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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: BRAZIL
The Amerindian population has contributed much to Brazilian cookery. Most
Amerindians live in northern Brazil where they speak as many as 180 different
languages. Each tribe, each culture, has its own cooking traditions, which makes
it difficult to define Amerindian cuisine. Long before the Portuguese arrived, Bra-
zil’s indigenous population
cultivated
maize, manioc, fresh fruit, and honey.
They pressed fruits, such as papaya, into delicious drinks, and even used the fruit
of the cashew tree to make a
hallucinogenic
drink they called
cauim
.
Still, there are a few ingredients that bridge each culture and region. One
is the cassava, or manioc, plant, a root high in carbohydrates. Cooks can buy
cassava flour in the store, or do as they have always done, and pound the
plant into flour to make bread or to use it as an ingredient with fish and meat
dishes. Cooks use manioc meal to thicken meat and beef broths and they
enrich tapioca, a byproduct of manioc, with coconut milk, cinnamon, and
sugar, a process first used by the Arabs and later transported around the world
by Portuguese traders.
Many recipes also rely on maize, or corn. Grinding corn to make porridge
is common among the Tupi Guarani, who also use the vegetable—after fer-
menting it—to brew an alcoholic drink. Various tribes also eat native peppers,
Cassava root shown just harvested from the ground.
Barbecue, yucca chips,
and cassava bread.