Sabores Do Brasil Ing13

Preface
ell me what you eat, and I will tell
certain flavor and a specific circumstance occurs
you who you are. Brillat-Savarins

famous saying expresses appropriately the rela-
frequently at the individual level. Nonetheless,

these associations also occur within society as
tionship between individuals and the consumption of food. Actually, we can consider that in-
a whole. Brazilians who live abroad, as well as

anyone who had the opportunity to visit Brazil,
gesting food is a biological act, but eating is a

social and cultural act. The several processes that
will certainly have good memories of the country while savoring, wherever they are, a feijoada,
occur, from the preparation of the ingredients to

their consumption, are responsible for eliminat-
an acaraj, a caipirinha or a good cachaa. In the

same way that you miss your grandmothers
ing their neutral appearance and revealing the

cultural peculiarities in which they are inserted.
In fact, the act of eating includes, on one hand,
influences from structures that are a result of
complex historical processes and, on the other
hand, the idiosyncratic nature of each individual.
The cultivation and selection of each ingredient,
its preparation, the ways of serving it, table manners and concepts about nourishment and meals
are part of broader cultural manifestations and
social structures.
One of the most significant traits of the
relationship between food and culture is the
gustative memory. The association between a
cooking, you miss Brazilian cuisine, a gustative memory, which is both personal and collective, that constitutes an essential element in the
consolidation of ties of identity.
But what is Brazilian cuisine? It is not limited, evidently, to typical products of Brazil, like
manioc for example. It is a complex and dynamic
cuisine, marked by the absorption of products,
techniques and consumption patterns that have
resulted in eating habits that are typical of Brazil. In fact, in a country with the extent and cultural richness of Brazil, defining a single eating
habit would be creating a stereotype that would
reduce the appetizing diversity of the Brazilian
Texts from Brazil . N 13
table. In this sense, the texts that compose this

edition of Texts from Brazil reflect some of this
diversity. Naturally, the broad range of products, techniques and eating habits of Brazil are
not limited to this selection of articles, for such a
task would be impossible. This publication is an
appetizer, an invitation for the lovers of a good
meal to sink deeper into the delicious world of
Brazilian food.
This issue was divided into four sections.
As a starter, a group of texts that talk about the
formation of Brazilian cuisine. They describe the
mixture of ingredients that occurred in Brazil,
the development of the eating habits of its people, and exemplify some of its repercussions in
society. Following this, the reader will be served
with texts that deal with national preferences,
i.e., food that is savored by a significant part
of Brazil among the most varied social groups:
feijoada, manioc and Brazilian sweets. Next, the
main dishes of the diverse Brazilian cooking will
be presented. These are some of our regional cuisine, and do not compose the entire repertoire of
Flavors from Brazil
typical dishes and eating habits of each region,

but rather indicate part of the gastronomic richness embedded in Brazilian cultural diversity. To
conclude, some Brazilian beverages: caipirinha,
cachaa and Brazilian wine. Caipirinha and cachaa are much appreciated worldwide, but the
qualities of the wine produced in Brazil are not
yet internationally known, although it has been
increasingly gaining prestige.
Hence, the texts are an overview of cooking in Brazilian culture. The aim of this edition is
to arouse the longing for Brazilian food in those,
Brazilian or not, that have had the privilege of
tasting it. We hope this appetizer will instigate
those who have not yet had this opportunity, to
enter the Brazilian gastronomic universe. As it
would be irresponsible to arouse the readers appetites without offering them the means to fulfill
their desire, we recommend the use of the recipe
booklet attached. Good reading and bon apptit!
Information Coordinating Office

Eddy Stols
Flavors from Brazil
The mixture
of ingredients
ashed white carrot has recently been

gastronomically approved by famous
chefs on Parisian tables, while in Brussels, at European technocrats parties, trays with
shrimp pie pass around, supplied by anonymous
Brazilian cooks. The re-editions of pioneering
books by Lus da Cmara Cascudo and Eduardo
Frieiro and internationally awarded publications
like A Formao da Culinria Brasileira (The Formation of Brazilian Cuisine) by SENAC (National Commercial Training Service) are evidence
that Brazilian cuisine is claiming its place in the
culinary world.
In fact, in the 19th Century, European
menus already featured consomms la tapioca
(broths thickened with little manioc flour balls)
and brsiliennes (pies or ice creams sprinkled with
Brazil nut). Not to mention the first centuries of
the colonial period, when Brazilian land was the
leader on food globalization if we consider the
exchange not only between America and Europe,
but with Asia and Africa as well. By Portuguese
hands, manioc becomes a basic ingredient in Africa, cashew nuts become familiar in the curries
of India, sweet potato is introduced in the Japanese island of Kyushu, while cornbread from
Minho takes the lead in replacing European cere-
dients and preparations that are not only Portuguese and indigenous, but also African and
Asian. As such, it has developed since the beginning as one of the most globalized ones, involving all regions and social levels, without compromising its originality in comparison to the most
well known cuisines of the Americas, those of
Mexico and Peru.
No doubt those enjoy greater fame because
they are more structured cultures and, therefore,
better described by the chroniclers of the conquest period. Bernardino de Sahagn and Bernal
Daz del Castillo praise the riches of the indigenous markets and the splendor of the Montezuma feasts, with products like chocolate. Even
the Flemish tapestries enthrone the turkey and
the llama, the lamb of the Andes, in their prestigious decoration. In addition, Spanish conquerors organized more systematically the transfer
of their agriculture and cattle raising to the New
World. The grand banquet organized in 1538 by
the conquistador Hernn Corts, in the capital of
New Spain, clearly demonstrates this self-sufficiency. At that time, the first tavern in Spanish
style was already open for business. Some time
later, large convents for women elaborated sophisticated recipe collections in order to host
als for corn flour, such as the polenta of Veneto.

Above all, the Portuguese benefited Brazilian
shores with coconut trees, banana trees, mango
trees, jack trees, rose apple trees, pepper trees, oil
palms as well as the raising of cattle and poultry, not only European, but also helmeted guineafowl and zebu.
Brazilian cuisine is hybrid in its origin and
integrates, in this continuous mixture, ingre-
their male visitors.

In comparison, the Portuguese-Brazilian
cuisine seems modest and weak. If in Spain the
editorial movement of cooking books was as precocious and abundant as in Italy or Flanders, in
Portugal it was not until 1680 that Domingos Rodrigues published Arte de Cozinha (Art of Cooking)
and Lucas Rigaud his Cozinheiro Moderno (Modern Cook), the only two cookbooks published
during the colonial period. If corn deserves, in
paintings and sculptures, an Eucharistic status of
holy bread given by the Spanish Jesuits, manioc
has never been given any prestige in the iconog-
Broth made from tapioca, a grainy starch extracted from manioc.

Indian flavoring made from a mixture of several spices, mainly saffron.
10
Fruits. J. B. Debret.
raphy and is relegated almost as a diabolic root

to foment indolence. General works that explore
the edibility of Brazils plentiful fauna and flora,
such as the Tratado Descritivo do Brasil (Descriptive Treaty of Brazil - 1587) by Gabriel Soares de
Souza, or the Dilogos das Grandezas do Brasil (Dialogues of Brazils Grandeur - 1618) by Ambrsio
Fernandes Brando, are almost unknown or still
in manuscript. This disregard can be attributed to
the infamous secrecy policy, since it was not convenient for the Portuguese Crown to unveil even
more the rich nutritious potential of the Brazilian capitanias (first administrative regions) which
were conveyed in publications by travelers and
in Jesuits letters. The strategic value of manioc
which supplied cheap and healthy provisions
less influence from the elite and more popular

participation notably female, African and even
indigenous. In Grandeza e Abastana de Lisboa
em 1552 (Lisbons Splendor and Abundance in
1552), Joo Brando presents his city as an enormous food court. Brando calculates, besides
the taverniers, pastrymen, butchers and confectioners, five hundred ovens to bake bread and
one thousand women that earn a living selling
baked bread and as bakers, on their own or by
commission, and hundreds of women who
were couscous makers, almond cake makers and
animal viscera saleswomen. Other women sold
fresh cheese, butter, vermicelli, broad beans and
cooked plums, portions of fried fish, duck, hare
and other game, shrimps and snails, alfloas,
for soldiers and slaves should not be scattered

to the wind. Another possible explanation is
gergilada, pinhoada, preserved fruits, quince and

orange marmalades to people who were going
that Portugal paid more attention to the spices

and fruits from the East Indies permitting the
to India and Guinea, or roasted sardines by the

Ribeira docks. Clean, rich and with their chains
Colquios dos Simples e Drogas da ndia (Colloquia

of the Simples and Drugs of India - 1563), by Garcia da Orta, to be printed in Goa, India. Nothing
similar is published about the Portuguese-Brazilian cuisine.
This lesser visibility is a result, in part, of
its own creation process: slow and diffuse, with
around their necks, jewelry, bracelets around

their arms, many of them were African, slaves
or freedwomen, announcing the black women of
Brazil, carrying their baking trays.
In so many small ships leaving the docks
in the north of Portugal for the African and Brazilian coasts, the sailors improvised a good por-
Flavors from Brazil
11
12
tion of the provisions. Foreign eaters, like the

Venetian Cadamosto (1455) or the Flemish Eustache Delafosse (1479), proudly describe how
they, in this manner, came to taste palm wine, ostrich egg, turtle meat cut and salted as bacon, or
even elephant meat which was much less tasty.
While the sailors of the East Indies Company ate
in groups of seven from the same tub, with food
strictly controlled, Portuguese ships sailed overloaded with a great variety of delicacies, and each
one cooked their own food to their own taste, although they were inclined to share. On board,
they spent their time fishing; on land, hunting
or gathering. This gluttony and the citric fruits
against scurvy explains the lower death rate on
Portuguese ships.
Since the beginning of the discoveries, the
Portuguese eating habits have already been characterized by its rare eclecticism, balanced with
products from the Atlantic and Mediterranean
worlds. With high and low lands, different climates, many rivers and the sea at a short range,
the Portuguese combined agriculture, shepherding and fishing with hunting and gathering. In
their kitchen, they alternate between stews, guisados and roasteds, ovens and grills, pork fat, olive
oil, vegetable oils and butter. They compensate
meat. They are noted for the ritual killing of pork

and the sausage making of sarrabulho and chorizos. Although they appreciate shoats, lambs and
young goats, they rarely eat calf and veal. Maybe
because they use their cattle more for traction and
dairy products. From the sea, no fish is unwanted, from tuna to sardines including all mussels.
With this water gastronomy, they are the first
to replace the carnivorous excesses of the Middle
Ages with the new fish diet of the Modern Age.
Furthermore, with the influence of the
Middle East through the presence of Arabs and
Jews, they become familiar with rice, sweetened
or fried in the pan, with flaky dough and fruit
preserves in honey and sugar, making use of
almost insipid products like citron and quince.
The quick re-conquest facilitated the internal circulation and the markets, with the Portuguese
being the first merchants to negotiate large loads
of food instead of dedicating themselves to textiles. In trade with Northern Europe, they supplied dried fruits, citric fruits and wines, which
they exchanged for dried herring from the North
Sea, bacon and Flemish cheese, which although
with less flavor, can be better preserved during
long trips.
Due to this indiscriminate gluttony, the
the expensive cereals with nuts, legumes and

roots, which are less expensive. Very few European diets include so many greens, collard greens,
pumpkins, turnips and onions. Their seasonings
mix precious spices like saffron and cloves with
garlic, coriander, fennel, herbs and other spices
gathered in the fields. Their fruit vary from the
Nordic delicacy of apples, pears and cherries to
the meridian exuberance of figs, melons, pomegranates and almonds. They do not reject any
omnivorous Portuguese were more prepared for

the unknown gastronomic adventures through
the new worlds. For their survival, but also out
of curiosity, they tasted all edible and similar
products, which were susceptible to their cooking techniques. They were not satisfied with the
substitutes for the most appreciated food in Portugal. They also dared to try out novelties, without any guilt over such a paradisiacal abundance,
which was almost sinful.
Not everyone appreciated the local delicacies. The Marquis of Lavradio complained, as soon
Stew prepared by sauting the ingredients.
Flavors from Brazil
13
Rural workers. Di Cavalcanti (1940).
as he arrived, in 1768, about the food of the land
uit Joo Daniel in Tesouro Descoberto no Mximo
unbearable squirting cucumbers . The illustrious

Lus dos Santos Vilhena from Bahia despises the
Rio Amazonas (Treasure Discovered in the Maximum of the Amazon River around 1758-1776),
boring viandas like mocots, carurus, vataps,

mush, pamonha, canjica, aca, acaraj, bob,
that registers the mouth-watering baking skills of

extracting the most from manioc for fine flours,
coconut rice, coconut bean, polenta, rice or corn

flour sponge cake, sugar cane sticks, sweets of in-
carim cakes and beijus. Wines and liquors are

extracted from cashews, pineapples and geni-
finite types. Nevertheless, his list reveals a first

inventory of the Brazilian cuisine. The beverages
are even worse: a dirty water made with honey,
and certain mixtures, called alu, which replaces
the lemonade for the Negroes.
Fortunately there is no lack of literate observers like Friar Cristvo de Lisboa in Histria
dos Animais e rvores do Maranho (History of the
Animals and the Trees of Maranho - 1627), the
Saxon soldier Zacharias Wagener with his Zoobiblion, Livro de Animais do Brasil (Zoobiblion, Book
of the Animals of Brazil - c.1634-1641) or the Jes-
pap. Passion fruit juice in vinegar goes well with

fish, in a recipe recovered four centuries later by
chefs from Pernambuco. Long-legged birds with
good white meat are found in such quantities as
the capons and as exquisite as the partridges. The
blue land crab could almost be compared to the
dazha, a crab praised by Chinese poets and painters. Butter is made from manatees fat, each one
making thirty or more pots, and a lot of oil from
the tail, and from the meat, which is similar to
pork, sausages and chorizos are made, and salpresos taste like the best ham of Lamego these
Any type of food or snacks.
14
Meats conserved in salt.
manatee sausages are even sent to Portugal. Friar

Cristvo displays an uncommon sense in distinguishing between the eating preferences of
native Indians and Africans, whom he considers
trustworthy partners in these gustatory experiences. The Negroes, for example, appreciate the
yoroti, a type of pigeon of the woods that, like
the pigeons of the old continent, are faithful to
their companions for their entire lives. Because
of the birds behavior, the Africans fed them to
their wives in order for them not to talk to other
men.
Exiled in his Portuguese prison, the Jesuit
Daniel dreams of tacac, a bit of water thickened on the fire with carim flour, with streaks
of tucupi and the whet of the malagueta, aa,
manioba, better than collard greens stew and
the passion fruit jelly that is swallowed like
someone eating coddled eggs. Inside the Brazilian oranges the largest European would be
loose if inside the Brazilian ones. Cashew nuts,
which when roasted, put to shame European
chestnuts, are mixed with vegetables or with
almonds and candies, covering the roasted ones
with sugar. During the hinterlands harvest,
the inhabitants feast on small turtles that have
barely left the egg. When roasted they are just
like torresmos, almost as good as the pork ones.
A few months old, about 25 centimeters big or
more, cut in the chest for cleaning and filling
with spices, vinegar, onions and roasted, they
are admirable. From each large turtle, they
can make seven or more different dishes: first,
the sarapatel, second, the sarrabulho, third, the
roasted breast, fourth, the fricass, fifth, the meat
and vegetables stew, sixth, the soup, seventh, the
Any cooking procedure made with diced meat, fish or chicken, simmered with onions, parsley, pepper, nutmeg and other
spices.
Flavors from Brazil
The Brazilian ingredients

are valued in these
nostalgic recollections,
which seem to praise them
in the same way that
Marcel Prousts words
celebrated the Madeleine
of the French sweet shops.
rice. These are the most usual ones, but in private homes they just stew the meat. If it is one of
the big ones, just one is enough to feed a whole
community. Like any Portuguese, he loves egg
yolks very much, and, especially, turtle eggs are
almost all yolk, with a small circle of egg white,
great for making ovos moles.
The Brazilian ingredients are valued in
these nostalgic recollections, which seem to
praise them in the same way that Marcel Prousts
words celebrated the Madeleine of the French
sweet shops. In the absence of recipes and
cookbooks, abundant colonial documentation
can recover the history of Portuguese-Brazilian
cooking. These texts are essential to boost its selfesteem, which is far too low, asphyxiated by the
foreign character of the gastronomic temples of
So Paulo and Rio de Janeiro or guilt-ridden under the weight of hunger and malnutrition.
Eddy Stols
Doctor in History,
Catholic University of Leuven, Brussels.
Article originally published in Nossa Histria (Our History)

magazine, Year 3, n 29, March 2006, pp. 14-19
15
Paula Pinto e Silva
Colonial
cooking
A
land
where
anything
planted,
grows. This was the motto of the

chronicles and descriptions of foreign
travelers, presenting the new land as being deliciously rich in food ingredients planted, cultivated or even native sprouting at random, at
the mercy of the wind, the extensive lands and
the appropriate climate. As he was not committed to the society that welcomed him, the
travelers eye was unique in being surprised
and in capturing the differences, searching for
similarities to what he already knew and providing a version of the facts.
This is how we have a land full of orchards, packed with avocados, assais, pineapples, hog plums, ice cream beans, jackfruits and
Flavors from Brazil
17
quinces, not to mention the various types of bananas, oranges and mangos spread out through
the entire territory. Vegetable gardens filled
with herbs and spices, like garlic, onion, chive,
parsley, coriander, bay leaf, nutmeg. Yellow, red
and green peppers, pimenta-castanha, chili,
malagueta and pimenta-fidalga. Vegetables like
pumpkins, asparagus, West Indian gherkin, turnips, hearts of palm, cucumbers, okras, as well as
native roots and tubers like manioc, sweet-potato, water yams, yams and the delicious taro that
brought happiness to the travelers eye and left,
in their descriptions, a mouth watering sensation. An enormous variety of fish, shellfish, crustaceans, meats of all kinds, edible insects, plenty
of birds, pigs raised in peoples backyard.
However, if there were so many possibilities, how to explain the constant complaints
in letters collected by Capistrano de Abreu and
Srgio Buarque de Holanda from the residents
that were trying to get used to the new land, to
the lack of ingredients, and to the food shortage
during this period?
The research on food and food practices in
the Portuguese America follows the four routes
of colonization and settlement that can be defined as: the coastal colonization, in Pernambuco
and Bahia, mainly characterized by the sugarcane monoculture; the fronts of expansion and
investigation of the land, to the north, increasing
the rush for the so-called hinterland drugs; the
colonization towards the interior, leaving from
Vila de Piratininga, So Paulo and arriving in the
Minas Gerais region; and finally, the development of cattle raising in the interior of Brazil.
Since the 1530s the coast of the so-called
new land is grounds for quarrels and disputes.
The region that goes from the province of Pernambuco to the province of So Vicente received
18
This is how we have a land

full of orchards, packed
with avocados, assais,
pineapples, hog plums, ice
cream beans, jackfruits
and quinces, not to
mention the various types
of bananas, oranges and
mangos spread out through
the entire territory.
the first seedlings of sugarcane and experts on
production of sugar. Despite the particularities
of this production system, characterized by slavery, it was in the kitchen of the manor houses and
its surroundings vegetable gardens, orchards
and backyards that the Portuguese ladies were
obliged to transform and adapt their most intimate habits, discarding the French style ovens
and chimneys and started making use of the
native and African possibilities of cooking outdoors, under the lean-to, cleaning and cutting
the meat on the jirau (wooden frame), and using
the techniques to roast or smoke them on the
moqum (grill made of sticks). Through the documents, we can observe the use of many spaces as
kitchens, and that they would change according
to the time of preparation and the menu, being,
in general, the dirty one outside, where meats
were cut and cleaned and where slow cooking
sweets, like guava and quince preserves were
prepared; and the clean one inside, where all
kinds of delicate sweets were made.
Manioc mill. Butler.Lithography, 1845.
With the entire workforce dedicated to

the production of sugar, it is not difficult to confirm the constant complaints of food shortage,
at least the known ones like salt, flour, olive oil
and wine, and to verify that the everyday cooking of the sugar mills was simpler, monotonous
and less tasty than portrayed by the travelers.
The diet was based on products of the land,
composed of manioc flour, fish and game, almost
always dried, with the exception of pork, which
was roasted or cooked, beans with a thin broth
and cooked tubers.
Regardless of the large amount of trees in
the region, native or cultivated, the consumption
of fresh fruits was not common among the good
people. The combination of the most precious
product white sugar with pineapples, pumpkins, oranges and papayas, in the form of preserves, of sweets that were dried or in a syrup,
reveals an original form of preserving fruits in a
tropical climate, as well as introduces, in a sugary
manner, new flavors to a palate still longing for
the sweets made from eggs, flour, cinnamon and
nuts. Rapadura, a rustic sweet made from brown
sugar and hard as a brick, was an excellent substitute for the sugar sweet and was even better
Flavors from Brazil
as mouth-ammunition; it was easy to produce,

easy to carry and easy to preserve. Melao this is
how honey extracted from sugarcane was known
combined with manioc flour, or corn flour,
could be used to remove the salt from the mouth
of the white masters, and could also be served as
a main course for black slaves. The slaves basic
nourishment was a huge consumption of manioc
(cooked or as flour), corn (peeled, pounded, beaten, crushed or made into flour), beans and some
native tubers, besides bananas and oranges.
Food consumption in the monocultural
sugarcane properties was, therefore, based on
what could be produced in the intervals of a
large system subordinated to the external market, resulting in great quantities of manioc, beans
of several varieties, sweet potato, corn and water
yam, eaten with very little formality, plus a culture of sweets, crystallized in the combination of
fruits and fine sugar and popularly symbolized
by the rapadura.
In the north border region, in the area
called Gro-Par, destiny was somewhat different. With the same intention of defending their
land, the Portuguese settlers infiltrated the Amazon region, taking advantage of the absence of
19
Market and fair. Edgar de Cerqueira Falco, Aquarelle.
the Jesuits banished by the Marquis of Pombal,

also profiting from the infra-structure of the old
villages. This implied in the exploitation of the
native workforce to seek for hinterland drugs.
Settlers organized expeditions to search for clove,
cinnamon, nuts, catbriers and anise. The access
to the forest and its products also depended, exclusively, on the knowledge of the native Indians. Thus the settlers, more than in other regions,
were faced with a nourishment based on hunting
and fishing almost unknown species and on eating wild fruits.
The Amazon region offered to a small portion of the colonial population the adherent taste
of turtle fat, the flavor of manatees roasted in
leaves, smoked alligator, cooked vegetables and
narcotic peppers.
The situation of Vila de Piratininga is also
very unique, since, unlike the other coastal regions, it revolved around an internal supply and
relied on agricultural subsistence products to
propel their economic progress. The impossibility of a large plantation was initially due to the
soil, full of mangroves and swamps. As if turn-
20
ing their backs to the coast, the human nucleus

that would start Vilas development was pushed
to the plateau in search of gold, natives and precious stones. At the same time, a subsistence crop
was developed, until then ignored by the local
landowners. This type of agriculture took on the
role of exploration and settlement of the land, establishing itself in less fertile regions in the inner
territory and tending to a constant mobility. In
this scenario of improvised and precarious spaces, the foreigners adopted certain habits from the
native population, which was their slave, and
with whom they lived most of the time. Throughout the hinterlands, game and fish roasted on
flames or crushed into flour fortified the explorers and their slaves. In order for subsistence to be
guaranteed, in between the rows of corn, beans,
manioc, banana, sweet potato and water yam
were planted, creating thus a pantry unique to
the hinterlands, based on the crops of the native
Indians from the plateau who spoke Tupi-Guarani. Therefore, they ate with their hands a constant
mixture of corn flour, beans with no broth and,
occasionally, a piece of dried fish or meat.
Angolan woman with hoe (c.1660).
Finally, in the subsistence genre, we also

find cattle. The insertion of white men and mestizos in the hinterlands for the development of cattle breeding contributed to the consumer obtaining a hard, lean, fresh meat, which was almost
rotten. To dry the meat in the air and in the sun,
in thin layers, which was easier because of the
natural lack of humidity in the hinterlands, made
it more appropriate for consumption or even
storage. Just like the preserves that conserved
the fruit in sugar, just like the transformation of
cereals and roots in flour, dried meat established
itself as an excellent nourishment adapted to the
climate and to the needs of storage in a land still
lacking in trade and in surplus of basic products.
From this extensive overview, it strikes the
eye, however, that one type of food is recurrent
in the different contexts studied. We are referring to food extracted from a subsistence product, that is adjusted to the environment and is at
the same time adapted to a more humid palate,
such as the Portuguese one, accustomed to food
cooked in broth.
Flavors from Brazil
A food with no frills, no formalities, no rituals, made to be eaten alone or in groups formed
at random. An ordinary and common menu
consisting of corn, manioc and fish flour; a piece
of dried meat and the whole mixture soaked in
beans, fava beans or vegetable broth, composing
the cooking tripod of colonial Brazil.
There is, thus, behind this system, a specific way of making food and eating it that speaks,
more than the food itself, about the original preserving habits of the tropics, about the adjustment to subsistence and survival, about the negotiation between values like hierarchy, inequality
and hunger.
Paula Pinto e Silva
Doctorate student in Social Anthropology at the

Department of Anthropology, University of So Paulo
(USP) and author of the book Farinha, feijo e carne
seca. Um trip culinrio no Brasil colonial (Flour,
beans and dried meat. The cooking tripod of colonial
Brazil). So Paulo: Senac Press, 2005.

