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Robério Braga

Flavors from the Amazon

Tacacá. Luiz Braga (Embratur)

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T he flavor of the Amazon is one of the many Brazils scattered in the Brazilian territory.

It seduces and charms. It can be found in fruits, liquors, simple dishes and delicacies of the forest. All served without the frills of a great banquet.

The dishes that the hands of the caboco build with simplicity, with no fuss, are always very unique. There are those which involve years of knowledge and practice, refined in their prepa-ration and simple in their presentation.

The seduction of the pachicá, a type of sarapatel made with turtle meat, has the flavor of nostalgia, for it is not served at everyone’s table. Minced, seasoned with chicory, orange habanero pepper, salt and lime, it is served in the turtle’s own shell. As a side dish, the suruí flour, also known by the city people as farinha d’água.

If you have the heavenly wish to discover the dishes made with a delicious turtle, you can savor the minced strips, the stew and the sarapa-tel – treats, served on special occasions, at great feasts. And to think that during the Empire it was the food on the table of simple people, bought in the street markets!

There are many dishes served with piracuí, fish flour, considered a complete food. Almost al-ways made from open armoured catfish, salted, dried, shredded and dehydrated, the flour can be served alone, or as a special side dish.

Other delicious delicacies are made with fish, like fish roasted over grills covered by ba-nana leaves. Whoever is not satisfied can try and savor the Amazon caviar made with the roe of the pirarucu, marinated in a bowl with wine or vin-egar. This paste is then strained in a straw sieve made of arumã. From there it goes to the smoke-house. The fire should be made of wood, prefer-ably hard wood, with no acid, in order to be well

cured. The paste can be put into cans, which in double-boil, can be transported to the parties.

There are also more urban flavors that have acquired, today, mouth-watering tastes and sea-sonings. The tambaqui fish, for example, served in fried or cooked slices, with its juice seasoned with parsley, chives, onions, garlic, tomatoes and an-natto. Another is tambaqui broiled on a charcoal fire, called moquém by the native Indians, which is equally appreciated.

Ah, the appetizing dishes with pirarucu, a fish that can be bad for your health – thus forbid-den for women who have just given birth – and has large sores, but its fillet can be eaten in any restaurant of the region, depending on the sea-son! Pirarucu can be fried, cooked or turned into a crepe. It can even be served in a sophisticated style (pirarucu de casaca), a specialty for great feasts, when it is mixed to a very unique flour. It is a dish for many preparations. Pirarucu can be dried or fresh. It is worthy of any nobleman, and if it is on the menu along with strips of tambaqui, it is always welcome at social banquets or executive lunches, permeating the never-ending business talks. Whoever has the opportunity to taste it can also indulge himself with pirarucu cakes.

To savor the flavor of the Amazon one must be patient with the bones of the fish from the re-gion. It is an art to get rid of them! The ability is only required if the gourmet is before a jara-qui (Flagtail prochilodus), matrinxã, branquinha or sardinha (Amazon pellona) which are, in fact, dishes more appreciated by the natives.

If you still cannot get rid of the fish bones, call the caboco from the riverbank. He will know how to say a prayer to remove the fish bones from your throat, either by invoking Jesus of Nazareth or by conjuring the powers of St. Blasé, after all

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Pirarucu fished from the Juruá River, November, 1912. Source: A ciência a caminho da raça: imagens das expedições científicas do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz ao interior do Brasil

entre 1911 e 1913. Oswaldo Cruz Foundation – Oswaldo Cruz House, Rio de Janeiro, 1991.

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the guests at the table have twirled their plates, or by taking a coal from the fire that cooked the fish and turning it upside down. The caboco will, undoubtedly, serve you some manioc flour or ba-nanas to ease your discomfort.

If you want to try a very tasty dish, you can choose from one of hundreds of other delica-cies like shredded pirarucu with heart of peach palm rice, mojica of tambaqui, the special pirão, stuffed silver croaker and manioc farofa, which for some doesn’t even come close to fried Flagtail prochilodus, stuffed sardines in banana leaf and oven-baked pacu. All these dishes can go with as-sai bread. To finish it all up: cream of cupuaçu, of araçá-boi and banana cake.

And the flavor of the fruits? When they are natural, freshly picked and served, they exhale the aromas of the forest. Peach palm fruit is al-most the caboco’s bread, he eats it for breakfast, as an afternoon snack and, not rarely, on the riv-erbanks scattered throughout the four corners of the region. It varies in size and shape, about � to 5 cm, with an orange pulp. It can be eaten cooked, as laminated flour, or raw and it is full of vitamin A!

And what about the tucumã? Delicious. Its tree is used for war, hunting, and as food. It is even used for children’s games. The stem of this palm tree is used by the people of the forest to make bows, spears and certain hunting arrows. Its thorns can be used for lip, ear and nose pierc-

ing, common in the traditions of the native people. The fibers are multipurpose. The fruit is unique: its round drupe, normally 4 to 6 cm of greenish-yellow and orange colors, has a thick and oily pulp. It has almost one hundred times more vi-tamin A than the avocado, and three times more than the carrot. From its pit, boys make miniature soccer teams, designating their backs and center forwards from the most qualified, robust and well-polished ones.

Pitomba, which is found in street stalls and in the fields, has a unique tangy flavor, joining the genipap in this world of delights. From the genipap one can extract a dark-blue dye used for body painting, or to make refreshments, wines and compotes.

Cupuaçu can be used for ice cream, refresh-ments, compote, salami, wine, liquor and choco-late. Its seeds contain caffeine and theobromine and this fruit has set out into the world. Some say it even has a trademark registration outside the country. It is served in bowls, tin or aluminum cups, gourds and sophisticated stemmed glasses, having a typical Brazilian aroma and a flavor from the Amazon.

