantain, vegetable stew.
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