Article originally published in the magazine Nossa Histria

(Our History), Year 3, n. 29, March, 2006, pp. 20-23.
21
Ricardo Martins Rizzo
Politics,
literature
and nourishment:
Jos de Alencar
Jos de Alencar and the dissonant flavors of the nation
ne of the most widespread ideas on the definition of a nation is that it would be an imagined community. The development of
national states, the establishment of the monopoly
for the legitimate use of force on a certain territory and people has always been a political and
cultural fact, which was obliged to appeal to the
imagination to make sense. Essentially, the imagination was necessary to prove that each nation
was equivalent to one unity. Furthermore, the cultural and political task to imagine a nation i.e., to
project an ideal of unity on a reality that was frequently diverse and conflicting is also a collective task. The imaginary community has always
to be imagined each day, by the whole collectivity,
under the risk of disintegration.
The nations imagination is, therefore, at the
same time subjective and collective converting
the images into shared social values. In order for
these values to become common, images actively
Flavors from Brazil
recognized by everyone should be sought. For

this reason, it is not possible to imagine a nation
from a void. In order for this image to appear, it
is necessary to build it with elements that are
in some way ready be they the language, the
history, the habits, the culture, the traditions, the
customs, the flavors.
Although imaginary, the nation is not an arbitrary creation. It is in reality a political artifact;
however, the art involved in its creation refers
to the identification of the common elements for
the community, and to its projection in a narrative that can be considered a type of collective
biography. Such a narrative should be capable of
guiding by imagination the whole collectivity
towards a common historic destiny.
It is not at random that art, particularly
literature, has always played an important role
in this task of imagining communities and peoples destinies. The literary narrative has the lib23
erty of organizing and imagining the past, giving it a new shape and meaning. In Brazil, with
the Independence, the romantic authors, many
closely associated to politics, concerned with the
retrieval/invention of a national history, called on
to themselves the task of recovering the elements
of the origin of the Brazilian nationality and of
creating with them a coherent and evolutional
image of Brazil.
Jos de Alencar (1829-1877) can be considered the most typical of these authors, although
he was an intellectual who acted remarkably independently, with a very personal political and
cultural project. In his many novels and theatrical pieces, he produced images that have crossed
over the century, transporting national symbols.
He researched the elements of nationality, from
the native ethnography to the name of fruits,
birds, trees, places, and was able to, as few others, give them a special shape the shape of a living unity by which Brazil, with its many different races and regions, appeared and recognized
itself as a nation.
One of the most important elements in this
large national panorama traced by Jos de Alencar was the language the very support for symbolic and literary construction. Alencar added to
the Portuguese language Brazilian shades, native
sounds, popular aspects, even though artificial
at several times. He registered original sounds,
innovating the syntax and the lexicon. He was
strongly criticized by those who considered him,
for this, the enemy of the purity of the language.
His intention was exactly to bring out the differences of the Brazilian way of speaking and writing in Portuguese. Along with the nation, a language should also be developed, different from
the one spoken by the ex-metropolis.
To explain why the Brazilian Portuguese
language should be different, Alencar held on
24
to the authority of science in the 19th Century,

and found in the philology of the German Jacob
Grimm the explanation to corroborate his nationalist desires: by influence of the tropical environment, the Brazilian mouth itself would become
with time different from the Portuguese mouth.
To begin with, the fact that the Brazilian mouth
was exposed to an exuberant food. In the preface
of his novel Sonhos dOuro (Dreams of Gold), from
1872, Alencar inquired: a people that suck cashews, mangos, cambuca and jaboticaba, can they
speak a language with the same pronunciation
and spirit of a people who nibbles figs, pears, apricots and medlars?
It is not an accident that the author, when
trying to pinpoint the differences between the
Brazilian speech and the Portuguese one, chose to
refer, in his amusing metaphor on the influence of
the environment on the language, to typical Brazilian fruits with strong names like cashew, cambuca and jaboticaba. The intention is to enrich the
argument with the powerful evocation of strong
national flavors that come wrapped in a sonorous
and honest pronunciation of their names. The romantic Jos de Alencar, creator of the Indian Peri,
of heroes and heroines of strong character that are
overcome by destiny (metaphor and metaphysics
of history), was also a realist who researched and
described what he considered to be the daily and
historic elements of nationality but, nevertheless, elements that were present in the concrete
life of the collectivity. In this concern to register
the national way of life, Alencar mapped not only
customs and history, but also traditions and, especially, cuisine from different regions, social
classes and groups. The several flavors of the
nation compose the sensitive atmosphere of his
novels, and they are very important pieces in the
evocation of our national exuberance.
Nourishment is also a defining element

of nationality, as is the nature from which it descends. Alencar recaptures the scribe Pero Vaz de
Caminhas tradition, and in the fertile land of Brazil identifies the extravagance of a nature which
was prepared to satisfy the boldest palates even
creating the melon, this sweet cucumber, this
natural indigestion that the earth, gentle mother,
is careful to prepare for the stomach which desires strong emotions.
Alencars most famous hero, the Indian
to Rio de Janeiro. Gliding through the rivers, the

couple lives their idyll accompanied by the feast
prepared by nature for those who, like Peri, know
how to gather it.
During this period, the Indian prepared
the simple meals that nature offered them. He
laid on a wide leaf the fruits he had gathered:
strawberry guava, rose apples, ice cream beans
with soft pulps, coconuts of several varieties.
The other leaf contained honeycombs from a
small bee that had built its hive on the trunk of
a cabreuva tree, thus the pure and clear honey
had a delicious perfume; it could be called flower
honey. The Indian turned a wide palm leaf concave and filled it with pineapple juice. Its fragrance was like the essence of its flavor, it was
the wine that accompanied the light banquet.
Peri of O Guarani (which celebrated 150 years in

2007), is the symbol - together with Iracema, the
virgin with honey lips, who is the name of another one of his most famous novels the complete communion with American nature. The
qualities of these characters reflect the attributes
of this nature, and their high values find in the
richness of nature their most frequent metaphor.
Alencars Indianism encompassed a literary and
historiographic project that lead him to rebuild,
with an almost scientific care, aspects of the lives
of the Brazilian natives, not without a dose of
idealization that, more than the aesthetic conventions of Romanticism, corresponded to the authors political beliefs. In this register of Alencars
Indianism, we can find the effort to describe the
concrete elements that give life to the narrated life
of the Indians. Their eating habits stand out as a
remarkable and revealing trait, not only of the descriptive inclination but also of the idealization.
In O Guarani, for example, there is a meal
which marks the approximation of the main romantic couple the Indian Peri and the young
white Ceci, daughter of the Portuguese nobleman
In another passage, the Indian Peri, trying

to beat his enemies, the Aimor Indians (also enemies of his beloved Cecis family), takes curare, a
powerful poison, and offers his own contaminated
body to the Aimor cannibals. Unsuccessful in his
plan, he heals himself from the poison by sucking
the sap of a tree. The passage is no less a note of
the eating habits of the natives, where the cannibalism differs between noble Indians and barbaric ones. In Iracema, it is the theme of the natives
hospitality that brings together the romantic couple the Tabajara Indian and the Portuguese colonizer Martim: Iracema lit the fire of hospitality,
and brought what provisions they had to quench
hunger and thirst; she brought what remained
from the hunt; thin manioc flour, wild fruits, honeycombs and cashew and pineapple wine.
Dom Antnio de Mariz. After the terrible fire

that destroyed the noblemans house due to an
attack from the Aimor Indians, the young Ceci
wanders through the forest guided by her faithful protector Peri, who intends to take her safely
The intimacy of Peri and Iracema with

Brazilian nature is demonstrated, as it can be
observed, by their eating habits. Iracema is the
guardian of the secret of the Brazilian rain tree.
In the same way that Peri is familiar with the ef-
Flavors from Brazil
25
fects of curare, Iracema knows how to prepare the

beverage made from the Brazilian rain tree, a tree
of medium height with thick leafage whose
hallucinating effects guarantee nice dreams that
have a spiritual meaning. It is Alencar himself
who explains the connection between the eating
habits of the native culture and religion, through
his explanatory notes to his novel. He explains, for
example, that the Brazilian rain tree produces an
excessively bitter fruit, with a strong smell, that,
together with its leaves and other ingredients, the
Indians prepared a beverage that had the same
effect as hashish, of producing such lively and
intense dreams, that the person felt with delight
and as if they were real the pleasurable hallucinations of fantasy excited by the narcotic.
The intertwining between the description
of the eating habits and the social life of the Indians is constantly present in Alencars Indianism,
as well as being an important trait in his regionalist novels. His literary project, besides recovering
the historic and ethnical memory of nationality,
also intends to solidify the unity of the enormous
territory of the Brazilian monarchy, distributed
throughout the continent and threatened during
the first half of the 19th Century, mainly from 1831
to 1848, by separatist rebellions and insurrections of which the Farroupilha Revolution in Rio
Grande do Sul (1835-1845) was by far the longest
and the most threatening.
Alencars literary work, therefore, has,
among other goals, the intention to cover the
whole nation in time and space, establishing references, values and symbols. In 1870, Alencar published O Gacho, where he depicts the customs of
the South of Brazil. In this novel, the author notes
that On the immense page of the national soil,
the popular imagination writes intimate chronicles of the generations by means of the topographic etymology. Alencar also describes, how26
ever, in referring to customs, the traits of a society

which he intends to consolidate. The gaucho hero
Manuel incorporates the virtues of the man from
the South of Brazil and leads his typical life. In the
description of his quick and improvised dinner,
we can observe elements that are part of the typical southern cuisine:
Manuel promptly made the arrangements
for his siesta; and leaving the meat roasting on
the fire, he approached the river to wash his
hands and face. The meal was quick. A big chunk
of meat with handfuls of flour; and water drunk
from the tip of the stirrup, which the lad was
careful to wash in order to serve him as a cup.
In another description, the mealtime helps
to determine social position:
In one of the extremities of the long table,
two plates were placed with silver cutlery intended for the host and his guest. Before them,
smoked a large assado de couro and a fish that
filled the enormous pottery skillet. In addition,
there were greenery and vegetables.
This was the arrangement inside the masters house. Another one was the meals of the
subordinates: The meal was scarce; barbecue
(churrasco), the classical morsel of the South of
the country, cheese, peaches in syrup or dried.
Manuel ate rapidly with his head down.
In the characterization of gaucho society,
a reference to chimarro could not be absent. It
suggests, in its almost ritual consumption, a certain household calm:
After the meal, Jacintinha prepared chimarro; while Manuel sucked on the straw,
a few words were exchanged among the three
members of the family, calm and paced, without
effusion, but also without any resentment.
Just like the explanatory notes in Iracema,

Alencars regionalist novel is accompanied by a
glossary, where we learn that a gaucho assado de
couro is a meat that is roasted still attached to
the leather, serving as a casserole.
In another of his regionalist novels, O Sertanejo, we find habits similar to the gaucho ones,
and again the description of the eating habits
determines the social inequalities and position.
The hero of O Sertanejo is Arnaldo. In a passage,
similar to the one on Manuel, there is also a light
The realistic impulse of Alencars novel

brings out the productive reality that governed
the social relations in the rural Brazil of the 19th
Century, although we can observe from the coloring of Brazilian meals the shades of the authors
ideology. In the world of rural production, the
theme of slavery appears. For, as seen, Alencar
was also careful to register the socially typical
food, the urban food as well as the rural one,
the historic food, regional ones, the food in the
manor house and the food in the slave quarters.
meal that is, however, representative of the dryness of the Northeast of Brazil: It consisted of a
chunk of dried meat, a few handfuls of flour that
he brought in his saddlebag. For dessert a piece of
rapadura, washed down with the contents of the
water skin.
In this novel, culinary descriptions bring
out the social traits even more. We can note, in
this regard, the difference between Capitan Marcos Fragosos meal and that of the rural laborers,
both of which are representative of the elements
that are part of northeastern eating habits:
In his rural novel, of which Til (1872) is an example, there is a passage which describes minutely
a long jongo session in the slave quarters of the
plantation. Alencar reproduces the chants of the
slaves to the sounds of the energetic drums of the
samba. Let us see what they are about:
Captain Marcos Fragoso feasted with his

guests. The food already partly consumed indicated the meal was almost over; and right after
the pages served the dessert, consisting of not
only figs, raisins and nuts from the kingdom,
brought in the luggage from Recife, as well as
large bowls of curdled cheese and cream cheese,
fruits from the first waters.
On the other hand: the woodcutters returned from the woods with their arms full of
firewood, while their work mates carried baskets
of manioc, from last years crop, to the mill to
be broken into flour during the night shift. The
freed or slave women, some pounded the corn to
make the xerm.
Flavors from Brazil
I dont eat cooked yams;

I dont like grilled corn;
Whoever wants to see me melt
Give me roasted mendubi.
It is in the underground activities of the
slave quarters that a very representative element
of Brazilian cuisine inevitably appears: Once in
a while the big jug of cachaa went around the
circle. Each one, after a thousand movements
and stirs of the hips, would take a big gulp, and
snapped their tongues throwing their hips with
vitality. Within the game of fiction, while the
beauty of tropical fruits evokes the impressive
fertility of the vast national soil, the roughness of
cachaa represents the ecstasy and the violence of
a social order established against the hunger and
thirst for freedom.
Ricardo Martins Rizzo
Diplomat; Master in Political Science, University of

So Paulo and author of Cavalo Marinho e Outros
Poemas (Sea Horse and Other Poems) So Paulo:
Nankin Press, 2002.
27
Baron of Rio Branco (Minister of External Relations between 1902 and 1912)
Source: Caricatures of the Baron Clipping Collection, Itamaraty Historical Archive.
Carlos Kessel and Mnica Tambelli
28
Gastronomy
during the times
of the Baron of
Rio Branco
he end of the Monarchy and the beginning of the Re-
public: times marked by wealth and development enabled by the coffee trade. The Brazilian elite youth completed
their studies in Paris. Refinement was a synonym of French
customs and habits. Urban life intensified and changed standards. In So Paulo, ladies from high society timidly started to
walk around the streets after mass. They paraded their elaborate silk dresses, cloche hats, gloves and fans. Sarah Bernhardt,
after a packed presentation in the So Jos Theater, said that
So Paulo was the mind of Brazil, and Brazil was the French
America. The city of drizzle, as it is known, saw the arrival of
the 20th Century as it modernized its constructions. The coffee
metropolis harbored a vast trade of imported items, several libraries and bookshops like Casa Ecltica, on So Bento Street
and the famous Garraux, originally on Imperatriz Street. Since
1900, modernization circulated along the tracks of the citys
electric trams. In the first years of the 20th Century, the Pinacotheca (1905), the Dramatic Conservatory (1907) and the Municipal Theater (1911) were founded as evidence of new artistic
and musical trends. The center of the Paulicia (the city of
So Paulo) was a large space for social life. Maidens exhibited
their elegance inspired by Europe, while they strolled along XV
de Novembro Street.
Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the recently-proclaimed
Republic, was bustling. Tiradentes Square was surrounded by
bars and theaters. You, as a bohemian lad, would certainly be
an assiduous customer of the Paschoal Confectionery, in Carioca Plaza, a meeting point of the flirtatious youth during the
poet Olavo Bilacs times. Before the poet, that is, got into an
argument with the manager and changed his meeting point
to the brand new Colombo Confectionery, located since then on
Gonalves Dias Street. Besides Bilac, the writers Martins Fontes
and Jos do Patrocnio were also habitus... Ouvidor Street came
to be known as Cafedrome, with so many coffee houses. To relieve
the heat of the Carioca summer, it was trendy to order the blond
virgin, normally foreign, of brands like Heineken, Carlsberg or
Flavors from Brazil
29
Guinness, but there was also a national version,

Gabel. The more accustomed to poetic dreaming
would order absinth, a prize from heaven, known
and desired as the green fairy.
And as some things never change the
favorite discussion subject at bars was to complain about the mayor: that crazy Pereira Passos,
with his unnecessary constructions Well, in
fact, these constructions were not really so unnecessary. Before the reforms, Rio was a place
to be avoided. The elites were embarrassed.
Many even sheltered their families in other cities in order to protect them from the epidemics
that haunted the Federal Capital. Olavo Bilac, in
a column published in the newspaper Gazeta de
Notcias, praised the improvements:
Those who saw Rio three years ago, illtreated and dirty, with its gloomy walled gardens without flowers, with its sad streets full
of stray dogs and now see it with its new
avenues under construction, with gardens developing, opened and blooming, with the widening of the streets and construction of elegant
buildings, with the variety of venerated new
pavements acknowledge, without difficulty,
that, in this short period, much more has been
done here than in So Paulo in a period three or
four times longer.
Human eyes do not have a lasting memory. Our eyes no longer remember what Prainha
Beach, Treze de Maio Street, Sacramento Street
and Botafogo Beach were like and mainly
what Gloria Square looked like, with its hideous
market, the agony of my days, the nightmare of
my nights, the torture and torment of my life!
In a short time, in two years, when Central Avenue and Beira-Mar Avenue are concluded; when Rio de Janeiro is filled with carriages and motorcars; when we start to have an
30
elegant and civilized life that Buenos Aires has

already had for a long time we also wont remember what a tedious and empty life we had,
without theaters, without strolls, with distractions limited to the slanders of men on Ouvidor
Street and to the boredom of the ladies in the
windows.
The Rio of cafs and bars, or as Joo do Rio
would say despicable canteens, weird places, inconceivable bars. The same Joo, the one from
Rio, was, at one time, intrigued by a sign Caf
B.T.Q., on Catete Street. The strange name,
explained the owner, came from the initials of
botequim. Carioca creativity! Unusual names
were plentiful in the establishments of old Rio:
there was the Storage for Feathered Birds on Senhor dos Passos Street; Temporary Planet Store
This was Rio during the Belle poque, always following the advice of the Binculo: hats on our
heads and boots on our feet.
The Baron of Rio Branco lived his years of
glory exactly in the Rio de Janeiro of those times,
of Rodrigues Alves and Pereira Passos, president
and mayor responsible for a construction program that, beginning in 1902, modernized the
city and definitely changed the life of its inhabitants. The opening of streets and avenues; the
demolition of slums; the construction of public
buildings, with French architectural forms; the
extension and electrification of tram lines and a
conduct code that forbade people to spit in pub Joo do Rio: A alma encantadora das ruas (The enchanting
spirit of the streets), Gazeta de Notcias, January 28, 1907.

Joo do Rio: Tabuletas (Signboards), Gazeta de Notcias,
March 7, 1907.

Popular name for bars that serve also snacks and simple
meals.

O Binculo( The Binocular) was a column by Figueiredo Pimentel, in the Carioca newspaper Gazeta de Notcias, in the
decade of 1890. Pimentel is responsible for expressions like
Rio is being civilized and dictatorship of the smartism.
Caricatures of the Baron Clipping Collection, Itamaraty Historical Archive.
lic and walk barefoot: all this reflected the will

of the Republican power recently strengthened,
after the military and economic crises. Everyone
was dedicated to transforming the capital of Brazil into a modern city, leaving behind the old,
gloomy and unwholesome colonial city.
Among the customs that were targeted by
the civilizing measures, there were some connected to eating. It was forbidden to sell milk
on the streets, with cows being ordained at the
customers door. The prosperous trade of animal
viscera on the sidewalks was repressed. All in the
name of promoting hygienic measures to fight
the epidemics that, since the 16th Century, had
devastated Rio de Janeiro and caused a dreadful
amount of deaths. Oswaldo Cruz, General-Director for Public Health, fought against the bubonic
plague, smallpox and yellow fever by promoting
the hunt for rats, the extermination of mosquiFlavors from Brazil
toes and compulsory vaccination. Rio is becoming civilized!, motto popularized by the press of
the period, was the emblematic slogan of the assault against old habits of colonial Rio.
Before, the Carioca family had the habit
of purchasing meat, milk, fruits and vegetables
from street vendors who would go from door-todoor. In the Tropical Paris idealized by Rodrigues
Alves, there was no more room for this precarious trade. The area near Ouvidor Street came to
shelter sophisticated wholesale stores. The main
food and beverage shops were located around
XV de Novembro Square, generally owned by
the Portuguese. The products? A true import
festival. Broths, stews, beans and flours, among
other dishes inspired by the Portuguese cuisine,
adapted to the ingredients available, were giving
room to more complex gastronomic creations.
Since the increase in migration, which brought
31
Baron of Rio Branco.

PARANHOS, Jos Maria da Silva. Baro do Rio Branco: Uma biografia fotogrfica. Braslia: FUNAG, 2002, p. 43 and 95
the Italians, the French and the English to Brazil
guese and English, besides serving acid refresh-
in the 19 Century, So Paulo and Rio de Janeiro

welcomed the services of confectioneries that so-
ments and offering foreign newspapers a luxury in the days far from the Internet! The Aurora
phisticated the local cooking and introduced a

great number of domestic utensils appropriate to
Bakery, on Lapa Street, advertised well-made

empanadas, sugar bread, cookies and everything
the new dishes and the dinner ritual. Tea, which

had been considered a medication, obtained the
else that a store of this type should carry.

The Barons favorite restaurant was the Rio
status of elegant drink, thanks to the social contact with the English. Little by little the chef took
Minho, which later gained fame for its Leo Velloso soup (but that is another story, of another
the cooks place.

In the Belle poque, Brazilians discovered
the pleasures of eating out. There was a large
number of bars and casas de pastos (restaurants,
dear, simple restaurants the Portuguese still
call them this way) with many advertisements
of snacks and tidbits of the most varied kind. O
Gamb do Saco do Alferes, a well-known casa de
pasto of the Carioca dock zone, advertised: everyday, at any time, a lot of food varieties, fish as
well as meat, cooked with the utmost cleanliness and promptness; black coffee or with milk;
sweets in syrup or in paste. Portuguese pastries
and other pastries. The Universo Hotel, at Pao
Plaza, had bilingual advertisements, in Portu-
diplomat, at another age maybe a subject for
th
32
another text). Established in 1884 and still in

business at the same number 10, Ouvidor Street,
Rio Minho was the place were the Baron went
after work for a lavish dinner. He had a permanently reserved table. Among his favorite dishes
were fish and other sea food. Today, the restaurant has on its menu a dish in honor of the hearty
eating Baron. A codfish made with Porto wine,
olives and green pepper. Sometimes the Minister
would vary, and would go to Britto for dinner,
where his devastating appetite was also famous.
Recipe for the Leo Velloso soup? See the attached recipe
booklet.
During Rio Brancos

term of office as Foreign
Minister, receptions
became not only social
opportunities, but also
instruments of
foreign policy.
Very busy during the day, Rio Branco used
to have lunch in the well-known mess of his office. Pascoal, a dedicated employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty), would put
a towel over the many books and papers on his
desk in his cabinet and he would serve himself
generous portions of okra and shrimp. Our Juca
Paranhos loved this dish. But his doctor wanted him to stick to canja de galinha (chicken broth
with rice) The glutton had a perfect answer:
Doctor, dont worry, shrimp is the chicken of
the sea!
When he had some spare time, Rio Branco
would run to Brahma: I have twenty minutes
for lunch! When the clock was not helpful, he
would control his appetite with liters and liters
of coffee.
During Rio Brancos term of office as Foreign Minister, receptions became not only social
opportunities, but also instruments of foreign
policy. Lima Barreto, in one of his chronicles for
the daily newspapers of the time, emphasized
the changes at the Itamaraty court.
However, the Baron of Rio Branco appeared and the common palace on Marechal
Floriano Street became the center of our lives
and the focus of emission of grace and priviFlavors from Brazil
leges. Feasts, receptions and balls began, which

the daily papers never failed to mention with
the best adjectives. Protocol was updated; the
precedence rules were established; the titles
were marked in the solemn tables; and the poverty of the city, the mass of laborers, of small
workers, of employees, began to receive daily
news about the famous Aubusson, the silverware, the paintings, etc.
Its true. The archives of the Itamaraty Palace in Rio de Janeiro still keep pages and pages
of notes, many written by the Barons own hand,
guest lists, orders of precedence, protocol organizations, seating plans, menus These invariably in French. Real feasts, where the guests were
entitled to boeuf bourguignon, foie gras, cassoulet,
bouillabaisse... and mouth-watering desserts. The
confectioneries Colombo and Paschoal were
Itamaratys suppliers. They were both famous
since the Monarchy. At the Ilha Fiscal Ball, for
example, Paschoal supplied delicacies served in
plates decorated with flowers and exotic fruits,
in haunting quantities: more than eight hundred
kilos of shrimp, three thousand trays of sweets;
ten thousand liters of beer and almost five hundred boxes of wine were consumed. Yes, during
the Barons time there was a lot of good eating
Carlos Kessel and Mnica Tambelli

They have studied a lot. He comes from the area of
History. She used to deal with Literature. Today they
are diplomats, but appreciate a good table surrounded
by friends and accompanied by lots of wine.
LIMA BARRETO. A Corte do Itamaraty (Itamaraty court).
In: Lima Barreto Toda Crnica, volume 1 (1890-1919). Rio de
Janeiro, Agir Press, 2004, pp. 394-397.

