Have you ever thought about eating some of the Amazon forest? Susan Gerber-Barata, a Swiss-Brazilian woman who lives in the Amazon Region, suggests just that.
In parts of the Amazon there is a treasure to be found, food that is as tasty as it is unknown.
Some foods like açai (the locals like to combine them with tapioca pearls and fish or shrimp) and cassava roots are known abroad. Others, like fish – if you wanted, you could eat a different fish every day for a whole year without ever repeating – or fruits that are still unknown. There are more than 200 edible fruits, some with flavors so strong that you “eat” their perfume right away. These local foods can jump straight from the indigenous pots onto our plates.
Susan chose one example from this wealth of options: the cassava root. There are two types of cassava in the Amazon, one of them is deadly poisonous and is made edible by the ingenious indigenous tradition. Cassava roots become coarse-grained flour, something like the poor’s daily bread, tapioca or a kind of rustic tapioca pearls. The liquid that results from the process is called “tucupi”. The traditional dish “tacacá” is made from it.
In this workshop, participants can engage with questions, or just sit back and enjoy the show and tell of stories about unfamiliar foods from the Amazon.
More information
- Books by Susan Gerber-Barata: Amazon on the plate
- MIT-Brazil
- Portuguese Studies