Guaraná of the Amazon is a real potion for longevity. Among the Mawé Indians it is served in gourds that go from mouth to mouth, as a re-ligious and social ritual, and has been like this since the beginning of time.

Please, help yourself to an assai wine, a soursop juice, or the aluá of the feasts. Finish your round with genipap liquor, which is infused for eight days. The thin syrup is mixed lightly to a good quality cachaça.

You can add a mamey apple, which is eaten fresh or served as wines or soft drinks. There is also the Brazil nut, it is inflammable and its clear flames are used to illuminate the indigenous huts during the long parties that go on for days and

And the flavor of the fruits? When they are natural, freshly picked and served, they exhale the aromas of the forest.

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Nuts. Ver-o-Peso Market. Belém/PA. Mônica Tambelli

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nights. It can be eaten fresh; it can be used in the typical dishes and confectioneries; it replaces olive oil; it lubricates the most delicate clock machinery and can be used in pharmacy and perfumery. The Brazil nut comes from a beautiful tree that reaches 40 to 60 meters of height and has produced blood, sweat and tears in the hinterlands.

However, if your desire is to have a beau-tiful table filled with sweets, start imagining the several varieties you can gather: cupuaçu in cakes, flans, sweets, marmalades, compotes, creams, mousses, salamis; peach palm fruit can be found in flours, cakes and flans; buriti and arabu, made with turtle’s eggs, manioc flour and sugar to be accompanied by a hot cup of coffee. Here and there, everything is food for the people and with a flavor from the forest. They are used for sayings, jokes, dreams, tales and ghost stories, just as they

are also food for poets and singers. They become legends, passions, anecdotes and ballroom and country-dances. Here the flavor is more amus-ing.

Flavors from the Amazon – a very Brazilian flavor – can become a rhyme, a music; it can cause an electrical shock if it is a poraquê (electric eel); it can nibble, hurt, cut and whip if it is an arraia (sting ray), a fish that glides through the water in an almost unique ballet. A glossary is needed to explain what are an arubé, atura, beiju, curimata, tipi, and several others that form the typical lan-guage of the region. Other typical legends would have to be explained like the origin of the fire from the manioc; the origin of the tobacco; the honey festival; the story of the old lady who gath-ered nuts or of the jaguar hunter; the legend of the timbó tree.

Regional fruits. Luiz Braga (Embratur)

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If you want to be on fire, burn your tongue, try the varied peppers, that give different flavors to dishes, like malagueta, olho-de-peixe, pimenta de cheiro, josefa, murupi, mata-frade, rosa (pink pep-percorn), chumbinho, camapu, cajurana, acari, mu-ruci, olho de pombo, comari, each one beautiful in color and shape. The strong flavors can be soft-ened with the wild fruits, some already known in the city and some natural to the riverbanks: amendoim (peanuts), ananás (pineapples), araçá, bacuri (bakuri), biribá (sweetsop), cacau azul, ingá (ice cream beans), pajurá, piquiá (pekea), purunga (bottle gourd), taperabá (hog plum) and the sova, with a sweet and pleasant pulp.

The flavor from the Amazon is in the myths and stories of fish; in the festivals of saints; in the prayers and penitence; in the harvest season; in the social life of the fisherman, of the healer, of the medicine man; in the medicine of the forest; in the flour; in the riverbank; in the ebb tide, in the solitude of the wakes; in the superstitions that surround the ideas of the caboco; in the labyrinth of the swamps; in the sophisticated parties; in the bottles of medication, in the therapeutic baths that cure many illnesses; in the children’s games; on the shelves of the refined shops; on the coun-tertop of the groceries; in the cold cobblestones of the market; in the street markets; in silver cutlery and crystal cups.

If after all this, you want to become a fisher-man on the Amazon rivers, to feel the pleasure of a victory, don’t forget to take an alligator’s tooth in your pocket in order to avoid the attack of the giant snake.

Glossary

Caboco – A person from the Amazon region, originally from the forest. It is a regional way of saying and writing the term “Caboclo”.

Sarapatel – A type of soup made with the intes-tines of turtle cooked in its own blood.Pimenta-Murupi – One of the many types of chili peppers from the Amazon region, like pimenta-de-cheiro, olho de peixe, mata frade and malagueta.Pixé – Awful smell.Arubé – Type of mustard made with manioc paste, salt and pepper.Aturá – Basket to transport the produce from the crops, especially manioc.Beiju – Amazon biscuit. A flat cake made with manioc starch. Regional food. There are also the beiju-assu, the beiju-puqueca, the beju-coruba; the beiju-cica and the beiju-menbeca, depending on the consistency and moistness of the cake and the baking time.Tipti – A cylinder made from palm tree straw, woven very tightly, that when stretched from the ends compresses paste put inside and strains the liquid. With it, the tucupi and the cacao wine are extracted. It is also used to prepare the farinha-d’água (humid flour).Aluá – Beverage made from an infusion of coffee, ginger and cachaça.

References

ARAÚJO. André Vidal de. Sociologia de Manaus. FCA. Manaus, 1973.

BRAGA, Robério. Manaus �870. Lourenço Braga Founda-tion/Grafima, Manaus, 1997.

MORAES, Raimundo. O Meu Dicionário de Cousas da Amazônia. � v. Alba. Rio de Janeiro, 1931.

PERET. José Américo. Amazonas: História Gente e Costumes. Federal Senate. Brasília, 1985.

PEREIRA, Nunes. Alimentação Indígena. Livraria São José; Rio de Janeiro, 1974.

Robério BragaLawyer and historian, currently the Secretary of

Culture for the State of Amazonas