Last big party of the Brazilian Monarchy, in honor of the officers of the ship Almirante Cochrane, became famous as the
Ilha Fiscal Ball. Without knowing it, the Monarchy gave on
November 9, 1889 an extravagant farewell party. On November 15 of the same year, the Republic was proclaimed.
33
Rodrigo Elias
Feijoada:
a short history
of an edible
institution
P
alate is not as universal as hunger, said Lus da Cmara Cascudo in 1968. The famous ethnographer,
and the most important folklorist in the country,
was referring to a Brazilian dish, maybe the most typical one: Feijoada. In his view, it was necessary to have a special predisposition
in order to savor the flavors of the dish, similar to the one needed to appreciate all the nuances of certain wines. In other words,
cooking and even the simple appreciation of it requires the
education of an important sense, the palate. Therefore, it would
be interesting to follow the evolution of this national institution
which, besides being one of the most permanent, has the advantage of being edible.
It is conventional wisdom that Feijoada was invented in the
slave quarters. The slaves, in their brief breaks from the crops,
would bake beans, an ingredient set aside only for them, and
would add the meat leftovers from the manor house, parts of the
pork which were not suited to the masters palate. With the end of
Flavors from Brazil
35
slavery, the dish created by the black slaves migrated into all social
levels, reaching the tables of very expensive restaurants in the 20th
Century.
But it wasnt exactly like that.
The history of Feijoada if we want to study its historical
sense takes us first to the history of beans. Black beans, those used
in the traditional Feijoada, have their origin in South America.
Chroniclers from the first years of colonization already mentioned
these delicacies in the natives diet, called by the Guarani groups
comanda, or coman, or cuman, even identifying some varieties and
subspecies. French traveler Jean de Lry and Portuguese chronicler
Pero de Magalhes Gndavo, back in the 16th Century, described
beans and their use by the Brazilian natives. The second edition of
the famous Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, by the Dutch Willen Piso,
revised and enlarged in 1658, has a whole chapter dedicated to the
noble seed of the common bean.
The name by which we call it (feijo) is Portuguese. When
the Europeans arrived in America, in the beginning of the Modern
Age, other varieties of this vegetable were already known to the
Old World. The word feijo was written for the first time in Portugal in the 13th Century (that is, some three hundred years before
the discovery of Brazil).
Only after the second half of the 16th Century, were other
varieties of beans introduced in the colony, some from Africa, and
also beans from Portugal, known as feijo-fradinho (cream colored,
it is still very popular in Brazil for salads and as a dough for other
dishes, like the famous acaraj black-eyed beans). The chroniclers of the period compared the native varieties with the ones
brought from Europe and Africa, and were categorical, following
the opinion of Portuguese Gabriel Soares de Souza, expressed in
1587: the beans from Brazil, the black ones, had more flavor. It became popular among the Portuguese.
The native populations obviously appreciated it, but preferred another vegetable, manioc, a root eaten in several forms
and even transformed into a fermented drink, cauim and which
also came to be appreciated by Europeans and Africans. Manioc
was the main food for Portuguese-Americans of the province of
So Paulo. The paulistas mixed their flour with cooked meat, making a type of mush that sustained them on their endless trips hunting Indians to be enslaved. But they also ate beans. Black beans.
36
Beans. Delfim Martins / Pulsar Imagens
Flavors from Brazil
37
The bean plant, in all of its varieties, also

contributed in settling populations on the Portuguese-American soil. It was an essentially domestic crop, kept by the women and their daughters, while men were busy with the other crops
and cattle raising. The simplicity of its maintenance and the relatively low costs of its production spread bean cultivation out among the settlers in the 18th Century. According to Cascudo,
the existence of small vegetable gardens became
common among the simple housings in the interior of the country, where it was the womens
almost exclusive task to gather or pluck the
beans. Due to livestock in the Northeast, to gold
and diamonds in the Midwest, or to border disputes with the Spanish domains in the South, the
spreading of the population during the 18th and
19th centuries was extremely facilitated because
of the prestigious vegetation (until then colonization had been limited to the coast). The beans
followed the settlers. Along with the manioc, the
beans would settle the men on the land and be
part of the duo that ruled the menu of old Brazil, with the manioc in the form of flour.
In the beginning of the 19th Century, absolutely all travelers that passed through Brazil and
described the habits of Brazilians of the times
mentioned the central importance that beans
had as a national food. Henry Koster declared in
Recife, in 1810, that beans cooked with coconut
were delicious. Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied ate beans with coconut in Bahia, in 1816,
and loved it. The Frenchman Saint-Hilaire said,
in Minas Gerais in 1817: Black beans are an
indispensable dish on the rich mans table, and
this legume is almost the only food of the poor.
Carl Seidler, a German soldier, narrating the Rio
de Janeiro of the First Reign, described, in 1826,
the manner in which it was served: accompa-
38
In the beginning of the

19th Century, absolutely
all travelers that passed
through Brazil and
described the habits of
Brazilians of the times
mentioned the central
importance that beans
had as a national food.
nied by a morsel of meat (beef) dried in the sun
and bacon at will, repeating next a motto that
would travel through that century and which is
still today, for the common Brazilian, an unquestionable truth: there is no meal without beans,
only beans satisfy ones hunger. But, disagreeing with other chroniclers, he gave his opinion:
the taste is rough, unpleasant. According to
him, only after a long time could the European
palate get used to such a dish. Spix and Martius,
naturalists that accompanied the first Empress of
Brazil, the Austrian archduchess Leopoldina, on
her trip to her new homeland, made reference to
the coarse meal of black beans, maize flour and
bacon in Minas Gerais. They also refer to beans
as being the basic food of the people in Bahia, including the slaves. The North-American Thomas
Ewbank, in 1845, wrote that beans with bacon
are Brazils national dish.
However, the most vivid picture of the
common preparation of beans it is not yet the
Feijoada was painted by French artist Jean-Baptiste Debret, founder of the academic painting
in Brazil, nephew and disciple of Jacques-Louis
Dried meat store. J. B. Debret (1825). Source: Castro Maya Museums IPHAN/Minc MEA 0178
David. Depicting the family dinner of a humble
at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Debret, who
Carioca merchant during the permanence of the

Portuguese Court in Rio de Janeiro, he affirmed
remained in Brazil from 1816 to 1831, became notable for carrying out a true pictorial chronicle of
that it consisted only of a miserable piece of

dried meat, of three or four square inches, only
half an inch thick; they cooked it with lots of wa-
the country in the beginning of the 19th Century,

specially of Rio de Janeiro, in which pictures like
the Armazm de carne-seca (Dried meat store) and
ter and a handful of black beans, whose grayish

flour, very substantial, has the advantage of not
Negros vendedores de lingia (Black vendors of

sausage), besides the mentioned meal scene, are
fermenting in the stomach. To the plate filled with

this broth, where some beans float, a large pinch
included.
Nonetheless, men did not live on beans
of manioc flour is added, which, mixed with

crushed beans, forms a consistent meal which is
alone. The Native Indians had a varied diet, and

beans were not even their favorite food. The
eaten with the tip of a wide, round knife. This

simple meal, which is invariably repeated daily
and carefully hidden from the passersby, is prepared at the back of the store, in a room that also
serves as a bedroom. Besides being a professor
slaves also ate manioc and fruits, although beans

were the basic food. However, there is the issue
of food combination, also brought up by Cmara
Cascudo in his beautiful Histria da Alimentao
no Brasil (History of Nourishment in Brazil).
Flavors from Brazil
39
What is concretely
known is that the oldest
references to Feijoada
have nothing to do with
slaves or slave quarters,
but with restaurants
patronized by the urban
slavocratic elite.
There were, during the Modern Age, among the
inhabitants of the Colony (mainly those from native and African origin), eating taboos that did
not permit a complete mixture of beans and meat
with other vegetables. Among Africans, by the
way, many of Muslim descent or influenced by
this culture, it was forbidden to eat pork. How
could they, therefore, have come to make our
well-known Feijoada?
In Europe, especially the parts with Latin
and Mediterranean heritage, there was and
there still is, informed Cascudo a traditional
dish that goes back at least to the Roman Empire.
It consists basically of a mixture of various meats,
vegetables and leaves. There are variations from
one place to another. Nevertheless, it is a very
popular, traditional meal. In Portugal, cozido; in
Italy, casoeula and bollito misto; in France, cassoulet; in Spain, paella, this one made with rice as the
basic ingredient. This tradition came to Brazil,
especially with the Portuguese, creating in time
as they adapted their taste buds, mainly those
born in Brazil - the idea of preparing it with the
omnipresent black beans, unacceptable for European standards. Feijoada is, therefore, created.
According to Cmara Cascudo, Beans
with meat, water and salt, is only beans. Thin
40
beans, for the poor. Everyday beans. There is a

big difference between Feijoada and beans. The
first implies the procession of the meat, vegetables and leaves. This combination only occurs
in the 19th Century, and very far from the slaves
quarters. The priest Miguel do Sacramento Lopes
Gama, known as the Carapuceiro Priest, published in the newspaper O Carapuceiro (The Hint
Factory), in Pernambuco, on March 3rd, 1840, an
article in which he condemns Feijoada as a murderer, scandalized by the fact that it was mainly
appreciated by sedentary men and delicate urban ladies this in a society profoundly marked
by the slavery ideology. It is worth recalling that
salted pork parts, like ears, feet and tail were
never leftovers. They were appreciated in Europe, while the basic food in the slaves quarters
was a mixture of beans and manioc flour.
What is concretely known is that the oldest
references to Feijoada have nothing to do with
slaves or slave quarters, but with restaurants patronized by the urban slavocratic elite. The oldest example is found in the Dirio de Pernambuco
of August 7, 1833, in which the Thtre Hotel
in Recife, informs that on Thursdays the menu
was Feijoada la Brazilian (a reference to the
adapted aspect of the dish?). In Rio de Janeiro,
the reference to Feijoada served in restaurants
patronized by the good society - appears for
the first time in the newspaper Jornal do Commercio of January 5, 1849, in an advertisement under
the title The excellent Feijoada la Brazilian: In the
restaurant next to the bar Fama do Caf com Leite,
we have decided to serve every week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the excellent Feijoada, due
to many customers requests. In the same restaurant, lunch, dinner and supper for take out are
still prepared, with the utmost cleanliness possible, and there is a daily variety of food. In the
evening, we serve an excellent fish for supper.
In the memoirs of Isabel Burton, wife of the

English adventurer, traveler, writer and diplomat
Richard Burton, published in 1893, she refers to
her period in Brazil, from 1865 to 1869, with an
interesting description of this delicacy. Speaking
of life in Brazil (her husband gained Emperor
Dom Pedro IIs friendship, and she shared the refined social circle of the Marquise of Santos, the
notorious lover of Dom Pedro IIs father, Dom
Pedro I), Isabel Burton said that the main food
of the people of this country according to her
duction. To Cmara Cascudo, Feijoada is not a

simple dish, but a whole menu. In Rio Grande
do Sul, as we are reminded by researcher Carlos Ditadi, it is served as a winter dish. In Rio
de Janeiro, it is served from summer to summer,
every Friday, from the most inexpensive bars
to the most sophisticated restaurants. What really matters is the occasion: a commemoration, a
friendly gathering, the anticipation of the weekend at the Carioca financial center, or a simple
Sunday lunch with friends.
comparable to potatoes for the Irish was the savory feijo dish (the author uses the Portuguese
word) accompanied by a very thick farinha
(she also uses the Portuguese word for flour),
usually sprinkled on the plate. The Englishwomans judgment is rather positive, after having savored, for three years, what she called Feijoada,
and regretting not being able, for more than two
decades, to smell its scent: It is delicious, and I
would be content, and I almost always was, to
have it for dinner.
The Imperial House and not slaves or
peasants bought in a butcher shop in Petrpolis, on April 30, 1889, fresh meat, pork, sausage,
blood sausage, kidneys, tongue, heart, lungs, intestines and other meats. Dom Pedro II maybe
did not eat some of these meats his preference
for a good canja de galinha (chicken broth with
rice) is well known -, but it is possible that other
members of the family did. The book O Cozinheiro Imperial (The Imperial Cook), of 1840, signed
by R. C. M., brings recipes for porks head and
feet - besides other meats with the indication
that they should be served to high authorities.
A Brazilian chronicler of the second half

of the 19th Century, Frana Jnior, even said that
Feijoada was not a dish on its own, but a small
feast, a party where they ate all those beans. As
in Chico Buarques song Feijoada completa (Complete Feijoada): Woman / You are going to like
that / Im taking home some friends to chat. The
flavor and the occasion, therefore, are the guarantees for a successful Feijoada. Besides, of course,
a certain historical (or mythical) disposition to
understand and appreciate it, as Brazilians have
been doing through the centuries.
Today there is not just one recipe for Feijoada. On the contrary, it seems to be a dish still
in creation, as stated by our greatest folklorist at
the end of 1960s. There are variations here and
there, adjustments to the climate and local pro-
Master in Modern and Contemporary History, Fluminense Federal University and Doctoral student in Social
History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Flavors from Brazil
References:
CASCUDO, Lus da Cmara. Histria da Alimentao no
Brasil. 2nd edition. Belo Horizonte; So Paulo: Itatiaia
Press; USP Press, 1983 (2 vols.).
DITADI, Carlos Augusto da Silva. Feijoada completa,
in Revista Gula. So Paulo, n. 67, October, 1998.
DRIA, Carlos Alberto. Culinria e alta cultura no Brasil, in Novos Rumos. Year 16, n. 34, 2001.
Rodrigo Elias
41
Feijoada
Ma Mode
Vinicius de Moraes
Dear friend Helena Sangirardi
As I once promised
Where I confess I forgot
And though forgive me so late
Once the bean is cooked

(About four hours, medium fire)
We yawn our boredom
And approach the stove
While on the side, in low fire

Melting in joy
Must also be fried
Delicious crackling
(Better than never!) This poet

According to good ethics
Sends you a (poetic) recipe
Of his complete feijoada.
Curving elegantly:
One foot ahead and one arm on the back
We shall taste this rich blackness
Where slices must float
And in its fat

(There has never been a better one!)
Must then fry the collard greens
Sliced, in radiant, quick fire
In attention to the hasty ones

When we open our eyes
The bean must be ready
Waiting for us, happily, in the water
Of juicy dried meat

Fat salamelles, sleek bacon
(Never piglet ears
They make it too opulent!)
Farofa? it has its days

However it must be cooked with butter
Cold oranges, sliced
And thats it
And the cook, respectful

To our mastery in cooking
Must have already started
Prepared and put aside
And attention! a modest secret,

But mine, as to the feijoada:
A fresh skinless tongue
To cook with the rest.
The component elements

Of a delicious saut
With: onion, tomato, cloves
Of garlic and whatever is adroit
Done that, take out the beans

A lot, well crushed
Mix it with the fine saut
Making a thick gravy
Everything chopped
In order to avoid
Any vulgar contact
With our noble poet hands.
Which goes back to the caldron

In which the poet, for auspiciousness
Must sprinkle bay leaves
With a classic and pagan gesture.
While we give some tips

About what does not please us
We watch it cooking
Drinking our whiskey on the rocks
Meanwhile, its useless to say

In blaze aside from this
Must sizzle, cheerful
Beautiful slices of sausage
42
Only during the last cooking

To serve it, you let
Drop a little bit of fat
Of the sausage on the delicacy and mix it.
What other pleasure could a body ask for
After eating such a bean?
Evidently a hammock
And a cat to pet...
The work is done. Its never in vain
The word of a poet... ever!
Embraces you, in Brillat-Savarin
Your Vinicius de Moraes.
Original text in portuguese from the book Nova antologia potica de Vinicius de Moraes, selected and organized by Antonio Ccero
and Eucana Ferraz, So Paulo, Companhia das Letras, Editora Schawarcz Ltda., p.99, 2003.
Vinicius de Moraes Acervo VM
Feijoada
Minha Moda
Enquanto ns, a dar uns toques

No que no nos seja a contento
Vigiaremos o cozimento
Tomando o nosso usque on the rocks
Intil dizer que, entrementes

Em chama parte desta lia
Devem fritar, todas contentes
Lindas rodelas de lingia
Amiga Helena Sangirardi

Conforme um dia prometi
Onde, confesso que esqueci
E embora perdoe to tarde
Uma vez cozido o feijo

(Umas quatro horas, fogo mdio)
Ns, bocejando o nosso tdio
Nos chegaremos ao fogo
Enquanto ao lado, em fogo brando

Dismilingindo-se de gozo
Deve tambm se estar fritando
O torresminho delicioso
(Melhor do que nunca!) este poeta

Segundo manda a boa tica
Envia-lhe a receita (potica)
De sua feijoada completa.
E em elegante curvatura:
Um p adiante e o brao s costas
Provaremos a rica negrura
Por onde devem boiar postas
Em cuja gordura, de resto

(Melhor gordura nunca houve!)
Deve depois frigir a couve
Picada, em fogo alegre e presto.
Em ateno ao adiantado
Da hora em que abrimos o olho
O feijo deve, j catado
Nos esperar, feliz, de molho
De carne-seca suculenta
Gordos paios, ndio toucinho
(Nunca orelhas de bacorinho
Que a tornam em excesso opulenta!)
Uma farofa? tem seus dias...

Porm que seja na manteiga!
A laranja gelada, em fatias
(Seleta ou da Bahia) e chega
E a cozinheira, por respeito

nossa mestria na arte
J deve ter tacado peito
E preparado e posto parte
E ateno! segredo modesto

Mas meu, no tocante feijoada:
Uma lngua fresca pelada
Posta a cozer com todo o resto.
S na ltima cozedura
Para levar mesa, deixa-se
Cair um pouco da gordura
Da lingia na iguaria e mexa-se.
Os elementos componentes
De um saboroso refogado
Tais: cebolas, tomates, dentes
De alho e o que mais for azado
Feito o qu, retire-se o caroo

Bastante, que bem amassado
Junta-se ao belo refogado
De modo a ter-se um molho grosso
Que prazer mais um corpo pede

Aps comido um tal feijo?
Evidentemente uma rede
E um gato para passar a mo...
Tudo picado desde cedo

De feio a sempre evitar
Qualquer contato mais... vulgar
s nossas nobres mos de aedo.
Que vai de volta ao caldeiro

No qual o poeta, em bom agouro
Deve esparzir folhas de louro
Com um gesto clssico e pago.
Dever cumprido. Nunca v

A palavra de um poeta... jamais!
Abraa-a, em Brillat-Savarin
O seu Vinicius de Moraes
Rights of use granted by VM EMPREENDIMENTOS ARTSTICOS E CULTURAIS LTDA., VM and CIA. DAS LETRAS
(EDITORA SCHWARCZ)
Flavors from Brazil
43
Manioc. Andr Thevet, 1555. National Library Foundation, Rio de Janeiro (photo by Raul Lima).
44
Bruno Miranda Ztola
Roots of
Brazil
hey do not cultivate or raise animals. Nor are there

here any oxen or cows, goats, sheep or chickens, or
any other animal which is accustomed to mans way of life. They
eat but these yams, which there are many here [...] And with this
they walk so vigorous and so slim like we are not, with so much
flour and legumes that we eat. Despite certain literary liberties by
Pero Vaz de Caminha, the chief scribe of the first Portuguese fleet
that docked in the lands of Brazil was able, in his letter to King
Manuel I about the finding of Brazil, to perceive with great sensibility the relationship between the native and manioc, which he
called yam. For a Brazilian, of any epoch, the differences between
yam and manioc are evident, be it in its aspect, be it in its flavor.
Nonetheless, the yam was the closest reference that the Portuguese
had to describe the manioc to their fellow countrymen. In fact,
accompanying the same fleet, an anonymous pilot wrote a Report,
in which he mentions a root called yam, which is the bread they
use there. Neither he nor Caminha tasted the said yam, i.e. the
manioc, also known as aipim, macaxeira, maniva, macamba, among
A food of importance for the Portuguese, the yam did not arrive in Brazilian lands
with the Portuguese at Porto Seguro, in 1500. Originally from Africa, it became, however, a current produce in Portuguese America brought by the settlers from their
markets in Cape Vert and So Tom. CASCUDO, L. C. Histria da alimentao no
Brasil (History of nourishment in Brazil). v. 1. So Paulo: Itatiaia, 1983. p. 92.

Relao do Piloto Annimo (Report from the Anonymous Pilot). Histria da Colonizao Portuguesa do Brasil (History of the Portuguese Colonization of Brazil), II, 115,
Porto, 1923.
Flavors from Brazil
45
other denominations, according to the region of

Brazil. But both observed that the root in question was the food base of the natives of the Brazilian coastline. It would become a fundamental
element for the success of the colonization.
Contrary to yam, whose origin is African,
manioc has its roots in Brazil, in the southeast of
the Amazon basin. Specialists suggest that the
manioc was domesticated in the Amazon, four
to five thousand years ago, by means of refined
techniques, contrary to the representations that
reduce the native cuisine to a simple extractive
activity. Before the Europeans arrived on American soils, it had already spread throughout South
and Central America, even reaching Mexico.
However, in Mesoamerica and the Pacific cultures, manioc did not become a food complex,
as the corn did, nor was it used for beverages
and other by-products. It was among the native
Indians of the East coast of South America that
manioc became an indispensable and formative
element of social life.
The importance of manioc to the Brazilian
natives can be proven by the etiological legends
that bestow a sacred origin to it, as in other rural
For the domestication of the manioc see RIBEIRO, B. O ndio
na cultura brasileira (The native Indian in Brazilian culture). Rio
de Janeiro: Revan. 1987. p. 34 and sc. MACIEL, M. E. in Uma
cozinha brasileira (Cooking la Brazilian). Estudos Histricos
(Historic Studies), Rio de Janeiro, n. 33, 2004. CPDOC/FGV
p. 06. The last author points out that it is a common mistake
to refer to the native cuisine in general and transform the
Indian tribes into a generic native, undifferentiated and
timeless. In this process, he is naturalized, i.e. he is seen as
someone so close to nature that his contributions refer mainly
to the extractive activities, to fishing and hunting, and to some
techniques.

Cmara Cascudo notes that the intelligence of the ancient Peruvians joined manioc and corn on the same glorified level. A
ceramic vase, found in a pre-Colombian cemetery of Sechura,
represents the god of agriculture of Peru with a corncob in one
hand and a manioc, with its hanging tubers, in the other. pp.
Cit. p. 108.
46
Contrary to yam, whose

origin is African, manioc
has its roots in Brazil,
in the southeast of the
Amazon basin. Specialists
suggest that the manioc
was domesticated in the
Amazon, four to five
thousand years ago.
cultures with other basic foods. The most famous
of them recounts the story of a chiefs daughter
who got pregnant without male contact. The
chief wanted to punish the person responsible
for his daughters dishonor and the offense to
his pride, so in order to identify him, he made
use of prayers, threats and finally severe punishments. The young girl remained inflexible both
to the threats and the punishment, saying that
she had not had any relations with any man.The
chief decided to kill her, when a white man appeared in his dream and told him not to kill the
young girl because she was indeed innocent and
had not had contact with any man. After nine
moons, she gave birth to a beautiful girl who was
very white. This last aspect caused the surprise
of not only the tribe, but also of the neighboring
people, who came to visit the child to see the new
and unknown race. The child, who was named
Mani and who walked and talked precociously,
died within one year, without having fallen ill or
showing any signs of pain. She was buried inside
her own house, according to the customs of the
people. After some time, from her grave emerged
Apiak hut. April 1828. Hercules Florence.
a plant that, because it was totally unknown, was

not plucked. The plant grew until one day a crack
opened on the earth revealing to the tribe white
and fortifying roots instead of the dead child.
The house (oca, in Tupi-Guarani) of Mani, Manioca, would be the origin of the roots name.
Manioc was the base for two indispensable
ingredients of the natives nourishment: flour
and beijus. The first was the main and essential
product that accompanied all food, from meat to
fruits. The second produced beverages and provisions for the long trips of war, hunting, fishing,
trade and offerings to friends. Gabriel Soares

de Souza, a Portuguese traveler that wrote a descriptive treaty of Brazil in 1587, reports the way
in which these roots were prepared: after they
were washed, they were grated on a rock or on
a grater for this purpose, after finely grated the
paste is squeezed in a straw basket, which they
called tapitim, that extracts all the water leaving
this paste dry, from it an edible flour is made, that
is cooked in a bowl specially made for this purpose. They place the paste and dry it on the fire.
An Indian woman stirs it with a type of spoon, as
if she were making sweets, until it is dry, with no
CASCUDO, L. C. Dicionrio do folclore brasileiro (Dictionary

of Brazilian folklore). So Paulo: Global, 2000. The author
notes that there are other legends explaining the origin of the
manioc.
Flavors from Brazil
CASCUDO. Histria da alimentao no Brasil. op. cit. p. 104.

According to the author, this practice survived until the 20th
century, since Rondon, in his march through the inner country
would have received, in 1928, a piece of beiju (a biscuit made
from manioc dough) from an old Pianokoto woman.
47
Another byproduct of
manioc also appreciated
by some tribes, like the
Tupinambs for example,
is the cauim, a fermented
beverage used in feasts and
rituals.
humidity, resembling a white couscous an this is
how it is eaten. It is very sweet and savory.
Another byproduct of manioc also appreciated by some tribes, like the Tupinambs
for example, is the cauim, a fermented beverage
used in feasts and rituals. Some European travelers tasted cauim, like the French priest Yves
dEvreux, who drank it in Maranho in the beginning of the 17th century. However, when they
discovered that cauim was made by the women
of the tribe chewing on the manioc, and leaving it to ferment in vessels, the majority of Europeans started having restrictions on drinking
it. Nevertheless, what bothered the Europeans
more than the production was the ritual for
drinking it. The beverage was consumed during
ritual feasts known as cauinagens, in which the
Indians, intoxicated with cauim, acted in a way
that the colonizers considered sinful, committing
lust and cannibalism. For this reason, European
clergy fought against this native cultural manifestation, concentrating their actions on the evan-
gelization of the women, since they were the ones

who planted the manioc, harvested it, chewed it,
produced the pots for the storage of cauim, and
distributed the beverage during the ceremonies.
The qualities of manioc soon won over the
Portuguese colonizers. They used it in their daily
routine almost as a requisite. It was the reserve,
the provision and the resource. As early as the
third quarter of the 16th century, Pero Magalhes
Gndavo states that what was eaten there as a
substitute for bread was manioc flour. It is made
from the roots of a plant that is called manioc,
which is like the yam. Its use was widely disseminated, even among the wealthy, like the first
three Governor-Generals of Brazil, Thom de
Souza, Dom Duarte da Costa and Mem de S,
who preferred fresh manioc flour, made everyday, as a substitute for the wheat flour, to make
their bread.10 From the successful cultivation of
manioc, the Brazilian Portuguese could elaborate
a range of delicacies made from flour, mingau
(mush), beiju (biscuits) and tucupi (sauce made
with pepper). It was developed mainly in the
coastal area because in the plateau the conditions
for harvesting it, on a scale sufficient to supply
a more stable settlement than the native indigenous nuclei, were less favorable.11
The Europeans in Brazil increased the
manioc plantations, and took care of its grinding,
in flour houses, where steel mills were replacing
wooden ones to produce manioc flour.12 But the
native technique of harvesting continued and, to
a certain point, it still continues the same. A part
Pero de Magalhes Gndavo, Tratado da terra do Brasil (Treaty

of the land of Brazil), Histria da Provncia Santa Cruz (History
of the Province of Santa Cruz), Anurio do Brasil (Yearbook of
Brazil), Rio de Janeiro, 1924.
10
11
Ibid. p. 205.
12
Ibid. p. 105.
SOUZA, Gabriel Soares de. Tratado descritivo do Brasil em 1587

(Descriptive Treaty of Brazil in 1857). 4th ed. So Paulo, Companhia Editora Nacional and USP Press, 1971.

The saliva from the chewing helps to saccharify the starch, by
means of fermentation, producing gases and the sensation of
temperature increase of the beverage.
48
of the native woods was knocked down, generally by fire, and manioc was planted in the first
rains. After using the land for a few years, they
would abandon it to plant in some other place.
According to Srgio Buarque de Holanda, in
producing manioc, the native produce that most
rapidly won the European settlers over, even
substituting wheat bread in most part of the Colony, the only noteworthy progress introduced by
them was the use of the fruit press along with the
tapitim baskets.13
de Janeiro and So Vicente, in a way that many

farmers of the region were able to ascend to the
category of mill-owners through the compulsory
labor of the native Indians. These exports benefited, on the other hand, the expansion of the
range for enslavers of natives and traders of African slaves, expanding their hunting area. It is
during this period that, according to the above
mentioned historian, Luanda became an enormous black trading port, because it produced,
imported, and stored food to supply continuous
Contrary to what was suggested by Fernand Braudel, who, when studying the American
plants, said that the basic manioc was only good
for primitive and regularly mediocre cultures,
experts have noted its contribution to the colonial
economy during the first few centuries. Exported
to the African colonies, manioc and its byproducts welcomed the black captives before they
even stepped on the slave ships that sailed the
South Atlantic uniting the African and American
parts of the Portuguese Empire. Besides feeding
the sailors on the black ships, manioc enabled
a larger distribution of provisions for the Africans onboard, decreasing the death rate during
the crossing. Luiz Felipe de Alencastro narrates
that each slave was given 1.8 liters of manioc per
day during the crossings of the 16th century, same
amount observed in the provisions of the paddling Indians of the Amazon. Thus, it refers to
the probable eating standard in the universe of
compulsory labor in the Portuguese Atlantic.
At the turn of the 16th to the 17th century,
Brazilian manioc exports to Africa fulfilled two
purposes in the colonial enterprise. It promoted,
loads of people dragged from the inlands to be

deported abroad. The exports of manioc, nevertheless, weaken during the 17th Century, due
to the mobilization against the Dutch occupation
of the Brazilian Northeast and the transfer of the
manioc culture to Africa.
Around this period, in the American sector of the Portuguese Empire, the exploratory
expeditions to the inlands of the American continent were developed. The bandeirantes (explorers) could not have undergone such a Herculean
adventure had it not been the adaptation to the
environment, by incorporating indigenous habits. And, in this sense, the addition of manioc
to their daily menu was of fundamental importance. In their march to the West, the bandeiras
who left So Paulo and went up the rivers would
sustain themselves during their travels with
provisions from the manioc crops. The expedition left a group: some white men and a patrol of
native Indians to plant manioc, turn it into flour
and take it to their companions who were ahead.
This local production became known geographical points in the tangled routes of the explorers.
on the one hand, the economic growth of Rio
Manioc flour was the food for all, Portuguese

and native Indians, independently of the level
13
HOLANDA, S. B. Caminhos e fronteiras (Routes and borders).

Rio de Janeiro: Jos Olympio, 1957. p. 205. Conversely, the
spread of wheat crops in the plateaus of the South and Southeast of Brazil can be observed from the 17th Century on.
Flavors from Brazil
49
of the participant.14 An example of the notability

of manioc in food habits of the Brazilians in the
19th century is the answer that an inlander gave
to two European travelers, exhausted and thirsty,
who close to the So Francisco River, asked where
they could quench their needs: Over there you
will have everything you need! There is manioc
flour and water.15
The old colonial system, the economic
model whereby the European metropolis had
exclusivity over the exports and imports of the
colonies, was responsible for the several supply crises of provisions in Portuguese America.
The legislation imposed on the colonies reflected
the desire to favor lucrative activities capable of
justifying a commercial, monocultural activity.16
The production for the colonys subsistence was
only given attention by the Portuguese authorities in times of supply crisis. It was the Municipal
Chambers responsibility, or what was the same,
the local elites responsibility, to guarantee food
supply. For this reason, many sugarmills had
adjoining subsistence cultures, which created a
situation of self-supply. By the kings decree of
Srgio Buarque de Holanda, however, states that in the first
expeditions to the wild inlands it would have been totally impossible to transport the necessary manioc bulbs for the plantation of crops where there wasnt already a harvesting tribe.
First because they would be difficult to carry occupying too
much space in their luggage, it is well-known that these bulbs
very quickly loose their germinative potential. Furthermore,
because, in order for the plantation to be successful, it would
be necessary to wait at least a year, normally much more, to
obtain a satisfactory harvest. Corn, on the other hand, besides
being able to be transported for considerable distances, in
grain, occupied a small space to be transported, and offered
the advantage of starting to produce in five to six months after
sowing. op. cit. p. 222.
15
16
LINHARES, M. Y.; TEIXEIRA SILVA, M. C. Histria da agricultura brasileira (History of Brazilian agriculture). So Paulo:
Brasiliense, 1981. p. 117.
14
50
January 11th, 1701, the Portuguese Crown determined for the landowners to release the slaves
on Saturday so they could cultivate their own
subsistence.17
Where it was not possible or lucrative to
produce the basic elements to maintain the exporting agribusiness, it was necessary to search for it
somewhere else. Therefore, landowners avoided
the obligation of having to feed their slaves. Thus,
the cultivation of manioc grew, mainly in those
regions surrounding the dynamic center of the
Brazilian colonial economy. Consequently, the
areas of Brazil that did develop the agri-export
activities were included in the already globalized
division of labor, by means of the production and
transport of commodities to these more dynamic
regions. This is the case, for example, of the production of manioc flour in the Paranagu region.
Its exports to So Paulo, Santos, Rio de Janeiro,
North of Brazil and the Sacramento Colony were
undertaken to no avail despite the sacrifice of
the residents of Paranagu themselves [] for
the manioc flour was not sufficient and an even
greater shortage was expected, as informed by
local governor.18 In reality, due to the oscillation
of prices of basic provisions, there were frequent
signs of popular uprisings that concerned the
governors. For this reason, one of most important local magistracies was the position of judge
or inspector of weights and measures. Elected by
the municipal chambers with great powers and
prerogatives, this employee was responsible for
the municipal supplies, fixing prices, controlling
quality and observing the standards of weights
and measures of a product.
LINHARES, M. Y.; TEIXEIRA SILVA, M. C. op. cit. p. 120.

WESTPHALEN, C. M. As farinhas de Paranagu (Flours from
Paranagu). Rio de Janeiro; APEC, 1976. p. 74.
17
18
Manioc open-market. Alexandre Tokitaka / Pulsar Imagens
Flavors from Brazil
51
Fried manioc. Alexandre Tokitaka / Pulsar Imagens
52
Manioc flour accompanies

everything, from the
Gaucho churrasco to the
game and fish of Central
Brazil and of the Amazon
and is present in piro of
the coastal region. There
is not one single region
in Brazil were manioc
cannot be found in the
markets.
Still in the 19th Century, the primitive techniques used for the cultivation of manioc were
practically the same as the ones inherited from
the native Indians, which was only possible due
to the tremendous amount of land available in
Brazil. With the publication of the Law of Lands,
in 1850, the State arrogates to itself the ownership
of all unoccupied land. The result was that land,
especially fertile ones, became highly valued
merchandise. This Law should be understood
within the initiative to modernize the country.
Directed towards the abolishment of slavery, this
measure permitted the government to cede lands
to European immigrants, considered by the local elite to be much more irreproachable and
laborious than the Africans. Consequently, the
modernizing project in Brazil, in the mid 1900s,
induced significant changes in the national agricultural structure, for it initiated a new kind of
property (the small production), a new economic
unity (the family), a new kind of productive re-
Flavors from Brazil
lationship (autonomous peasant and the State)

and a new production standard (by means of the
techniques brought by foreign immigrants)19.
These changes, however, were not able
to overthrow manioc as one of the essential ingredients of the eating habits of Brazilians from
all regions. Its flour accompanies everything,
from the Gaucho churrasco to the game and
fish of Central Brazil and of the Amazon and is
present in the piro of the coastal region. There is
not one single region in Brazil were manioc cannot be found in the markets. Transformed into a
product for mass consumption, it is appreciated,
fried, in bars all over the country. Redeemed by
the great chefs, it is used in high quality restaurants as a side dish or ingredient in sophisticated recipes. Savored in traditional and new
forms, in all regions of the country, the queen
of Brazil as defined by Cmara Cascudo is
the ingredient that gives consistency to Brazilian
cuisine. Gilberto Freyre well defines this monumental indigenous contribution to the formation
of Brazilian eating habits: Many products once
prepared by the red hands of the cunhs20, are
now prepared by white, tanned, black and mulatto hands of Brazilian women of all origins and
bloods. From the indigenous woman, the Brazilian women have learned to make several delicacies from manioc. Thus, one can say that we can
find in manioc a significant part of the roots of
the Brazilian food culture.
Bruno Miranda Ztola
Diplomat; Master and Doctor in History, Federal

University of Paran (UFPR).
SANTOS, C. R. A. Histria da alimentao no Paran (History of

nourishment of Brazil). Curitiba: Cultural Foundation, 1995.
p. 73.
20
Translators note: Cunhs - Amazon word for women.
19
53
Alexandre Menegale
54
A sweet history
of Brazil
Compotes. Iolanda Huzak /Pulsar Imagens
Flavors from Brazil
55
rom sugarcane, from the sugarmill, from

the slave quarters, the history of Brazilian
sweets practically begins with the countrys origin.
Just like the characters Hansel and Gretel,
who left breadcrumbs on their path in order to
not get lost in the woods, if we sprinkle our history with crumbs of quindins, marmalades, compotes or crystallized fruits, we would certainly
trail a faithful and chronological panorama from
the formation of our people to the most recent
and refined manifestations of national confectionery. Emperor Dom Pedro II would gladly exchange his duties at the Court for a fig compote
which had just left the pan; Rui Barbosa melted
for hearty spoonfuls of potato sweet. And how
about ex-president Joo Goulart and Jorge Amado, true lovers of the coconut sweet? Not to mention ex-president Juscelino Kubitschek, who never refused a baba-de-moa, and the composers
Roberto Carlos and Chico Buarque, who might
have been inspired after generous portions of
pumpkin sweet.
But where does one of the strongest aspects of our culinary miscegenation come from?
According to historians, sugar, obtained from the
evaporation of sugarcane juice, was discovered
in India, around the 3rd century. But it was probably the Arabs who introduced it on a large scale
to gastronomy, creating candied almonds and
walnuts, as well as fig and orange compotes. In
the 15th century, when the Iberian Peninsula was
conquered, the same Arabs included sugarcane
among the seedlings of fruits they would use
in future sweets. From then on, from Portugal
and Spain, sugarcane arrived in America with
the discoverers. Done: the sweetest invasion of
Brazilian history had been carried out, a culture
56
According to the historian,

sugar, obtained from the
evaporation of sugarcane
juice, was discovered in
India, around the 3rd
century.
which would continue through the following
centuries.
More than simply describing well known
recipes, recalling flavors that flood our memories, or guessing the origin of a certain culinary
alchemy, I have decided to turn the caramel
colored pages of time. I was surprised with the
anthropological and gastronomical communion
of flavors. Before we even had an Emperor, we
had already surrendered to compotes, cakes and
sweet delicacies that gained local color and shape
when the Portuguese arrived at our coast.
In fact, many of the sweets we consider
Brazilian today have their origin in Portugal. The
story that the nuns in Portuguese convents used
egg whites to starch their robes, for example, is
a delicious one. What were they to do with the
enormous amount of leftover yolks? Since they
were creative, the nuns started making quindins, bom-bocados, papos-de-anjo, puddings and
custards with this blessed abundance of ingredients. Many generations have gone by and here
we are filling ourselves with these same delicacies many believing to be the pioneers in the
sweet art of confectionery.
Before referring to the other European invasions, which would later contribute to the enrichment of our confections, let us focus on the
Rapadura being molded. Joo Rural
Flavors from Brazil
57
In the sugar plantations of the
interior of Pernambuco, Paraba,
Alagoas and Maranho, as well as

in the houses of Recife, So Luiz
and Macei, the black women cooks
were true alchemists in the creation

of a regional cuisine.
58
Vendors of sponge cakes. J. B. Debret (1826)

Source: Castro Maya Museums IPHAN/Minc MEA 0203
Flavors from Brazil
59
60
communion of the Portuguese tradition with

Brazilian fruits. A fundamental link surfaces in
this production line: the black women cooks that
ascended from the slave quarters to their mistresses kitchens taking with them manioc flour,
maize flour, pumpkin and water yams for the
composition of their delicacies. We refer to a geographical region that includes, mainly, Pernambuco, Alagoas and the interior of So Paulo.
We are well aware that fruits have been the
basic ingredient for desserts for centuries from
the far corners of Babylon to French and Italian
palaces. So, we can imagine how the Portuguese,
who mixed honey with their fruits before the
common usage of sugar, were fascinated with
the possibilities of our plentiful pulps in every
corner of this recently-discovered country. We
are talking about ambrosias, pumpkin compotes, banana and orange preserves, coconut
sweets, meringues, tapiocas and so many other
treasures.
Still in colonial times, cashew and guava
sweets attained a noble standing, already being
considered the jewels of the manor house. But
those were also the times in which aromas of
fried and roasted bananas, covered with cinnamon, invaded the properties, just as the so-called
mel de engenho (sugarcane honey) was mixed with
our manioc (or macaxeira) flour.
In the sugar plantations of the interior of
Pernambuco, Paraba, Alagoas and Maranho,
as well as in the houses of Recife, So Luiz and
Macei, the black women cooks were true alchemists in the creation of a regional cuisine. Not
to mention Bahia, state in which white tradition
is barely visible today in the stews, subdued as
it was by the overpowering heat of the African
spices used by the black women cooks.
With the proven prestige of sugarcane hon-
yams and breadfruit, the traditional rice pudding

gains national flavor in the coconut rice pudding.
At the same time, tapioca gained its position on
the patriarchal tea tables: alone or in the company of pamonhas, beijus, couscous and cocadas.
This is also when p-de-moleque was created, as
well as canjicas and corn-based cakes.
Although most of the origins of sweets are
identified, the authenticity of the Souza Leo cake
that is still popular in Pernambuco is claimed
by several recipes.
Still on cakes: wedding cakes and those
sugar pyramids in the center of noble tables have
their origin in Portugal. Thus, the art of decorating begins, with letters and drawings made from
cinnamon, embroidered tablecloths and napkins,
as well as boxes, ornaments and cut paper. One
must remember the colonial tradition in Brazil:
it was customary, in religious processions, for
the devotees to carry trays of sweets as personal offerings to individuals who represented the
biblical figures. It seems that one of the first accusations of suspected Judaism during the Inquisition had its origin in these processions: a man
is said to have offered sweets shaped like Jewish
symbols.
After some time, the most enchanting ally
of cooking and, why not, the customs of modern
civilization, was ice. From then on, to Brazilian
fruits, included in sweets, marmalades and puddings served still hot, new flavors and techniques
were added and they were transformed into ice
creams, which were considered as custards for
hot days, as they pleased both the eyes and the
palate.
Breaking through the borders of the plantations and mills, they surfaced as a trend in the
first confectioneries of the big cities of Brazil. The
delicacy was almost a milestone for the end of the
ey, alongside with allies such as manioc, water
classical and fuming patriarchal desserts and for

Cheese and goiabada (guava sweet). Joo Prudente / Pulsar Imagens
discrediting tea parties with country cheese and

toast. According to historians, newspapers of the
first half of the 19th century depict ice cream with
a shape of sin: the confectioneries which were
until then far restricted to men, started to welcome the first young ladies.
Years pass by and the arrival of the first
European immigrants spread the genes of the
British, French and German confectionary traditions like pollen adding, altering and adapting
the new Brazilian features with their talent for
sweets. Today, white refined sugar is the most
common, but to prepare sweets and compotes,
crystal sugar is widely used. In addition, some
traditional recipes use raw sugar or rapadura.
The dichotomy between pleasure and guilt is one
of the dogmas that surround us. Candies, pies,
cookies, marmalades, compotes, mousses, ice
creams and gelatins live within the imaginary of
our taste buds.
Flavors from Brazil
We treasure memories, images and smells.

Who does not dream of smearing his fingers with
a piece of homemade guava sweet, or become
the happiest person on earth when vigorously
biting into a delicious cream filled pastry, or fill
ourselves of patriotic pride after savoring a large
variety of sweets made with Brazilian fruits?
Whatever the reason, the origin of the national
confectionery is, after all, anthropological, historical and elucidative. Once you have finished
these pages, dont shun away: close your eyes
and think of your most significant memory and
be sure that a sweet will be the strongest image
that will come to your mind.
Alexandre Menegale
Journalist
This article was first published in the first issue of Sabor do

Brasil (Taste of Brazil) magazine, MRE, 2004.
61
Adriano Botelho
Geography
of flavors:
essay on the dynamics of the Brazilian cuisine
countrys cuisine is part of the way of

life of its people. It expresses not only
the physical aspects of its geography

but also its human, economic, social and cultural
aspects. We can, through a process of reverse
engineering, deconstruct a recipe in order to
find the ingredients, the cultivation techniques,
the spices used, and the type of cattle breeding
predominant in a certain region. But a dish is not
limited to its material aspects. It is also necessary
that an archeology of the flavors be carried out,
i.e. to deduce the main climate and soil types, the
ethnic groups involved, the existing migrations,
the foreign influences, as well as the cultural characteristics. Therefore, from the typical recipes of
its cuisine, we can discover many elements that
compose the human and physical geography of
a region. Furthermore, as in a two-way street, the
previous knowledge of the geographical factors
which shape a certain society can contribute to
Flavors from Brazil
63
explain its eating habits. As Sophie Bessis said:

tell me what you eat and I will tell you to which
God you are devoted, under which latitude you
live, in which culture you were born, and which
social group you belong to. Cuisine reading is
a fabulous journey into the self-consciousness
of each society, into the image that they have of
their own identity.
When we speak of Brazilian cuisine (or
Italian, French, Chinese, etc.), we are referring
to culturally established aspects that compose
a food system which includes a group of techniques, products, habits and behaviors related to
food. Nevertheless, it is not something static, for
the exchanges among different people are constant and ever more intense, and the societies
which create their cooking also change through
time. Thus, as we are reminded by anthropologist Maria Eunice Maciel, a cuisine cannot be
reduced to a mere collection of recipes or a list
of ingredients, nor can it be transformed into formulas and combinations of elements crystallized
in space and time.
Brazilian cuisine has been, since its beginning, dynamic, for it is well known that it is a
product of influences from different social groups
which were related, and continue to relate, (not
always in harmonic fashion) throughout history. In addition, due to Brazils vast territorial
extension, its climatic diversity, its topography
and soil, as well as the differences of settlement
in distinct regions, it can de said that diversity is
one of the aspects of Brazilian cuisine, which is
expressed, geographically, through its typical regional dishes. However, paradoxically, another
The quote by Sophie Bessis was retrieved from Maria Eunice
Maciels article, Uma cozinha brasileira (A Brazilian cuisine), Estudos Histricos, n. 33, Rio de Janeiro, 2004.

Maciel, Maria Eunice. Uma cozinha brasileira (A Brazilian cuisine), Estudos Histricos, n. 33, Rio de Janeiro, 2004.
64
aspect of our cuisine is its homogeneity in the daily

food consumption of the majority of Brazilians,
with small regional variations, dominated by the
duo rice and beans, accompanied by manioc flour,
salad and meat (beef, pork, poultry or fish).
In order to conduct a geography of flavors
of Brazil, we must consider these aspects of our
cuisine, related not only to typical dishes (diversity) but also to daily consumption (homogeneity). Furthermore, we cannot think of Brazilian
cuisine only in terms of traditional recipes, for,
as mentioned before, cuisine, as a sociocultural
manifestation, is part of the dynamic process that
expresses the changes which a society undergoes.
It is in this sense that we intend, in this article, to
analyze the culinary geography of Brazil.
Typical dishes:
the geography of diversity
As we look through a recipe book of Brazilian cooking, we soon observe the regional diversity expressed in the different typical recipes
of its cuisine. Barreado and arroz carreteiro in
the South region; moqueca (capixaba, de banana-da-terra), tutu de feijo, feijoada, feijo
tropeiro in the Southeast region; tapioca, dried
meat with baio de dois, paoca of dried meat,
buchada de bode, galinha cabidela, bob de
camaro, sarapatel, vatap and acaraj in the
Northeast; duck in tucupi sauce, manioba, tacac in the North Region; pequi rice; tutu with
sausage, guariroba; mojica and roasted pacu fish
in the Midwest are some examples.
Each one of these recipes reveals a way
of life, a relationship between man and the geographical environment that has been developed
through various centuries and has received several influences from distinct ethnic groups. The
proximity to the sea or rivers, the mediterraneTexts from Brazil . N 13
Baiana making acaraj.

Christian Knepper (Embratur)
Flavors from Brazil
65
66
aness, the climate, the intensity of the presence

of native Indian, African and European cultures,
the development of economic activities and
means of communication are some of the social
and geographical elements that contribute to the
formation of a regional cuisine.
Just an observation: from the studies of the
regional cuisines of Brazil, we can conclude that
the five administrative macro regions defined by
the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) conceal, within them, a large physical
economically on extensive raising system, was

marked by the semi-arid climate and by the lack
of permanent rivers. Furthermore, the weight of
slavery was much smaller than in the coastal area
and, consequently, the indigenous influence was
stronger, alongside the Portuguese. The significant use of dried meat, a conservation technique
brought by the Portuguese, and of manioc flour,
a trait of indigenous influence on Brazilian cooking, are basic elements of food in the interior of
the Northeast. Paoca of dried meat is an em-
and cultural diversity, thus diverging from the

classical definition of region developed by the
traditional school of French Geography, which
transformed this unit of analysis into a basic element for the study of this subject.
When we refer to northeastern cuisine, for
example, we cannot refrain from considering
that there are, at least, two distinctive cuisines:
one from the coastal region and the other from
the interior.
The first, which originated from the sugarcane civilization of the 16th Century, is based on
the contributions of the social groups that inhabited the northeastern coastline (especially the
African, slaves; and the Portuguese, mill owners, owners of large plantations, employees of
the Crown and merchants). The fact that it had
greater contact with Europe through its sugar
trade should also be considered when we study
the characteristics of its cuisine. The traditional
recipes of vatap, acaraj and caruru that use
spices originally from Africa in their preparation
reveal not only the strong African presence in
the cuisine of this part of Brazil, but also the in-
blematic example of the combination: dried meat

mixed with manioc flour.
The Midwest cuisine displays the influence of the populational flows that met in this
region, almost always coming from other parts
of the country, mixing their regional elements.
Influences of cuisines from So Paulo and Minas
Gerais can be detected in Gois, from the Northeast and North in Tocantins and from So Paulo
in Mato Grosso do Sul.
The cuisine of the North region is based
on fish and manioc, with typical fruits, like assai and Brazil nuts, which are being widely used.
The ubiquity of the hydrographic net of the region and the strong presence of the indigenous
culture explain, in part, its specificities. Tucupi,
for example, is a typical element from the cuisine
of Par. It is made with wild manioc and jambu
(paracress), a typical leaf that has an anesthetic
property, causing a light quivering sensation on
the tongue. Tucupi and jambu are part of two typical delicacies: tacac and duck in tucupi sauce.
The typical cuisine of the Southeast of Brazil also has great variety. In Esprito Santo, for
tensive trade between Brazil and the African continent in the colonial period.
The second, which originated from the cattle and goat husbandry activity and was based
example, the traditional basis is fish and other

seafood. Moqueca capixaba is their most well
known dish. The typical cuisines of So Paulo
and Minas Gerais are, however, strongly influ-
enced by the internal trade carried out by their

people during the colonial period. Feijo tropeiro is its most well known expression. Beans
mixed with manioc flour, torresmos, sausages,
eggs, garlic, onions and spices was the basic food
for the mule guides, responsible for transporting
traded goods between Central Brazil, the coast
of Rio de Janeiro and the South, being the traditional supplier of cattle and charque (dried-beef).
The use of native vegetables, fruits and tubers is
typical of Minas Gerais cooking, as well as the
use of beef, pork and poultry. On the other hand,
Rio de Janeiro cooking is marked by a strong
Portuguese influence, noted by the presence of
codfish. Another strong point of Rio de Janeiro
cuisine is the complete feijoada, which became
one of Brazils export dishes, symbolizing Brazilian cuisine itself.
The South of Brazil depicts, in its cuisine,
the human panorama that characterized its occupation: the presence of Portuguese in the extreme south and on the coast, of Germans and
Italians in the central mountainous area and of
Slavs in the state of Paran. In the extreme South,
the northern border of the Pampas, denominated
by Fernand Braudel as the beef civilization, the
extensive cattle raising activity determined the
general consumption of bovine meat under the
form of churrasco. The Portuguese origin on the
coastline of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina
and Paran can be found in dishes based on fish
and other seafood, and in the barreado, a typical
dish from the coast of Paran, which consists of
meat cooked for a long period in an earthen pot,
served with rice and manioc flour. In the mountainous region of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande
do Sul, the subtropical climate and the presence
of German and Italian immigrants guaranteed
the use of wine and wheat in the local cooking,
and also of originally European recipes.
Flavors from Brazil
The diversity of regional

cuisines, and within
the macro regions, is a
result of the combination,
throughout history, of
geographical, social and
cultural elements. They
are an expression of the
identity of Brazilians who
live in different parts of
the country.
The diversity of regional cuisines, and
within the macro regions, is a result of the combination, throughout history, of geographical,
social and cultural elements. They are an expression of the identity of Brazilians who live in different parts of the country. In addition to regional cuisine, an expression of diversity, Brazilian
cuisine is a factor of national unity, through the
identification of the duo of rice and beans as the
typical dish of Brazilian daily subsistence, i.e. as
an element of national identity.
The everyday rice and beans

Beyond the regional differences, the daily
dish eaten on almost all tables of the country is
the duo rice with beans, accompanied by a salad,
some kind of meat and manioc flour. The Aurlio
dictionary of the Portuguese language defines
the duo feijo-com-arroz (beans with rice) as of
everyday use; common; usual. It is a true ele-
67
The duo rice and beans is the base
for the nourishment of Brazilians,

overcoming regional and social
differences.
68
Ready-made dish of rice

with beans, fried egg and steak
Delfim Martins / Pulsar Imagens
Flavors from Brazil
ment of national identity, which embraces the

people from North to South.
Beans are the basic food for Brazilians. Its
cultivation was already known, in its several varieties, in Brazil before its discovery and in Europe and Africa. Therefore, there were very few
obstacles for its assimilation by Brazilian cuisine.
According to the Brazilian Agricultural Research
Corporation (Embrapa), the current average consumption of beans is 12.7 kg per Brazilian per
year. In a research carried out by DataFolha in
the Municipality of So Paulo, 34% of those interviewed responded, spontaneously, that their
favorite dish was rice with beans, and 76% declared eating it frequently. The preferences of the
consumer are regionalized and differentiated
mainly by color and type of grain.
It is rich in protein and is the main ingredient in the diet of the poorer population. The
common bean plant is cultivated throughout the
year, in most states, offering a constant supply
of the product in the market. This occurs both in
subsistence crops as well as in those that employ
advanced techniques. It should be noted that
bean production is also easier for the small family producer, because it can be planted in small
properties, using little technology and the family
workforce, in contrast to traditional monocultural plantations like soybeans and sugarcane.
The South region stands out in the national scenario of bean plantation, followed by the
Southeast, the Northeast, the Midwest and the
North, respectively. The vast dissemination and
the global use of beans, together with the constant supply and accessible prices, are important
factors that explain the overall success of this
seed within Brazilian eating habits.
Rice, in its turn, came to replace manioc
flour as the main companion to beans. Manioc
flour, in some regions (mainly North, Northeast
69
and Midwest regions), is a third indispensable

ingredient at the table. Rice was introduced in
Brazil in the first few centuries of Portuguese colonization and, slowly, gained importance within
Brazilian eating habits, becoming an essential element of our daily cooking. It is one of the most
nutritionally balanced foods, offering 20% of energy and 15% of protein of the daily per capita necessities; it is, also, an extremely versatile culture,
that adapts itself to different soil and climate conditions. It is cultivated all over the country, and
was even adapted to the less humid areas (dry
land rice). Despite the relative dissemination of
rice culture in the territory, about 60% of the Brazilian production comes from the South region.
The country is known to be the largest producer
outside the Asian continent, being among the ten
largest world producers.
Thus, we can explain the relative homogeneity of the daily diet, not only because of cultural influences of distinct social groups that formed
Brazilian society, but also due to agricultural and
agrarian conditions. The duo rice and beans is
the basis for the nourishment of Brazilians, overcoming regional and social differences because it
is a subsistence food, rich in nutrients, adapted
to the climate and soils of almost the entire country, able to be cultivated in small properties, of
constant supply and accessible prices. However,
new eating habits emerge with the increase of
urbanization in our society, with the transformations of the socioeconomic structure and of culture, and with the increase in international flows
and exchanges.
New eating habits for Brazilians?

In the decade of 1940, only 30% of the
countrys population was urban. Nowadays,
80% of Brazilians live in cities. Urbanization rep70
resents a change in the traditional cultural habits

of Brazilian society. New customs are spread by
mass communication and by populational mobility, stimulated by internal migration. Traditional social relations are replaced by new, generally more dynamic, ones. Ideas circulate faster,
transforming centuries-old regional ways of life.
Among such changes, new ways of eating make
headway in our society. The intense urban lifestyle, for men and women, is one of the factors
that explain these changes.
Along with the intense urbanization observed since 1950, we should also consider the
development of the food industry to keep up
with new family structures and new demands
of city dwellers. Thus, we observe an increase in
the industrialization of food products consumed
at home, with the proliferation of frozen and dehydrated food, ready-made cookies and doughs,
sauces and dishes, etc. More than just fulfilling
the demands of the contemporary world, the
food industry creates new demands for the consumer through aggressive marketing strategies.
Besides food industrialization, fast food
restaurants have multiplied in order to meet the
needs of the portion of the population that cannot go home to take their meals. Fast food has
become part of daily Brazilian eating habits, be it
through self-service establishments; through bars
which serve ready-made plates or sandwiches;
or through international junk food chains.
The other side of the coin of the industrialization and mass production of food is the upraise
of regional and foreign cuisines. The taste for
something different and exotic is one of the
characteristics of post-modern cultures of large
cosmopolitan centers all over the world, and Brazilian metropolises are no exception to this rule.
We can, therefore, refer to the Disneylandiza-
The other side of the coin

of the industrialization
and mass production of food
is the upraise of regional
and foreign cuisines.
The taste for something
different and exotic is
one of the characteristics
of post-modern cultures of
large cosmopolitan centers
all over the world, and
Brazilian metropolises are
no exception to this rule.
tion of world cooking, since simulacra of different world cuisines proliferate throughout the
globe. The intensification of trade and financial
relations and the development of means of communication and transport have contributed to increase the consumers sense of proximity to different parts of the world. Cooking, a sociocultural
expression of different societies, could not avoid
being affected by these worldwide changes.
Finally, the act of eating itself has long
ceased to simply satisfy our physiological needs.
However, besides being an expression of culture,
as discussed before, eating is ever more inserted
The reference to Disney is due to the innovative aspect of one
of its parks, Epcot Center, that simulates different areas of cities like Mexico City, Paris, Rome, Tokyo and Beijing where one
can experience artificially life in each of these cities, including the possibility of savoring the typical delicacies of each one
of these countries. The practice of simulating other cultures is
one of the characteristics of the so-called post-modern culture.
in what Baudrillard called the consumer society. Cooking is affected by trends and follows
market rules, submitting its cultural authenticity
to the imposing homogeneity of tastes, becoming
more so dictated by mass media and by needs external to the consumer. High cuisine becomes
a form of social differentiation and of expressing
a certain status, whereas food advertised by big
fast food chains or by food industry corporations
refer more to a way of life than to food itself. An
example is the increase in light food products
that sell a healthy lifestyle and seek a body shape
appropriate to dominant social standards.
In this sense, a new chapter of Brazilian
cuisine is about to be written due to these changes. Would we be heading to an impoverishing
homogeneity that could represent the end of regional cooking? Would Brazilian eating habits be
undergoing a fundamental change, in which the
daily rice and beans loses its place to other dishes?
Or would regional cuisine undergo a rediscovery
and re-appreciation, becoming more accessible
to Brazilians and foreigners?
The answers to these questions only time
will bring. However, we should remind ourselves
that Brazilian cuisine is marked, historically, by
diversity, by the influence of distinct human and
natural aspects embraced by our country. Changes in our eating habits and in our cuisine are part
of wider social, economic, and cultural changes
that compose, as mentioned before, a dynamic
process. The direction these changes can take, in
turn, depends on the lifestyle the Brazilian people choose to live.
Adriano Botelho
Flavors from Brazil
Diplomat; Master and Doctor in Human Geography,

University of So Paulo.
Baudrillard, Jean. Consumer society.
71
Joo Rural
Flavors from Brazil
Trails of
flavors
73
he typical food of So Paulo still exists in

many corners of the Paraba Valley. It is
simple and tasty, besides having sustenance,
as said in country style. It originated with the arrival of the European and the Africans that, together with the native Indians, created most of
our national dishes. Throughout the centuries,
many recipes were modified, with the addition
of new ingredients. In many cases, the dish got
better, but in others it lost its historical tradition.
The contribution of several peoples enabled varied recipes, notably those prepared
with manioc, corn, sugarcane and pork. Thus,
emerged the virado, or feijo tropeiro; paocas;
sweet shops and groceries; the use of pepper;
and fogado, typical of the Paraba Valley in So
Paulo.
And how did these flavors travel from
North to South in Brazil for at least four centuries? They were carried by troop guides, known
as tropeiros, who, during the 17th century, were
forced to cut trails through the forests to transport goods.
With the trade of European products and
gold between Minas Gerais and Brazilian ports,
the troops became a vital means of transport for
the economy. In the beginning, the majority of the
mules and donkeys came from breeding areas in
the South of Brazil, where the technique of crossbreeding horses with donkeys, was known. The
trade of work horses between Rio Grande do Sul
and the city of Sorocaba, in So Paulo was significant. Around 1850, approximately fifty thousand
animals were traded in one year. With the arrival
of the coffee cycle, the tropeiro began to transport
this product to the ports. Figures from the Port
of Ubatuba show that, around 1860, at least two
thousand animals arrived daily to unload coffee.
74
Through their trails,

the tropeiros would take
flavors, exchanging
products and practicing
the mixture that we
make today in our
kitchens. Many dishes
like virado, made from
beans, or virado paulista
originated in this period.
The troop was generally made up of ten
animals. A boy on horseback, almost always the
troops cook, would go on the front. The first animal was called madrinha (godmother) or frenteira and would carry small bells, called cincerros, on its chest, which would chime calling the
troop. Some researchers claim that the animals
heard the tolls as if they were the sound of water
and, therefore, followed them. Next would come
the cargo animals, always with pack frames, carrying bags, baskets made of thin strips of wood
or bamboo, leather bags and saddlebags for provision. Each animal carried up to 120 kg. In the
middle, came the owner of the troop on horseback. At the end, came the animal called coice
and behind it a man, always on foot, driving the
animals.
Through their trails, the tropeiros would
take flavors, exchanging products and practicing
the mixture that we make today in our kitchens.
Many dishes like virado, made from beans, or
virado paulista originated in this period. During the expeditions that left So Paulo to explore
District of Chapada. June 1827. Aim-Adrien Taunay.
the interior, some of them would plant, along the

way, food that could be gathered in only three
months. In certain cases, men would stay behind
taking care of the crops of corn, beans and manioc to join the troop after harvest, following their
trail and taking the food; in others, this group
would set out first awaiting the troop with the
harvest done. When the expedition arrived at the
crops, beans were cooked with the meat from the
viding energy to the men during their long journeys through Brazil. But the tropeiro was wise,
he only traveled four leagues (24 km) per day or
workday. This habit gave birth to our cities, for
on their resting spots emerged shelters for basic
needs. After a short time, these shelters turned
into villages and, after that, into cities separated,
on average, 25 km one from another.
Every troop had a wooden mortar and
animals hunted on the way and corn was crushed

into a fine flour to be added to the beans, thus
pestle. Paoca was the main food because they

always carried a load of manioc or corn flour.
making a hearty dish that was appreciated by the

travelers. The advice for those who would travel
On the way, the troopers hunted forest animals

or fished. The catch was moqueado (roasted), as
through Brazilian forests came from this custom.

To eat, do what you can [vai se virando] like the
the natives did, who, at the time, worked as carriers. They were the ones who taught the secrets of
paulistas [men from So Paulo]. The se virando

was gradually transformed into virado paulista,
hunting and fishing in the woods. After the meat

was dry, it was thrown into the mortar with the
nowadays prepared with corn flour, torresmo

and spicy sausages.
Also from this period is the feijo tropeiro,
made with dried meat, spicy sausages, fried torresmo and corn flour. It was a caloric food, pro-
flour and ground to form a thick dough. Thus,

the roasted dried meat could be transported for
many days. Two kilos of meat and ten of flour
could feed many people. The paoca was placed in
saddlebags, so even when walking or riding, the
Flavors from Brazil
75
The old fogado. Joo Rural
76
men could eat it. As a complement they would

eat a piece of rapadura. Eating just the meat as
sible for founding several cities in the south of

Minas Gerais.
we see in movies was impossible for they could

not stop for long periods and hunt. It was neces-
Based on this flux, certain scholars of Brazilian cuisine consider that the cuisine of Minas
sary to constantly be on the move. If a man stole

meat, it was a sure death. In the Paraba Valley
Gerais is a development of the one from So Paulo, with consolidated dishes. Some modifications
region and in the Gaucho Mountains, pinho was

the main food of the travelers, since this chest-
occurred, like virado de feijo changing into tutu.

Eduardo Frieiro, in his book Feijo, angu e couve
nut takes up to four months to spoil. Also in the

Paraba Valley, the tradition of eating i (female
sauba ants) was noted by the author Monteiro
Lobato, who couldnt live without it.
In the 18th century, during the gold cycle,
food became even more valuable. Due to the number of people who went to Minas Gerais, agricultural production in that region became scarce. In
this scenario, the tropeiros were responsible for
transporting everything that was possible and
(Beans, polenta and collard greens), claims that

there is a typical food from Minas Gerais, for
we can recognize a constancy in the food preferences, but, on the other hand, emphasizes that
these preferences are not exclusive of this same
population. We should, therefore, consider that,
when Minas Gerais prospered, the Paraba Valley and other regions of So Paulo were already
bustling for at least 200 years. The role of our tropeiro, in this context, stands out for he would dis-
earned a lot of money. Some products, like salt

and sugar, reached a price four times higher than
in So Paulo. A good number of these travelers
brought their goods from the Paraba Valley, in
So Paulo. Many men in this region were respon-
seminate his customs and traditions through the

paths he trailed.
He brought manioc, he took corn, he planted sugarcane, he conserved pork meat, he planted beans, he discovered rice and he pointed out
the tropical fruits. The tropeiro was responsible

for this mixture, which was the basis for Brazilian nourishment for several centuries. Naturally,
new products were gradually incorporated with
the arrival of immigrants, but this basis continues until today in any worthy kitchen. One cannot speak of Brazilian cuisine without mentioning paoca, farofa, torresmo, flours, beans, sugar
or rice. Thus, it is a cuisine which the adventures
of the tropeiros helped season.
habit of mixing food. They roasted meat, they

cooked corn, they made manioc flour, but ate
them separately, throwing the food directly into
their mouths. There still are those in the countryside who can put a handful of flour in their
mouth without dropping any.
The tropeiros menu
raw sugar and molasses became a large business,

mainly in the mills of the Northeast, which sent
their production to the South. Little by little, the
mills spread out in a way that each region had
its own production. With plenty of sugar, the
sweets, privilege of the masters, became popular.
In these circumstances it was enough to take the
abundant tropical fruits, put them into a large
copper pan and cover it with sugar: one more
Brazilian flavor was invented. Another invention was the cachaa, which made many mills
wealthy and is gaining more inroads into foreign
markets.
manioc
The first travelers who arrived in Brazil
described many beauties and curiosities of the
land. One issue that stood out was the eating
habits of the native Indians. Therefore, several
writings mention that the natives fed on a white
root called yam or car which were the names
they knew. But they soon observed that it wasnt
exactly this. In reality, the native Indians called
this root manioca, today known as manioc. From
this tuber they made flour, mush and even an alcoholic beverage, which the Europeans learned
to savor. With the arrival of equipment and European knowledge, its production was improved,
becoming the famous flour we know today and
one of the basic tripods of Brazilian food.
sugarcane
For their own needs, the Europeans
brought sugarcane and the technique to produce sugar. Shortly, the production of rapadura,
pork
Along with manioc the explorers discovered another novelty: corn, a millenary food described by travelers who were delighted especially with the popcorn that turned into a flower,
The colonizers brought their animals with

them, including sheep, goats, chickens, geese,
horses and cattle. The animal that best adapted
itself was the pig, due to the humid climate and
lack of pastures. All that was needed was to let
it loose in a small wood and it would fend for
itself, searching swamps and eating roots. Thus
the pig became, in a very short time, the main
source of fat for daily food. This nutrient, in fact,
when thrown into the fire. The corn ground in

the famous grating rocks turned into crushed
corn or a thick flour. In this form, it was cooked
and savored. The native Indians did not have the
was already extracted from wild pigs, tapirs and

other large animals by the native Indians. Pork
fat, besides seasoning, also became the food refrigerator, for it was used to preserve all types of
corn
Flavors from Brazil
77
Tropeiro prepares lunch on the trempe. Joo Rural
meat. There is, for this reason, the famous meat

in fat, a dish that can be found in many small
cities in the interior of the country.
beans
The native Indians had their tropical beans
while the Portuguese had always appreciated
beans, especially the white one. The Africans
loved black beans. All of this arrived and invaded our kitchens, creating many dishes that
are appreciated today. By adding rice, which arrived with the Europeans, the most famous dish
of Brazil, rice with beans, was created.
dried meat
The tropeiros always carried salted meats
and bacon to endure their travels. What many do
not know is that to remove the salt from the bacon, the cook used a very simple trick. He would
cut it in small pieces, put it into a pan and add
one more handful of salt. When the water started
to boil, he would stir well and eliminated the liquid, leaving the bacon unsalted.
78
The well known expression estou por cima

da carne seca (Im on top of the dried meat),
has its origin in the fact that the tropeiros who had
this provision were considered rich. They were
the tropeiros from farm troops. The others, who
worked on their own, were the jornadeiros and
rarely had this advantage. So in order to say that
one was well off, this expression was used.
the secular fogado

One of the most characteristic dishes of
the Paraba Valley is the afogado, also known as
fogado. Its history goes back more than a century. According to ancient cooks, farmers and
researchers, the dish originated in a very simple
manner. The farmers killed their oldest cows to
make dried meat. Its preparation helps to preserve and soften the meat hardened from the
age of the animals. The feet were rejected by the
masters, but used by the slaves and, later on, by
the employees of the farm. These parts were cut
and put into large pans, only with water and salt,
for a whole night, afogando (drowning) them in

low fire to make them tender. The origin of the
name certainly comes from this process, which
popularly became fogado. A detail is that the
dish did not have any fat in it, only cow feet and
bone marrow, which gave it a especial flavor. The
sauce was made of annatto, garlic, green spices,
alfavaca (basil) and peppermint. These last two
ingredients were helpful in the digestion, according to the Africans, responsible for adding
them to the recipe. Seu (Mr.) Sebastio Benjamim, who died when he was 103 years old, confirmed the information about the origin of the
dish: My father, Jos Antonio Cassiano, would
take the oxs legs, burn them, and would scrape
off the leather well to eliminate the fur. He took
the hoof off and cut it into pieces. He would put
it in a big iron pot with water and salt, and leave
it drowning for the whole night. The next day,
he would remove the pieces of bone and season
it with annatto, garlic, peppermint and basil, and
it was ready to eat. It was mixed on the plate with
homemade manioc flour forming a mush.
The tropeiros food

Although the tropeiro had available an
enormous variety of food, from nature or from
the shelters and farms they rested in, the daily
foods they ate, although simple and practical,
had sustenance, as they would say. The basic
nourishment on their travels were beans, rice,
dried meat and bacon. There were also accompanying foods like manioc or corn flours, salt, garlic, sugar and coffee powder. Early in the morning, the madrinheiro, a young boy, would wake up
and put the beans to cook, while the others saddled the troop and put the load on the animals.
After cooking the beans, the bacon was fried, and
Flavors from Brazil
corn flour was added in order to prepare a hearty

feijo tropeiro. This was their breakfast. The rest
of the cooked beans, not yet seasoned, was put
into a large pot and taken in the saco de trem
to be eaten at lunchtime. During their break, the
madrinheiro would fry more torresmos, removing
the excess fat. He would then add the alreadycooked beans to spices and corn flour making
feijo tropeiro again. The wealthier ones would
add dried meat and smoked sausages to the
beans. Rice could be plain or mixed with pieces
of fried torresmos, making, thus, arroz tropeiro.
To conclude, coffee was made, boiling water
and adding coffee powder and sugar. The drink
would be taken from the fire and two pieces of
coal were put into it in order to settle the powder,
so a strainer was not needed.
The tropeiro had a basic cooking equipment
called jac de caldeiro made of bamboo. In it
were placed a couple of iron pans (a large pot
and a small pan), plates, mugs, spoons and a coffee pot. There was also, in this set, the trempe
(a portable stove) which consisted of three iron
sticks: two to be stuck in the earth and the third
one to be used as a crossbar where the pans were
hung. Sometimes, this equipment was improvised with freshly cut wood and used only once.
There was also the saco de trem, which was a
white bag with several smaller bags inside, where
beans, rice, manioc flour, salt, sugar, garlic, salted bacon and coffee powder were stored. As we
can see, although there was nothing sophisticated about it, the nourishment satisfied the needs
from the hard days walk. From So Paulo to Rio
de Janeiro, for example, they took 15 days.
Joo Rural
Journalist. Author of the recipe book Sabores do tempo

dos tropeiros (Flavors from the tropeiros period)
79
Tio Rocha
80
Flavors from
Minas Gerais
Brazilian dried meat production J.B. Debret (1829). Source: Castro Maya Museums IPHAN/MinC MEA 0113
o trail the routes and paths crossed by the Mineiros, and arrive at
their current customs and habits, we must begin at the crossways and
sidetracks of Minas Gerais. This takes us, invariably, to the end of the 17th
Century and beginning of the 18th Century.
The Portuguese Crown had never lost hope in finding precious metals
in their lands in America. Such hope was motivated by seductive legends of
the city of Mana, the Emerald Mountains and Sabarabuu. The discovery
of gold in the Colonys interior, even if its small details was due to chance, in
its accomplishment it was, above all, due to historic persistency.
Flavors from Brazil
81
This discovery cannot be pinpointed to a

person in particular. It was a result of continuous
efforts and dreams of successive generations. The
effort began in 1532 with the arrival of the first
Portuguese settlers along with Martim Afonso de
Souza. One of the first measures he took was to
send an expedition, with 40 men, from So Vicente in So Paulo to the interior in search of gold
and silver mines They never came back.
The news of the discovery of gold spread
out quickly through the world. The big rush began. Adventurers of all types arrived, men and
women, young and old, whites, mulattos and
blacks, noblemen and commoners, laymen, clergymen and religious of different orders, determined by the desire of enriching rapidly, without
being careful with the roughness of the trails and
without worrying themselves with the hardship
of the work and the dangers they had to face.
They left everything in their homelands. They
sold their possessions (if they owned any), left
wife and children, broke-off engagements.
The departure to the mines was a drama,
but the journey was another one, very arduous
and maybe even a fatal one. Each adventurer,
with few provisions in their bags, took off confidently hallucinated by the visions of gold. Frequently, the worst of sufferings awaited them:
hunger. And the scarcity of food was such, that
a great famine occurred in 1698, and another
in 1700 and still a third one in 1713. Fields and
mountains had been deprived of game and wild
provisions by people who had consumed everything. Many left to hunt in the forest or returned
to their homeland. Many fell by the wayside.
With whatever they came across, any
type of game, tapirs, deer, capybaras, monkeys,
coatis, jaguars, marsh deer and birds, and many
times, snakes, lizards, ants and even a very
82
white animal that is found in bamboos and rotten wood. They also ate bee honey, pork, palm
of hearts, fern sprouts, wild yams and other
varieties which necessity invented. There was
also fish: the small ones cooked in bamboo, and
the big ones, roasted.
Once the cry of gold was out, a migratory
wave flooded the region with very few parallels
in the history of mankind. Human tides sought
the region of the mines, coming from every direction. The news of the discovery of gold echoed in all the corners and provinces of Brazil,
and everywhere the demographic system suffered profound changes due to the rush to the
mines. Thus, the rapid and gigantic settlement of
the region of Minas Gerais was carried out.
However, in a very short period, the rush
towards the mines transformed itself into a public disaster. There were so many ambitious people who ran in search of gold that the Kingdom
was threatened by depopulation. The coastal cities of Brazil also endured the same threat The
mines which had been received as a blessing from
heaven, after two centuries of anxious searches,
started to be viewed as the cause of disaster and
sources of misdeeds.
Soon the interdictions and restrictions of
settlers leaving to the mines emerged in 1709
and 1711. Besides the restrictions to enter the region, other ones were established, forbidding the
clearance of new paths and trails to Minas Gerais. Nothing, however, hindered the rapid and
disorganized growth of the population of Minas
Gerais, if we consider the distance and difficulties.
The more complicated and costly the processes to extract gold were, the more the min Anonymous letter from 1717, quoted by Afonso de E. Taunay.
ers settled themselves, establishing permanent

camps with solid constructions, made to endure
time. The camps of Minas Gerais grew so quickly
that, in a few years, many ascended to the post
of villages. The historical cities of Minas Gerais,
guardians of the colonial buildings, would become the permanent imprint of the period.
From early on, an active trade flow between the coastal cities and Minas Gerais was
established. The paths became trails that were
frequently walked on and beaten by merchants,
tropeiros, caravans and cattlemen who came and
went through these paths, differing themselves
for this reason from those who, taken by the gold
fever, thought only of going and not of returning.
Nevertheless, the coastal cities were not
prepared to supply the mining cities of Minas
Gerais. A fever of speculation took all that was to
supply their own cities into the mines. The consequence was a price hike and a general shortage
of food and provisions. The situation became so
dramatic for Vila de So Paulo that the municipal chamber, in a session which took place on
January 19, 1705, deliberated on the prohibition
of selling any article of subsistence outside their
land, including manioc flour, wheat, beans,
corn, bacon and cattle.
Life in the mines, in the first years following the discovery of gold, would have been practically impossible without the various supplies
from the cities and villages of So Paulo, Rio de
Janeiro and Bahia: cattle, bacon, cachaa, sugar,
flour, beans, corn, cloth, shoes, medication, cotton, hoes and imported goods like salt, olive oil,
vinegar, wheat, iron, gunpowder, glass, wine,
guns, fabrics and slaves, thousands and thousands of African slaves.
From the hunger crisis of the 18th Century,
the need to use well the available food emerged.
Flavors from Brazil
From the hunger crisis of

the 18th Century, the need
to use well the available
food emerged. And from the
need to make better use of
it, the plentiful, simple
and sophisticated cuisine
of Minas Gerais evolved.
And from the need to make better use of it, the
plentiful, simple and sophisticated cuisine of Minas Gerais evolved.
To face the shortage of beef, the Mineiros
accustomed themselves to raising pigs, wherever
there was any space left, even in their backyards
(a custom which still endures). The consumption
of pork meat became a habit among the residents
of the mines and, today, pork loin is maybe the
most typical dish of Minas Gerais, present in the
regions customs, the Mineiros favorite.
The miners and other residents of the Minas Gerais region never had abundance of food.
The food of explorers from So Paulo did not
have much variety. The basic food for the majority of the population was beans, corn and manioc.
The manioc plantations were insufficient and the
canjica was unsalted, for there was not enough
salt for everybody.
Manioc was the main food and daily provision for these people, followed by corn. The
anonymous chronicler of 1717, quoted by Afonso
de Taunay, listed some of the many foods made
with corn: popcorn, corn meal, pamonhas, flour,
couscous, biscuits, cakes, alcamonias and catimpuera, alu or beer from green corn, fermented
spirits and corn meal. The polenta, cooked in
83
great quantities, in large pans of hot water that

the rich eat for pleasure and the poor for necessity.
The style of cooking of Minas Gerais is
unveiled, mainly, in the corn complex. From
green corn, cooked, roasted or made into mush
or into flour (polenta, mush, cake, cobu, etc),
corn is present in all meals, overpowering the
native manioc. The Mineiro never used bread of
farinha de pau (manioc flour), the common
bread during the first centuries of colonization,
as the basic food. They always preferred polenta,
solid corn cakes and cobu rolled in a banana leaf.
To mix with beans, he always used corn meal
(corn soaked, grounded in the mortar and then
roasted), polenta and maize flour (toasted). The
poor always used canjiquinha (a sub-product
from hulling corn, much used to replace rice).
At night, a widely appreciated supper is milk
with flour (meal or finely ground), while coffee with corn flour and cheese is a strong supper. The delicious corn meal, popcorn and, as
a refreshment, alu, corn flour with water and
rapadura, which fermented obtains alcoholic
properties, was consumed by the Africans during the caxambus, in between dances. The various uses of corn demonstrate the heterogeneous
character of cuisine from Minas Gerais.
Food shortage during the mining phase
was very serious, not only for slaves (badly
dressed and fed), but also for the free men, in the
mines and, especially, for those who lived in the
cities.
There were several consequences of the
rapid and disorganized growth in the mining region. Some historians noted that it was the main
cause for the Emboabas War (1709), the conflict

for the ownership of the gold mines, in which the
Paulistas did not want to share them with outsiders. However, although the reasons for this war
were the jealousy of the Paulistas against the Portuguese and the Bahian, and the rivalries about
the ownership of the mines, another reason overpowered them in importance: the monopoly of
certain goods indispensable for the life in Minas
Gerais, like contracts for meat in butcher shops,
speculation and smuggling of primary goods,
carried out by the sons of the metropolis, allied
with the Bahians.
We can, therefore, consider that in the origin of the customs of Minas Gerais, which includes its cuisine, we have, among others, the
Emboabas War, studied in school books as the
first manifestation of nativistic spirit of the
Brazilian people.
Another historic fact that includes the
shortage of food supply in the province written
between its lines, was the uprising of 1720, in
Vila Rica, known as the Rebellion of Felipe dos
Santos, against the installation of smelteries in
the gold region. Along with this intention, also
present in the popular revolt, was the desire to
abolish contracts on fermented alcoholic beverages, tobacco and cigars.
The seriousness of the supply scarcity of
Minas Gerais forms the substratum of the main
political events of the region in the first quarter
of the 18th Century. Consequently, it reflects on
the sociocultural formation of our people, demonstrated in the knowledge and habits of our
population from whom emerged copper pans,
large melted iron pots and aged stone casseroles
Memria Histrica da Capitania das Minas Gerais(Historic

memories of the Capitania of Minas Gerais), Revista do Arquivo Pblico Mineiro, vol. II, p. 425.
Joo Camilo de Oliveira Torres, Histria de Minas Gerais

(History of Minas Gerais), vol. I, B.Hte, p. 161.
84
Frying torresmos. Joo Rural
fuming with the smells, colors and varied flavors

of our cuisine.
The answers and solutions to basic food
needs given by the Mineiros developed personal
and family uses that, slowly, in double boiler,
were transformed into local habits which, simmered, were generalized into regional customs
until they started to pop like torresmos in hot fat
forming our cultural traditions.
Thus, following these procedures, the Mineiro surpassed the hunger crisis to consolidate a
rich, varied and traditional cuisine, based on the
best use of the elementary ingredients beans,
corn, manioc, meat found or available in the
region. The lack of variety in resources during
the colonial period was the condition for the development of a creative and innovative cuisine,
marked by the search for flavors and combinaFlavors from Brazil
tions of tastes, within the few and limited products available.

John Mawe, the first foreign traveler who
was able to enter the mining territory, authorized
by the Regent Prince in 1809, stated: As long as
there are corn and water, the Mineiros will not
starve.
Saint-Hilaire observed the Mineiros taste
for sweets and marmalades, and their inclination to make them. However, he criticized the
abusive use of sugar that disguises the flavor
of the fruits. This censure is still made today by
Viagem ao interior do Brasil, particularmente aos distritos
do ouro e do diamante, em 1809/1810(Travels in the interior
of Brazil, particularly in the gold and diamond districts of that
country, in 1809/1810).

Viagem pelas Provncias do Rio de Janeiro e Minas Gerais
(Travels in the provinces of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais).
85
Cargo troop. Joo Rural
foreigners who taste our sweets. Some French

travelers were surprised to see that we ate cheese
with our sweets, a culinary heresy in the opinion
of the masters in this subject. They do not know
what they are missing: guava sweet with Minas
cheese, yummy!
Meanwhile, families who prepared sweets
would send (and still do) trays with coconut
sweets, cheese rolls, brevidades and ps-demoleque on the streets. Other families would
earn a little money with spicy bean cake, and others would prepare almonds in copper pans for
the Holy Week cornets.
Quitanda, let us not forget, is the home
pastry shop, with cookies, cornbread, twisted
bread, biscuits and cakes displayed on a tray.
Quitandeira is the woman who produces or sells
86
these products. The women of Ouro Preto were

famous for being excellent producers of sweets
and delicacies.
The African and mulatto women who
cooked could not, no matter how hard they
worked, produce enough to satisfy the gluttony
of the mine workers. True multitudes of African
and mulatto women, slave or freed, paraded
with their trays through the hills and riverbanks,
provoking the Africans to spend, on delicacies,
the gold that did not belong to them.
One of the first governors of the region was
already on top of the problem:

... It is forbidden: for women to
take trays with pastries, cakes, sweets, honey,

spirits and other beverages to the gold mines
because some people send them to the mines
and places where gold is extracted in order to

obtain gold making it possible for the gold to be
deviated from their owners and reach the hands
of those who do not pay the tax of one fifth to
His Majesty...
The richest gold pans that are found in
the mines continued to belong to the black
women of the trays, resulting in a new prohibition, this time dated September 11, 1729. And,
once again, ineffective.
The hunger of the poor is avenged by the
indigestion of the rich, goes the popular saying.
The Mineiros have always been gluttons,
friendly to sweets and pastries, as are the majority of Brazilians, known for their apicultural
sensualism.
From trays to groceries and small shops,
our sweets became famous: milk sweet (the one
rolled in corn husk is the most authentic from
Minas Gerais); citron, lime and orange sweets,
brevidade; quince, guava and banana sweets; pde-moleque; pamonha wrapped in banana leaf;
queijadinha; me-benta, quebra-quebra; cornbread or peanut bread; manioc starch biscuits;
besides others from Portuguese-Brazilian confectionery, whose names reveal the tenderness and
gentleness of the romantic century (18th): suspiro
(meringues), melindres, arrufado, esquecidos, beijode-freira; papos-de-anjo; baba-de-moa; quindim-deiai...
In the pantry, there was always a bowl
of molasses, which could be eaten with manioc
flour or pieces of cheese, and in the stores and
Luciano Figueiredo ,Mulheres nas Minas Gerais(Women of

Minas Gerais) in Histria das Mulheres no Brasil(History of
the women of Brazil), Contexto Press, So Paulo, p. 151.

Simo Mntua in Cartas de um Chins (Letters from a Chinese).
Flavors from Brazil
The hunger of the poor is

avenged by the indigestion
of the rich, goes the
popular saying.
The Mineiros have always
been gluttons, friendly
to sweets and pastries,
as are the majority of
Brazilians, known
for their apicultural
sensualism
bars, next to the jug of cachaa, po-de-queijo,
cream filled cones, popcorn and rapadura could
be found.
Little by little the hunger threat disappeared, but everything was sold for very high
prices. Many of the ambitious, who had rushed
to Minas Gerais to become wealthy with gold,
found out that it was easier to have it in their
hands if mined by others, through trade. Voil.
The path to trade for the Minas Gerais residents
was open and they became shrewd merchants,
peddlers, caravan escorts, tropeiros, practicing
to become, in the future, excellent bankers and
speculators.
With the supply of goods organized and
systematically kept by the caravans of tropeiros,
the settlers of Minas Gerais lacked nothing else.
In the mid 1800s, there was gold in abundance.
Word was out that the Mineiros paid their suppliers generously. Regular routes of tropeiros were
established. The threat of hunger or shortage dis-
87
appeared for good and there was an abundance

of food and supplies.
Vila Rica was abundant in provisions and
the land produced many vegetables like collard
greens, cabbage and onions. There were also
plenty of fruits, mainly peaches, quinces, oranges, apples and jus. Although the land was not
widely cultivated, its inhabitants had no lack of
food, due to the provisions that came daily by
troops carrying bacon, corn, beans, cheese and
oil, sold at very reasonable prices
The cuisine from Minas Gerais owes to
the tropeiros this dish feijo-tropeiro. Its name is
a homage to these courageous explorers of the
interior.
The main commercial center were the
stores. In them one could find (or, most commonly, not find) cachaa, salt, sugar, beans and
dried meat, twisted tobacco, horseshoes, garlic,
firearms and prayer books.
Gold and diamond mining were absorbing. While production was abundant, there was
no room for substantial agricultural or for raising
livestock. Agriculture, in the heat of gold extraction, could not have developed because it could
not compete with the mines for slaves. Miners
paid for a black slave prices a farmer could not.
The barns slowly invaded the province,
spreading out over the fields near the So Francisco River, as a natural extension of the Bahian
livestock raising.
In spite of all the difficulties, Minas Gerais
slowly became self-sufficient. From the Sabar
village came corn, beans, rice and sugarcane;
from Vila Risonha and Bela de Santo Antnio da
Manga de So Romo arrived cattle, fish and na-
Jos Joaquim da Rocha in Memria Histrica da Capitania

de Minas Gerais(Historic memories of the capitania of Minas
Gerais), regarding the year of 1778.
88
tive fruits; Vila Nova da Rainha produced the

delicate fruits from Portugal, apples, peaches,
grapes, plums; Serro Frio exported corn, beans
and their cheeses; and Vila de So Jos do Rio das
Mortes (current Tiradentes) was the most plentiful village of the entire province, supplying most
districts with bacon, cattle, cheese, corn, beans
and rice.
The people of Minas Gerais ate beef salted
in layers dried meat or charque, salted sun-dried
meat, wind-dried meat or jab. Like the pork
meat and bacon, they were preserved by smoking, salting, turning it into a paoca or conserving
in fat (as it is still done).
In the North of Minas Gerais, the common
peoples meal is still beans with corn flour and
jab, served with a cumari, malagueta pepper and
palm oil sauce - so hot that it can only be relieved
by a good gulp of cachaa with chufa sedge or
fig leaves.
The decline of gold and diamonds, at the
end of the 18th Century, was the main cause of the
activity change of the inhabitants of Minas Gerais, from the extractive industry to cattle breeding, to manufacturing and to cultivation. In the
mining area itself, plantations multiplied. The
agonizing mines started to rely on the expanding
crops that greedily searched for fertile land in the
nearabouts of the mines.
In the beginning of the 19th Century, the
economic scenario of Minas Gerais was very different from what was revealed in the previous
century. The development of agriculture, breeding and manufacturing, supplying the province
with elements for self-sufficiency, permitted the
province to go on without foreign supplies, and
even to become a supplier of regions which had
before supplied them, in a complete reversal of
the economic scene.
The German naturalist Hermann Burmeister left us with a curious impression about the
places, scenarios, fauna and customs of the people he met on his travels to Minas Gerais in 1851.
He traveled through several regions. In Mariana
and Ouro Preto, he made interesting notes on the
schedule of meals and what they normally ate:
At 10 oclock, lunch: beans, polenta,
dried meat, flour, bacon, collard greens, rice,
and, sometimes, chicken. They ate as much as
they wanted, mixing everything in one plate
[as is still commonly done nowadays]. Between
3 and 4 oclock in the afternoon, the same meal
was repeated with fresh provisions. Water and
a bit of cachaa were drunk with the meal and,
at the end, a cup of coffee. Certain families had
a third meal between 7 and 8 in the evening,
but this was not part of the general custom. At
this time, light dishes were served, like crushed
corn with milk and sugar, orange tea with milk,
in which a biscuit or a lighter cake like sponge
cake or cornbread was soaked. I find the orange
tea very pleasant
The basic food on the tables of Minas Gerais (of the well-off families, of course) was, and
still is in the majority of cases, traditionally the
same with few variations in the regions of the
state, that go from the South to the borders of
Bahia. Beans; polenta; corn or manioc flour; rice;
pork loin; spicy sausages; beef meat, dried or
fresh; chicken; and, as greenery, collard greens
were, and still are, the main food.
Beans were the father of them all. Beans
are the support of a house, goes the popular saying. In first place, were eaten mainly the kidney
bean variety, but other varieties too: chumbinho,
chili beans, red beans and black beans. Closely
after, comes the polenta, followed by torresmo.
Nowadays, rice competes with beans. White rice,
Flavors from Brazil
The basic food on the

tables of Minas Gerais (of
the well-off families, of
course) was, and still is
in the majority of cases,
traditionally the same
with few variations in the
regions of the state, that
go from the South to the
borders of Bahia.
cooked in our own fashion, fluffy, cannot be absent from the tables in Minas Gerais and last but
not least, collard greens.
The daily meal of a simple and common
household is beans with polenta and torresmo,
flour and collard greens shredded or finely
chopped.
The whole beans cooked, almost with no
broth, and added to fried torresmos and manioc
flour is called feijo-de-tropeiro, feijo-das-onze
or feijo-de-preguia.
Another incomparable delicacy to the palates of the Mineiros, and the most Mineiro dish,
is the tutu de feijo: made with kidney beans. After
it is cooked, it is thickened with manioc or corn
flour and it is served with torresmos, sliced spicy
sausages and sliced hard boiled eggs yummy!
Just like the simple feijoada, which is sometimes cooked with salted pork or dried meat,
the tutu de feijo is a hearty dish that requires a
starter to open your appetite: a small glass of
a good cachaa. At the end of the meal, a cup of
thick coffee is a must.
89
90
Po-de-queijo (cheese bread). Daniel Augusto Jr./Pulsar Imagens
Flavors from Brazil
91
The flavor of polenta can

be enriched if tropico
(torresmos) or spicy
sausages are added. If you
add the finely chopped
herb, sauted, yummy!
you have the traditional
tripod: feijo (beans),

angu (polenta) and couve
(collard greens).
Small cakes made of beans are appreciated
as appetizers before lunch or dinner, to accompany an excellent cachaa made of Cayenne sugarcane.
The daily food in the rural area consists
of beans, polenta, cooked rice, some greenery
and, in the best case scenarios, eggs and chicken.
Manioc flour is always part of the meal
Polenta, a hearty dish, indispensable to the
nourishment of the peasants, was equally found
on the table of the city dwellers. The Mineiro prepares it normally unsalted, a tradition inherited
from the 18th Century, when salt was a rare and
expensive product.
The flavor of polenta can be enriched if
tropico (torresmos) or spicy sausages are added.
If you add the finely chopped herb, sauted,
yummy! you have the traditional tripod: feijo (beans), angu (polenta) and couve (collard
greens).
If there is no farofa, it is a custom to add
manioc flour itself, toasted or not, to the beans in
broth to thicken it. Maize flour is also called far92
inha de munho, farinha de cachorro or toasted corn

meal.
With the corn meal one can make the very
popular mush, serving it simple, with sugar, or
sprinkled with cinnamon. It can also be eaten
with slices of cheese or by adding milk or honey,
in the morning for breakfast or at night as supper or the fresh corn mush and the angu with
milk.
At the end of the 19th Century, in the farms
of Minas Gerais, the following daily meal was
served: beans with polenta and torresmos, roasted pork loin, spicy sausages, collard greens and
the typical corn flour. On Sundays, invariably
chicken. As dessert, boxed sweets and compotes with cheese, or molasses with manioc or
manioc flour. After dinner, on the veranda of the
farm, congonha (fake mat) tea or coffee sugared
with rapadura.
Agriculture slowly expands. The same happens with livestock. The south of Minas Gerais
offers the best conditions for this. Thus, begins
the dairy industry. The Mineiro breeder emerges,
not a big consumer of milk, but creator of one of
our trademarks: the cheese industry, the Minas
cheese, round, savory, white cheese which is indispensable in our breakfast, with our sweets
The western districts produce pork. Pork
meat, mainly bacon, is consumed all over the
region, being an indispensable seasoning in the
cooking of the whole country.
At the end of the 19th Century, the basic
food on more humble tables was still beans, flour
and polenta, accompanied by some greenery or
garden produces: collard greens, okra, chayote,
sow-thistle, yam, pumpkin and taioba. On other
Translators note: Sweets made with fruits that, instead of being served in paste, are hardened, packed in boxes and served
in slices, like guava sweet, banana sweet, among others.
occasions, the basic food was beans with torresmos and rice. There was almost never any meat!
It was not necessary! However, beans were! Instead of bread, many ate beiju, biscuits made
from manioc flour, corn flour or manioc starch.
Bread is almost a stranger to the traditional cooking of Minas Gerais.
Nevertheless, the wealthier classes could
appreciate a larger variety of food, quitandas and
delicacies:
Breakfast: a plate of simple corn meal mush
sprinkled with cinnamon or with molasses
and cheese; or coffee with milk and quitandas; or coffee with milk and bread and butter (foreign);
Lunch: Beans, either tutu de feijo with
torresmo, and spicy sausages or pork loin;
or simple beans and, sometimes, collard
greens; or virado; or polenta, simple or
with torresmos and okra; fluffy white rice,
dried meat or pork meat, fresh or salted,
and, more rarely, fresh beef. Fresh or dried
meat, roasted, stewed or diced, with rice or
manioc or collard greens or yam or string
beans; fried with beaten eggs or shredded
(roupa velha); or cooked with vegetables;
chicken preferably stewed with polenta
and okra; greenery, not a large portion,
could be collard greens, lettuce, cabbage,
sow-thistle or taioba. For dessert: quince or
guava sweet; molasses or any other boxed
sweets with cheese or fresh requeijo. Bananas, oranges and papayas.
Snack: plain coffee or with quitandas.
Dinner: soup, made with vegetables, or
meat and corn flour, or yam or water yams,
manioc, white beans, fub with greenery;
plain beans or virado with flour; meat and
okra stew or with scarlet eggplant, manioc
or sweet potato; or rice with fried eggs.
Flavors from Brazil
Dessert: sweets with cheese or fresh requeijo.

Supper: plain corn meal, or with peanuts,
or cheese; or fub mush.
Beverage: a small cup of cachaa, as a
starter, only for men.
Spices: onions, chives, garlic, laurel, annatto, malagueta pepper, black pepper, coriander. Oil: pork fat.
This daily menu that composed the table of
the wealthier families in the 19th Century abundant and inexpensive, varied and healthy, of food
that was easily digested and, most importantly,
tasty - was the menu of the cuisine from Minas
Gerais, maintained by tradition until today with
very few variations.
Cooking secrets were passed from mother
to daughter, as a gold nugget or a family diamond: the Mineiro way of dicing and sauting, as our old cooks say, the available ingredients. The housewives of Minas Gerais may
have not been versed in food science, but they
were excellent in the art of cooking, which was
(and is) more valuable.
Minas Gerais... is a small synthesis; a
crossroad. There are several Minas Gerais, so
many, and yet just one. As Guimares Rosa
would say: There is the forest, on the other side
of the mountain, still humid from the marine
winds, with agriculture and forestry, a densely fertile area; there you find the pacifists and
the quarrelsome. In the South, with its coffee
plantations, planted on the slopes of red soil
or on hills where Europeans organized themselves, maybe one of the most peaceful places
of happiness in the world; there you will find
the shy and the audacious, to the point of incautiousness. In the Triangle region, advanced,
strong, and honest; there you will find those
93
94
Chicken with okra. Peixes Press (Embratur)
who have regular routines and the explorers.

In the West, quiet and coarse mannered, farmers and politicians, rich in abilities; there you
will find the legalists and the revolutionary. In
the North, country people, hot, rustic, Bahian
in some stretches, sometimes Northeastern in
the unmanageability of the bush lands, and in
the incorporation of the polygon of the drought;
there you will find the nave and the extremely
shrewd. The central core of the Rio das Velhas
valley, calcareous, mild, clear and open to the
joy of new voices; there you will find the stingy
and also the prodigal. The Northwest, of the
plateaus, of the wide fields that are joined with
Gois and Bahia, and that go forward to the Piau and undulating Maranho.
But I believe that the true customs of Minas
Gerais are established through the mixture and
co-existence of some of these faults and qualities,
with the endurance of essential characteristics of
our way of life.
Is there, after all, a cuisine from Minas Gerais?
A very Mineiro way of answering yes
and no!
Yes, because one can recognize a constancy
in the eating preferences of the people who live
in Minas Gerais. No, because these preferences
are not exclusive of our people.
The constancy is defined, of course, by
the daily menu, based, primarily, on the tripod
beans, polenta and collard greens, then on rice,
afterwards on meat (preferably pork) and, finally, and moderately, on vegetables and greenery.
The dishes considered typical of Minas
Gerais are: tutu de feijo with torresmos or spicy
sausages; roasted pork loin and finely chopped
collard greens. We can still add chicken cooked
Flavors from Brazil
in its blood with polenta and okra. Dishes considered genuinely from Minas Gerais, but not being, however, exclusive.
But why did these dishes gain the status of
dishes from Minas Gerais?
The Mineiro way of making them, as a ritual; the Mineiro way of serving them, as a liturgy;
the way of savoring them, as a communion!
There is nothing better in the universal cuisine, Guimares Rosa stated conceitedly.
And why not?, he himself answered,
adding: the true patriotism is in the gustative
sensualism, of the table and desserts. The petroleum will not be so much ours; ours, well ours,
will be the milk sweets and the shredded dried
meat. Mine please forgive me is that dish from
Minas Gerais which is really the most important;
stewed chicken with okra and pumpkin (ad libitum the scarlet eggplant) and polenta, a delicate
dish, sliding thickly as life itself, but dripped
with pepper.
Basic reference
ZEMELLA, MAFALDA P. O Abastecimento da Capitania
das Minas Gerais no Sculo XVIII, Report 118, Histria da
Civilizao Brasileira n. 12, University of So Paulo, So
Paulo, 1951.
FRIEIRO, EDUARDO. Feijo, Angu e Couve - Ensaio sobre a comida dos mineiros, Center for the Study on Minas
Gerais, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, 1966.
ANDRADE, CARLOS DRUMMOND DE. Brasil, Terra &
Alma - Minas Gerais, Autor Press, Rio de Janeiro, 1967.
ROCHA, TIO. (org.) Afinal, o que ser mineiro? Social
Service of the Minas Gerais Trade, Belo Horizonte,
1995.
Tio Rocha
Anthropologist and folklorist
95
Alice Mesquita de Castro
Flavors from
the Cerrado
Smell, taste, absorb, love them.
Flavors from Brazil
97
he unknown cuisine of the Cerrado requires disposition and an absence of prejudice. Those who dare do not regret it.
The twisted trees, which seem to have
grown without water in one of the semi-arid regions of the Northeast, can give the impression
that we are in a dry land, orphan of life, colors
and flavors. It is a mistake made by the ill advised. The flora of the Cerrado, that occupies
25% of the national territory, is one of the richest
of Brazil. Due to its central location, the Cerrado
has species found in the majority of the Brazilian
biomes (Amazon forest, Caatinga and Atlantic
forest). It has such a varied and specific biodiversity that we have the desire to unveil its secrets.
In cooking, they are many.
In the Northeast, there are exotic fruits
like soursop and umbu. In the South, the diversity of grapes and the quinces, for example, are
outstanding. In the North of the country, assai
became a successful export product, due to the
unique character of its flavor, its texture and its
beautiful color. In the area that occupies Central
Brazil (Gois, Tocantins, Mato Grosso do Sul,
the south of Mato Grosso, the west and north of
Minas Gerais, the west of Bahia and the Federal
District), it seems that the surprise of the layman
about our local fruits is even greater. Whoever
heard of pequi, and does he know any more than
if bitten in the wrong manner it is capable of
covering your tongue and throat with thorns?
Its true. The pequi liquor is already exported to
Japan. The baru nut (Baru? Does anybody know
what this is?) is a desired item in Germany.
The Caryocar brasiliense Camb, or pequizeiro,
can reach up to ten meters of height. Its fruit
has a greenish peel and yellow pulp. The pulp,
which is the most used part in cooking, is the
base of the most popular dishes from the cuisine
98
of Gois: rice with pequi, chicken with pequi and

guariroba.
The pequi has unique characteristics. The
insides are filled with tiny thorns and one must
be careful when eating it. One needs to scrap
off the pulp with their teeth. If bitten, the thorns
stick, unpleasantly, to the entire mouth.
I know what I am talking about. In the
1980s, during a lunch party at a friends house, I
was one of the victims of the power of pequi. Yes,
they had already told me I had to scrape off the
pulp with my teeth, that I shouldnt bite it, but,
easier said than done. I thought I was doing everything right, when, suddenly, I felt my tongue
burn as if I had drunk acid. From my friends
house I went directly to the dentists chair who
spent an hour and a half plucking out the thorns
one-by-one with the help of a magnifying glass.
I felt the results of my stupidity for two more
months, and every now and then I would wake
up with a strange feeling in my mouth. It was the
pequi.
There is a myth that the Goiano takes advantage of the foreigners lack of knowledge to
have some fun with the accidents caused by the
fruit. Goianos love to see the reaction to the first
bites. That is where it is decided who is knowledgeable.
Those who are experts suggest the ingestion of a spoon of olive oil in these cases. The olive oil seems to have the property of softening
the thorns that can, therefore, be removed with
less suffering for the careless biter.
The pequi can be used in several preparations. One of the most interesting is the liquor
made with sugar syrup and the infusion of the
fruit in alcohol from cereals.

Translators note: Goiano - a person from Gois.
Pequi. Nivaldo Ferreira da Silva
Flavors from Brazil
99
Buriti (moriche). Nivaldo Ferreira da Silva
100
But not only on pequi does the Cerrado live.

Araticum (marolo), buriti (moriche palm), murici,
caj (hog plum), mangaba and cagaita also have a
high vitamins B complex content, like vitamins
B1, B2 and PP, equivalent or higher than those
found in fruits like avocado, banana and guava,
traditionally considered a good source for these
vitamins. The Ministry of Health has been trying to implement a food education program to
stimulate the consumption of products rich in
vitamin A and other nutrients. And for this you
have the fruits from the Cerrado which are ready
to be widely used.
One of the typical fruits of the Cerrado
which is starting to be known is the cagaita (Eugenia dysenterica DC), a distant relative of the
Surinam cherry. It is rounded and has a light yellow color. With a thin peel, it has an acid flavor
and is very juicy around 90% of its insides consists of juice. In spite of so many virtues, the cagaita should be appreciated with moderation. In
excess, it produces an ill feeling similar to drunkenness, but without the hangover the following
day. Isnt it incredible?
What about the buriti?
In Braslia, the headquarters of the government of the Federal District is named Buriti Palace as homage to this typical plant of the region.
Its leaves, in the shape of a fan, are enormous
and shiny. The fruits are eaten by the population, mainly in the form of juices and homemade
sweets.
The fresh or frozen pulp is used to make
sweets, ice cream, creams and compotes. The oil
of the pulp is used for seasoning and is also the
base for making soap.
The dried leaves can be used to make roofs
of simple, rural houses and the young leaves can
be used to make hammocks, hats and baskets.
Flavors from Brazil
In the Brazilian Cerrado, the current star is

the baru nut, also known by several other names,
such as cumbaru (cumaru), barujo, coco-feijo (tonka bean) and cumarurana.
The baru tree produces 500 to 3,000 fruits
per plant, with size varying from 5 to 7 cm long
and 3 to 5 cm in diameter. The color of the peel,
when ripe, is brownish, just like the pulp. Each
fruit has a brown nut, rich in calories and protein.
I like to use the baru in recipes like milk sweet
with baru and baru pesto. Its flavor is similar to
the peanut, but milder to the palate.
The fruits of the Cerrado are always surprising! Some time ago I brought jatob flour in a
farm in the interior of Gois. I took it home and
stored it to soon make bread and biscuits. After
a few days, a strong smell took over the kitchen, keeping everyone away. I learned that jatob
flour needs to be kept in the refrigerator and for a
very short period. The characteristic smell tends
to increase with the natural fermentation of the
flour. The inhabitants of the region appreciate
both the mush and the bread made from jatob
very much.
From the family of the sugar apple, sweetsop, and custard apple, the araticum has a harder
peel and its flavor is stronger.
Those who have not yet tasted it, do not
know what they are missing Guariroba, not
gororoba!
The guariroba is a type of palm tree that
can reach 20 meters of height. Its leaves can
reach up to three meters long. The fruit grows
in bunches, it has a yellowish-green color with a
white oily edible nut. It is the main ingredient of
the tasty Goiano pies (empado goiano).
Translators note: Brazilian popular term for food that is poorly prepared and/or of poor quality.
101
Araticum (marolo). Nivaldo Ferreira da Silva
102
Baru. Nivaldo Ferreira da Silva
Until the end of the 19th century, the wheat

flour found in Brazil was imported. Still, the empado was already considered a Brazilian deli-
the bandeirantes the strength to explore Gois. It

is credited to one of them the idea of including
the guariroba to the filling of the empado. By the
cacy. The original dough was made with wheat

flour, pork fat, salt and eggs. The filling was made
way, guariroba is also known as bitter heart of

palm, to sophisticate it.
with cheese, boiled eggs, olives, pepper, pieces of

pork meat, a whole chicken drumstick, pieces of
After 12 years of working, tasting, eating,

appreciating, and advertising the fruits of the
sausage and guariroba. All the ingredients were

cooked until brown, obtaining the consistency of
Cerrado, I can say with authority: throw yourselves into the cuisine of the Midwest! It is still
a sauce. They were baked in clay dishes with 38

centimeters of diameter.
At that time, nobody dared to thicken the
mixture with potatoes something that was only
introduced to the way of preparing the empado
in the 1930s. The tomato was also added. According to the historical notes, the guariroba gave
unknown, unexplored, but like a far away country, it is full of secrets and surprises. I always take
the risk. And, in fact, I never regret it.
Flavors from Brazil
Alice Mesquita de Castro
Owner of the Restaurant Alice, in Brasilia.
103
Robrio Braga
Flavors from
the Amazon
Tacac. Luiz Braga (Embratur)
104
Flavors from Brazil
105
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 preparation and simple in their presentation.
The seduction of the pachic, a type of
sarapatel made with turtle meat, has the flavor of
nostalgia, for it is not served at everyones table.
Minced, seasoned with chicory, orange habanero
pepper, salt and lime, it is served in the turtles
own shell. As a side dish, the suru flour, also
known by the city people as farinha dgua.
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 sarapatel 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 piracu,
fish flour, considered a complete food. Almost always 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 banana 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 vinegar. This paste is then strained in a straw sieve
made of arum. From there it goes to the smokehouse. The fire should be made of wood, preferably hard wood, with no acid, in order to be well
106
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 seasonings. The tambaqui fish, for example, served in
fried or cooked slices, with its juice seasoned with
parsley, chives, onions, garlic, tomatoes and annatto. Another is tambaqui broiled on a charcoal
fire, called moqum by the native Indians, which is
equally appreciated.
Ah, the appetizing dishes with pirarucu, a
fish that can be bad for your health thus forbidden 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 season! 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 region. It is an art to get rid of them! The ability
is only required if the gourmet is before a jaraqui (Flagtail prochilodus), matrinx, 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. Blas, after all
Pirarucu fished from the Juru River, November, 1912. Source: A cincia a caminho da
raa: imagens das expedies cientficas do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz ao interior do Brasil
entre 1911 e 1913. Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Oswaldo Cruz House, Rio de Janeiro, 1991.
Flavors from Brazil
107
And the flavor of the

fruits? When they are
natural, freshly picked
and served, they exhale
the aromas of the forest.
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 bananas to ease your discomfort.
If you want to try a very tasty dish, you
can choose from one of hundreds of other delicacies like shredded pirarucu with heart of peach
palm rice, mojica of tambaqui, the special piro,
stuffed silver croaker and manioc farofa, which
for some doesnt even come close to fried Flagtail
prochilodus, stuffed sardines in banana leaf and
oven-baked pacu. All these dishes can go with assai bread. To finish it all up: cream of cupuau, of
ara-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 almost the cabocos bread, he eats it for breakfast,
as an afternoon snack and, not rarely, on the riverbanks scattered throughout the four corners
of the region. It varies in size and shape, about
2 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 tucum? Delicious. Its
tree is used for war, hunting, and as food. It is
even used for childrens 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 pierc108
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 greenishyellow and orange colors, has a thick and oily
pulp. It has almost one hundred times more vitamin 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.
Cupuau can be used for ice cream, refreshments, compote, salami, wine, liquor and chocolate. 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.
Guaran of the Amazon is a real potion for
longevity. Among the Maw Indians it is served
in gourds that go from mouth to mouth, as a religious 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 alu 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 cachaa.
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
Nuts. Ver-o-Peso Market. Belm/PA. Mnica Tambelli
Flavors from Brazil
109
Regional fruits. Luiz Braga (Embratur)
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 beautiful table filled with sweets, start imagining the
several varieties you can gather: cupuau 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 turtles 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
110
are also food for poets and singers. They become

legends, passions, anecdotes and ballroom and
country-dances. Here the flavor is more amusing.
Flavors from the Amazon a very Brazilian
flavor can become a rhyme, a music; it can cause
an electrical shock if it is a poraqu (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 arub, atura, beiju, curimata,
tipi, and several others that form the typical language 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 gathered nuts or of the jaguar hunter; the legend of
the timb tree.
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 peppercorn), chumbinho, camapu, cajurana, acari, muruci, olho de pombo, comari, each one beautiful in
color and shape. The strong flavors can be softened with the wild fruits, some already known
in the city and some natural to the riverbanks:
amendoim (peanuts), anans (pineapples), ara,
bacuri (bakuri), birib (sweetsop), cacau azul, ing
Sarapatel A type of soup made with the intestines of turtle cooked in its own blood.
Pimenta-Murupi One of the many types of chili
peppers from the Amazon region, like pimenta-decheiro, olho de peixe, mata frade and malagueta.
Pix Awful smell.
Arub Type of mustard made with manioc
paste, salt and pepper.
Atur Basket to transport the produce from the
crops, especially manioc.
Beiju Amazon biscuit. A flat cake made with
(ice cream beans), pajur, piqui (pekea), purunga

(bottle gourd), taperab (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 childrens games;
on the shelves of the refined shops; on the countertop 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 fisherman on the Amazon rivers, to feel the pleasure of
a victory, dont forget to take an alligators tooth
in your pocket in order to avoid the attack of the
giant snake.
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 farinhadgua (humid flour).
Alu Beverage made from an infusion of coffee,
ginger and cachaa.
Glossary
Caboco A person from the Amazon region,
originally from the forest. It is a regional way of
saying and writing the term Caboclo.
Flavors from Brazil
References
ARAJO. Andr Vidal de. Sociologia de Manaus. FCA.
Manaus, 1973.
BRAGA, Robrio. Manaus 1870. Loureno Braga Foundation/Grafima, Manaus, 1997.
MORAES, Raimundo. O Meu Dicionrio de Cousas da
Amaznia. 2 v. Alba. Rio de Janeiro, 1931.
PERET. Jos Amrico. Amazonas: Histria Gente e Costumes.
Federal Senate. Braslia, 1985.
PEREIRA, Nunes. Alimentao Indgena. Livraria So Jos;
Rio de Janeiro, 1974.
Robrio Braga
Lawyer and historian, currently the Secretary of

Culture for the State of Amazonas
111
Carlos Roberto Antunes dos Santos
Flavors from
Paran
Let the party begin: Barreado,
a skilled art of the cuisine from Paran
uisines are constantly changing. Whatever the time or the geographical space,
food cultures are exposed to conflicting factors related to the implementation of new
techniques and forms of consumption, to the introduction of products, or the encounter and fusion of these, driven by innovation and creativity.
These changes in cooking habits can be absorbed
or digested by tradition, which in turn create
new models and adapt them to the previous conventional models. In this sense, while causing a
certain culinary revolution, disruption brings at
its core transitional traits, albeit marked by tradition.
Flavors from Brazil
113
Barreado. Priscila Forone Tourism Secretariat of the State of Paran
Local, regional, national and international
nomic sensibility is explained and explains social
cuisines are byproducts of cultural miscegenation

and reveal traces of cultural exchanges. Today,
and cultural manifestations as a reflection of an

era. So, what you eat is as important as when you
eat, how you eat and whom you eat with. This is
food and nutrition studies have been incorporated into the human sciences, given that food preferences are not solely explained on the grounds
of their nutritional and biological contents. Food
is historic category; the patterns of permanence
and change of food habits and practices refer to
the very dynamics of a society. Food is not just
food. To nourish is a nutritional act, to eat is a social act, because it consists of attitudes, connected
to usage, customs, protocols, behaviors and situations. Whatever food that goes into our mouths
is not neutral. The historic dimension of gastro-
114
where food stands in history.

In Brazil, food diversity has been historically cultivated as a synthesis between primitive cultures and the superposition of different
ethnicities which symbiotically formed our eating habits and rich cuisine. Hence, gustative
memory blended with food lore and tastes, culinary techniques and practices have originated
into regional cultures. As a means of resistance
to fragmented and cosmopolitan cuisines, in the
name of quality, society increasingly seeks to re-
The cuisine of Paran

offers delicacies from
typical local cooking
and dishes that use food
incorporated to local
nutritional history and
culture
vive and value local and regional cuisines that
carry cultural significance. Consequently, the local and the regional precede the national and the
international, and thus gastronomy reveals the
identity of a group of Brazils. In some cases, so
much importance is attributed to this given valuation that it becomes permanent, a tradition that
effectively involves not only the reproduction of
a certain dish, but the re-creation of its cooking
procedures at the time. Thus, the act of preparing
a regional dish as in the old days gains national status, propelled by tourism. On the coastal
area of the state of Paran, barreado, a memoryinvoking food, is an example of that process.
Themes of regional cooking and eating in
Paran reveal the old times of gustative memory
when the preparation of barreado as well as the sequence and ways of serving it were ritualized. In
this context, table manners refer to the symbolic
regional representation and its cuisine expresses
the language that translates its social relations.
The gastronomy of Paran has a place for
everyone. It is diversified and established on an
ethnic and cultural richness that invented a large
table laid with dishes prepared by the local people, or introduced by several migrants and im-
Flavors from Brazil
migrants, in a constant process of adaptation and

re-adaptation.
In true fact, there is no typical cuisine of
Paran, its framework blends a range of flavors
from local cuisine (Portuguese-Brazilian) to the
culinary traditions of peasants and immigrants.
Despite the incorporation of foreign cuisine elements into local and regional gastronomy, some
dishes maintained their basic characteristics
while others were adapted to the new palate and
food practices. Such process relates to the very
historical dynamics in several regions of the state
of Paran.
The cuisine of Paran offers delicacies
from typical local cooking and dishes that use
food incorporated to local nutritional history
and culture, such as pinho; corn; beans of several colors; manioc; rice; beef, pork and chicken;
torresmo; manioc starch; and banana, which are
used in dishes like: barreado; paoca with pinho;
quirera lapiana, pork with cornmeal; carreteiro
rice; feijo tropeiro, polenta with farm chicken;
pork loin with pinho; pork ribs in the campeira
style; mutton with farofa; barbecue Paran style;
including the dessert from the Palcio Bar in Curitiba, known as mineiro de botas.
The act of preparing a regional dish embedded in local tradition and history acquires a
national status when it is integrated in a touristic context. This is the case with barreado, a traditional food, considered the only typical dish of
the state of Paran. Its recipe dates back to the
second half of the XVIII Century, originally on
the coast of Paran. Barreado is a beef delicacy
cooked with spices, for about twelve hours, in a
clay pot, hermetically sealed with a starch-paste
of manioc. The name of the dish comes from the
expression barrear a panela, which refers to the
act of sealing the pot with manioc starch. When
115
Since barreado is a dish

directly linked to the
coast of Paran, its
consumption is connected
to religious feasts and
public festivities,
celebrations, holidays and
popular parties.
cooked, the meat gets shredded and is served
with manioc flour, banana, and cachaa made
from bananas. Passed on by oral tradition, the
recipe has some variations, mostly when seasoning the meat (with bacon only; or by adding
parsley and chives tied in a bunch, which should
be removed before serving; or even by mixing
in tomatoes to enhance the color of the dish;
others say that the meat should be cooked on its
own, without the addition of water). There are
also variations in its preparation. Many say that
when cooking the original barreado, the pot is
sealed and buried in an open hole covered with
green leaves, and over it the fire is lit. This technique is called biaribi or biaribu and had been
used by the native Indians and the Africans since
the end of the 18th Century.
The origin of barreado is still unknown. The
municipalities of Antonina, Morretes and Paranagu claim the paternity of the dish, each one
promoting its own version. The people from Antonina, who have the strongest carnival tradition
in Paran, tend to associate barreado with the entrudo, a profane, pagan feast that preceded Carnival. The entrudo has its most genuine sense in
116
the old Roman rituals, which were later reenacted in Portugal, always characterized by a certain
permissiveness and a critical stance toward contemporary authorities, order and morals. Those
from Morretes tend to identify the origin of barreado with their city, saying that the tropeiros men
that were part of a type of private transporting
system of goods in the South of Brazil brought
from the plateau, when they descended the trail
of the Graciosa, a well-seasoned stew that would
last several days without going bad.
Since barreado is a dish directly linked to
the coast of Paran, its consumption is connected
to religious feasts and public festivities, celebrations, holidays and popular parties. It is worth
mentioning that on every weekend the coastal
cities of Paran are decorated to welcome tourists to savor barreado. In Curitiba, some of the restaurants that serve typical food offer barreado on
their menus on certain days of the week.
Propelled by the barreado repute, many
coastal cities became gastronomic capitals. Therefore, the term capital does not necessarily imply a political and administrative space, but is
characterized as a net, a symbolically established
territory of the Sacred Alliance of food, history,
tradition and tourism. Thus, the barreado net is
a historical place, it offers a place for consumption that boosts the regional development and
grants and strengthens regional identity.
Therefore, the regional cuisine of the coast
of Paran is an instrument for promoting culture
and bringing in revenue. The constancy of some
eating habits from the coast is directly linked to
a gastronomic territoriality marked by barreado,
which constitutes a space for leisure, sociability
and, above all, for eating.
In the logic of the territory created, defined

and occupied by barreado, identity is constructed
and scattered as a form of differentiating a specificity. The more typical the territory or net, the
more benefits it will bring to the cities.
In this sense, the barreado feast and the territory where this dish is prepared are part of a
vast tourist net that, fed by history and by tradition, transforms the cities of Morretes, Antonina
and Paranagu into true gastronomic capitals.
Since cooking is a microcosm of society and
an inexhaustible source of history, it is important
to note that many of its dishes are considered a
gustative heritage of society. For all it represents
from the point-of-view of originality and creativity, barreado has become a typical crafted dish full
of symbolism and local and regional identity. It
stands as a monument, a cultural asset, an intangible heritage.
References
ARMESTO, F.F. Comida: uma histria. Rio Janeiro: Record,
2004.
BONIN, A. M. & ROLIM, M.C. Hbitos alimentares: tradio
e inovao. Curitiba: Boletim de Antropologia, SCHLA,
UFPR, 1991.
BOUDAN, C. Gopolitique du got. La guerre culinaire,
Paris, PUF, 2004.
CASCUDO, L. C. Histria da Alimentao no Brasil, So
Paulo, USP 1983.
FLANDRIN, J. L. & MONTANARI, M. Histria da Alimentao, So Paulo, Liberdade, 1998.
GIMENES, MARIA Henriqueta S.G. Cozinhando a tradio:
a degustao do barreado no litoral paranaense. Curitiba:
Doctorate project in Food History and Culture, SCHLA,
UFPR, 2006.
HOBSBAWN, E. RANGER, T. A inveno das tradies, Rio
de Janeiro, 1997.
NOVAIS, F.A. Histria da vida privada no Brasil, So Paulo,
Cia. das Letras, 1998.
Flavors from Brazil
Barreado. Priscila Forone Tourism Secretariat

of the State of Paran
SANTOS, C.R.A. Histria da alimentao no Paran. Curitiba, Fundao Cultural, 1995.

_______________. Por uma histria da alimentao. In
Histria: Questes & Debates. Curitiba, Ed. UFPR, n
26/27, Jan/Dez, 1997.
_______________. A alimentao e seu lugar na Histria: os
tempos da memria gustativa. In Histria: Questes & Debates. Curitiba, Ed. UFPR, n 42, Jan/Jun, 2005.
Carlos Roberto Antunes dos Santos
Professor at the Federal University of Paran (UFPR)
117
Carolina Cantarino
Baianas of the
acaraj: a story
of resistance
T
he craft of the Baianas of the acaraj is a

cultural heritage of Brazil. Soon after its
announcement, equivocations about declaring
the acaraj a cultural heritage and other misunderstandings hid the true value of a womans
profession historically present in the country:
the Baianas with their trays. The pride in such acknowledgement could be seen on the faces of the
young and old black women who were present at
the ceremony of certification of the craft, held on
August 15, 2005, at the headquarters of the National Institute of Artistic and Historic Heritage
(Iphan), in Salvador.
Flavors from Brazil
119
Baiana. Source: O Rio antigo do fotgrafo Marc

Ferrez, 3 edition, 1989, Ex Libris Press Limited.
120
On the occasion, the Baianas of the acaraj

used their traditional attire. Its main characteristic is the round skirt, complemented by other ornaments like the shawl on their backs, the turban
on their heads, the smock and the necklaces with
the colors of their personal orixs. In the streets
of Salvador and other cities in the state of Bahia
(less often in other regions of the country), the
traditional Baianas are always accompanied by
their trays that carry not only the acaraj and likely complements such as vatap and dried shrimp,
but also other saintly food: abar, lel, queijada, passarinha, bolo de estudante, white and
brown cocada. The trays of many Baianas from
Salvador have gained sophistication: made with
glass panes, several contain expensive aluminum
pans and wooden spoons.
The acaraj, the main attraction on the tray,
is a small cake characteristic of the Candombl
religion. The acaraj is a compound word which
derives from the Yoruba language: acar (ball of
fire) and j (to eat), that is to eat a ball of fire.
Its origin is explained by a myth about the relationship between Xang and his wives, Oxum and
Ians. The cake became an offering to these orixs.
Despite being sold in a profane context,
the acaraj is considered a sacred food by the
Baianas. For them, the small cake made of blackeyed beans and fried in palm oil cannot be dissociated from the Candombl. So, even though it
is not a secret, its recipe cannot be modified and
must be prepared only by the daughters-/sonsof-saints.
It may seem we give greater importance to
acaraj than to the craft of the Baianas of the acaraj,
but this has a reason: in this cultural scenario, the
acaraj is the central element. The craft would not
have such importance if the acaraj were only a
Editors note: Orixs are Yoruba deities (see also orishas).
Flavors from Brazil
Despite being sold in a

profane context, the
acaraj is considered a
sacred food by the Baianas.
For them, the small cake
made of black-eyed beans
and fried in palm oil
cannot be dissociated from
the Candombl.
traditional food, says Roque Laraia, an anthropologist at the University of Brasilia and member of the Consultative Council of Iphan in his
report on the proposal for registering the craft of
the Baianas of acaraj as a cultural heritage. The
inventory that informed the registration process
was carried out by the National Folklore and
Popular Culture Center.
Raul Lody and Elizabeth de Castro Mendona were the anthropologists that carried out
the research which includes interviews, bibliographical research, registers on tape and, among
other things, visits to places in the city of Salvador, such as Bonfim, Pelourinho, Barra, Ondina,
Rio Vermelho and Piat, where the Baianas of the
acaraj are to be found. The visit to the neighborhood of Brotas was attributed to the presence of
an evangelical Baiano (male) with his tray.
The Baianas increasingly suffer the competition from bars, supermarkets and restaurants
that sell the acaraj as fast food. This appropriation of the acaraj goes against its original cultural context. Their selling as Jesuss cakes by followers of evangelical religions who lay Bibles
on their trays has stirred up many discussions.
121
Baianas of acaraj. Carolina Cantarino
If you have a religion that goes against

the Candombl, why do you sell acaraj and not
any other tidbits? questions Dona Dica sitting
next to her tray at Quincas Berro Dgua Plaza,
in Pelourinho. She notes that to most Baianas
with their trays, daughters-of-saints, the acaraj
is indissociable from the Candombl. This indissolubility is also a strategy to differentiate their
products, in the increasingly competitive market
of Salvador, a city that attracts many tourists for
being considered the locus of the Africanism in
Brazil, from which an undeniable commerce of
black culture has developed.
122
Despite resisting appropriations of the

religious significance of the acaraj, the Baianas
have welcomed other changes. In the past it was
very difficult because we would have to peel and
crush the beans on the rock. Today there is no
more suffering, the girls use the electric grinder
or even the blender, comments Arlinda Pinto
Nery. She has worked with her tray for more than
50 years and learned the craft from her mother.
Dona Arlinda is a member of the Association of the Baianas of the Acaraj and Mush, which
has been active for 14 years in the state of Bahia and claims two thousand associates, among
Baianas and Baianos of the acaraj as well as vendors of such foods as mush, pamonha and couscous. The association works to promote the professionalization of the activity and has succeeded
in obtaining its seal of approval: through partnerships with Sebrae (Brazilian Micro and Small
Business Support Service) and Senac (National
Commercial Training Service), the associates
have access to courses on food manipulation,
hygiene norms and finances, so they can better
administrate their earnings.
The women with their trays yesterday

and today
The trade of acaraj had its beginning back
in the years of slavery when the so-called earning slave women (escravas de ganho) who worked
on the streets for their mistresses (usually small
impoverished owners), carried out several activities, among them, selling delicacies on their
trays. Back on the East Coast of Africa, the women already carried out the itinerant trade of edible products, which gave them some autonomy
in relation to men and many times the role of
family provider.
The street trade in Brazilian cities enabled
slave women to raise their condition above that of
merely servicing their masters: they guaranteed,
on several occasions, the subsistence of their own
families, they were important for the establishment of community bonds among urban slaves
and also for the creation of the religious sisterhoods and the Candombl. Many daughters-ofsaints started to sell the acaraj in order to fulfill
their religious obligations, which had to be renewed periodically.
Nevertheless, suspicions that such freedom of movement enjoyed by to those slave
Flavors from Brazil
women with their trays rendered them dangerous turned them the target of repressive behaviors and laws.
Selling the acaraj continued to be a relevant economic activity for many women after
the abolishment of slavery. Today, entire families depend on the earnings of the Baianas: 70%
of the women belonging to the Association of
the Baianas of the Acaraj and Mush in the state
of Bahia are family providers. It is part of these
womens routine to purchase the ingredients for
the preparation of the acaraj, a hard and daily
job: they need to rise early, to go to the market,
to search for good quality products at accessible
prices. The prices of shrimp and palm oil vary
the most. Many women cannot afford to purchase new trays or even to safely store their old
ones, which are then left on the beach.
Sometimes we feel like orphans because
we work alone with our trays, from dawn to dusk,
exposed to the cold, heat and even violence. But
were persevering black women: if we do not sell
today, we will sell tomorrow. We are a symbol
of resistance since the days of slavery, argues
Maria Leda Marques, president of the Association that, together with the Candombl House Il
Ax Opo Afonj and the Center for East African
Studies of the Federal University of Bahia, have
requested the registration of the acaraj with the
National Institute of National Artistic and Historical Heritage (Iphan).
Carolina Cantarino
Anthropologist and researcher, Laboratory for

Advanced Studies in Journalism (Labjor), State
University of Campinas (Unicamp).

This article was originally published in Patrimnio - Revista

Eletrnica do Iphan (Heritage The on-line Magazine of the
National Institute 0f Artistic and Historic Heritage Iphan)
(ISSN: 1809-3965).
123
Interview:
Mariana (Mainha)
and Cleusa Oliveira,
Baianas of acaraj
ariana Oliveira, also known as the

Baiana of the TV tower, is one of the
most popular residents in Brasilia. She
has lived in Brazils capital for almost forty years.
The Barraca da Mainha (Mainhas stall), as her
small business is fondly called, is well known to
Brazilian and foreign visitors to the Capital. An
indication of her prestige is that both Dona Mariana and her daughter Dona Cleusa have received
invitations from several authorities to cook the
famous acaraj in public ceremonies. In this Interview granted to Flavors from Brazil, Dona
Cleusa comments on some specificities of her
craft, recently registered as an Intangible Historic Heritage.
Flavors from Brazil
125
Photo: Anneluize Shmeil
FB: Do you know what the word

acaraj means?
s. It is recommended that the offerings should

be made by her daughters.
Baiana: Its origin is in Africa. It derives

from acar, which means ball of fire. J means
to eat.
FB: Which are the rituals that use

acaraj in the Candombl?
FB: Is it true that only the daughters/

sons of saints (filhas/filhos-de-santo)
can make acaraj?
Baiana: Yes. The daughters-/sons-of-saints
make acaraj as an offering. When they are preparing their heads, they make offerings to Ian Translators note: ritual within the Candombl religion in
which the head of the son of a saint is shaved, which represents that he has reached a new spiritual level.
126
Baiana: It is Ianss food. We make the

cakes and offer them to her. In the beginning
this is how the story goes, in the old days before I
was born, it was not even in my mothers lifetime,
but in my great-grandmothers time African
women came and made the acarajs. You know,
their religion was the Candombl. And they only
received grace if they prayed and danced for the
saint and offered them the acaraj. Some offer only
the raw cake. It depends on what the saint wishTexts from Brazil . N 13
es. Others offer it fried, pure, with nothing else.

They offer it in the bamboo forest. It is for Ians,
but it is not the work! We also sell acaraj as
our work. But, first, we say grace, and then we
go to work. And the African women according to the stories I have heard since I was born
they were very badly treated by their sinhs
(mistresses). So they made acaraj which they ate
and gave some to Ians, so she would give iai
(sinh) a beating. Faith moves mountains, doesnt
it? They had faith that the sinh would become
gentler, nicer, and calmer. Ians is the lady of the
wind, she is Saint Barbara. So they would make
the offerings. It is the same as someone who has
faith in Saint Anthony of Padua. What should
they give Saint Anthony of Padua?! Bread. Offer
bread to a child and Saint Anthony answers your
prayers. The black women, the African women
that came to our country gave a cake to Ians to
calm down their sinhs. It was not a bad gesture,
it was a good one, so the sinh wouldnt mistreat
them. And, when they became hungry, they
would fry it and eat it. Our history is beautiful!
FB: Is the acaraj that is used in the

Candombl different from the one
sold on the trays?
Baiana: It depends on the orix. Some ask
for it fried, some raw. Ians likes it very small
and fried. Pure, with no filling.
FB: What are the secrets of making

a good acaraj?
Baiana: Well, it is a secret, isnt it? (laughs)
Editors Note: In Afro-Brazilian cults, especially in umbanda

and quimbanda, to do the work means to perform a magicalreligious ritual aimed attaining a good fortune (a job, good
health, marriage etc.) or preventing someone from harm.
Flavors from Brazil
The black women, the

African women that came
to our country gave a cake
to Ians to calm down
their sinhs. It was not a
bad gesture, it was a good
one, so the sinh wouldnt
mistreat them. And, when
they became hungry, they
would fry it and eat it.
Our history is beautiful!
FB: How do you serve acaraj?
Baiana: When I was born, my mother
would make the bean cakes, fry three small
shrimps, cut the cake, fill it with a small amount
of pepper and vatap. That was it! Today, its
different, since many people do not eat shrimp,
many Baianas prepare everything separately:
vatap, shrimp and salad. In Salvador, there are
many people who serve it with caruru another
food offered to the orix which has nothing to do
with the acaraj. This is food for tourists so they
learn to eat the caruru.
FB: The craft of making the acaraj

has become one of Brazils cultural
heritages...
Baiana: Thank God! And, especially, thanks
to our efforts! If we hadnt insisted! There
were people carelessly making the bean flour to
export. On the package they put a picture of a
Baiana to say that it had been made by one. Our
127
Our cuisine has like

thousands of dishes, so with
a little bit of pepper, a
bit of palm oil and some
fish water, we can make
several different foods.
association in Salvador insisted that it should be
our heritage, that we should patent our cuisine.
Or else, it would be just like the aa, which the
Japanese have patented. And they have nothing
to do with it! They came to Brazil, purchased the
aa and patented it, now it is theirs! The acaraj is
ours and were proud of it!
FB: Why cant the acaraj recipe be

modified?
Baiana: Because it wont work. First, because it is sacred food. Second, if it were modified it wouldnt taste as good. For example, we
Baianas fought for the cancelation of an advertisement. It was an advertisement of a cold cut
factory in which they put sausage into the acaraj.
It was mockery! Since it belongs to a nation and
to a religion, nobody allows it to be modified.
FB: What is the importance of

regulating the profession of the
Baiana of the acaraj, which should
happen in Salvador?
Baiana: For us it is very important. More
so because we are many. Many people say that
Bahian men are lazier. They dont like to wake up
early, they dont like very much to work hard. The
Baianas are the ones that work hard. They wake
up early. Some go to wash clothes in the Abaet
Lagoon. Others go to their mistresses house to
128
work. Others are excellent cooks because our

cuisine has like thousands of dishes, so with a
little bit of pepper, a bit of palm oil and some fish
water, we can make several different foods. For
this reason, we are happy with this type of initiative. The acaraj belongs to us, to the Baianas of
the acaraj.
In other parts of Brazil, there is still no
regulation. People all over the country say that
they are from Bahia and sell acarajs which have
been carelessly cooked. I dont understand why
they dont regulate it. There are too many acarajs
on the streets. A lot really. Some time ago people
looked at the acaraj and said: Ugh, I wont eat
that thing! Today people all over Brazil eat the
acaraj.
FB: What are the typical ornaments of

the Baiana of the acaraj?
Baiana: Our typical attire. Our typical
dress is important. Some like it printed, others
all white. Because the Baiana usually has very
dark skin, she looks really good in an all white
dress. There are also our saints necklaces. Some
women wear the necklaces but dont even know
to which saint they refer! Thats too much, isnt
it? Its only an ornament! They should say it up
front that its only an ornament. There are some
Baianas that also put a small rue leaf on her head
to keep the evil eye away. Some people think
that it is for curing headaches, but in true fact it
protects against bad intentions. It dries really
quickly
FB: What else can we find on the

Baianas tray?
Baiana: Ah! A lot of things! You can find
abar, vatap, couscous, cocada. The Baianas tray
must always carry cocada. When we go to events,
sometimes they do not want us to bring cocadas
because there are already many other desserts.

I always take at least 30, and if the client takes
one, he has to pay for it! (laughs). A tray without
cocadas is no fun!
FB: How do you see the competition of

bars and supermarkets which sell the
acaraj? Is it good or bad?
Baiana: For us, it makes no difference. It
only exposes our product more, which is great. It
is just like the skewered barbecues that are sold
everywhere and by everyone. But the good acaraj is made especially for the client, by a Baiana.
FB: Have new technological novelties,

such as blenders, made it easier to
prepare the acaraj?
Baiana: No. We dont use anything of the
sort. We only use the blender for the manioc to
make the bob. Even to mix in the bread, we soak
the bread then mix it by hand. We must stick to
traditions. We dont use the blender much, especially for preparing the dough. And there is
more: when you start mixing the dough you cannot stop and move on to another task. When you
start kneading it, you have to knead it until its
ready.
FB: What are foreigners reactions

when trying the acaraj?
Baiana: Ah! They are delighted! Very much
so. Sometimes a bus or a van carrying foreigners
stops by. They look at it and try it with hesitation, because they are afraid it might upset their
stomachs. Then they ask for one and go yummy, just like in the TV commercials, and then
everybody eats one.
Flavors from Brazil
The foreigners are

delighted! Very much so.
Sometimes a bus or a van
carrying foreigners stops
by. They look at it and try
it with hesitation, because
they are afraid it might
upset their stomachs.
Then they ask for one and
go yummy
FB: And do they ask for it hot (spicy)?
Baiana: No. They prefer not to. The only
ones that ask for them hot are the Indonesian and
the Africans. They eat just the bean cakes, pure
with pepper. And then they say bagadu, bagadu.
I dont know what bagadu means. Im putting
in pepper! (laughs)
FB: Can you give us the recipe for

acaraj?
Baiana: Yes, as much as I can. Because
acaraj depends mostly of all on the abilities of
the Baiana! You buy black-eyed beans. Its better
to buy a lot (about two kilos) because we break
a bag per day. You crush it and leave it to soak to
remove the peel. After that, you grind it and season it: salt and onions. White onions. Not the red
ones! You can mix it well. A bit of salt, onions and
knead it. The secret is in the kneading! Then you
make the small cakes and fry them in palm oil to
give them color. If you fry them in vegetable oil,
they become white.
129
Interview:
Alex Atala
T
he creative and busy Alex Atala is known,

in Brazil and abroad, for exploring the
gastronomic possibilities of national ingredients
grounded on traditional ideas and current techniques. Atala began his career at the age of 19,
in Belgium, and later set out for new ventures in
French and Italian kitchens. In 1994, he returned
to So Paulo, and in late 1999 he opened the restaurant D.O.M. Among other prizes, both in
2006 and 2007, the restaurant was listed as one of
the 50 best restaurants in the world by Restaurant
Magazine. Besides cooking, Atala studies Brazilian gastronomy, having published several texts
in which he favors the appreciation of national
ingredients in high cuisine. In this interview for
Texts from Brazil, the chef comments on his perceptions regarding the formation and current
trends of Brazilian cuisine.
Flavors from Brazil
131
FB: Brazil is an immense country with

great cultural diversity; even so, is it
possible to say that there is a typical
cuisine that identifies it?
Alex: I believe it is necessary to differentiate what is regional from what is typical and
from what is folkloric. The most representative
dish of Brazil, in a broader sense, is maybe the
feijoada, which has African as well as native Indian roots. It is present on every Brazilian table;
in fact, it is a national dish. You can say that this
dish and the caipirinha are folkloric representations of Brazilian culture.
There are, on the other hand, typical dishes, typical cuisines. The influence of Portuguese
cuisine, for example, can be seen both in Minas
Gerais as well as in Florianpolis, which has a
more Azorian cuisine and beautiful dishes. The
influence of African cuisine can be seen, in general, in the Northeast. The Amazon, for example,
has an autochthonous cuisine. I refer not only to
the state of Amazonas, but to the whole region
with its diversity and microclimates.
So, I believe it is important to separate
what is folkloric from what is typical, from what
is regional. This gives an idea of the richness of
our culture: not only of its continental dimension
but also of its diversity.
FB: The unity of our cuisine,

therefore, goes beyond rice and beans?
Alex: Our richness is great. I think that rice
and beans is the most consumed recipe. I believe,
also, that manioc is the central axis of Brazilian
cuisine. It appears on the table of the Caboclos as
well as on the tables of the well-off. But these are
only the basis. Rice and beans do not stand for
the whole Brazilian cuisine.
132
I think it reflects what

Brazil really is: this
patchwork of cultures
that, in the end, are
respected and unified in a
singular and positive way.
FB: Going to a self-service restaurant,
something very common in the daily
lives of people who work in big cities,
and finding rice and beans, sushi,
barbecue, pastas, etc., what does it
tells us about the Brazilian cuisine?
Alex: I think it reflects what Brazil really
is: this patchwork of cultures that, in the end, are
respected and unified in a singular and positive
way.
FB: If, as expressed in The Physiology

of Taste, we are what we eat, can we
say that the existence of a Brazilian
cuisine is a result of the existence of
a Brazilian people itself, despite all
its internal diversity?
Alex: Let us consider the following: eating
habits are a line of study for the human sciences.
So, we can undoubtedly say that we are, in fact,
what we eat. I do not challenge that. I agree completely with this statement and I think it reinforces everything I have been saying: the strength
Brazil has, the openness it has to other cultures,
without losing its originality. This reinforces,
once more, the cultural prism that we have.
D.O.M. Restaurant
FB: Despite the diversity of cultures

that form Brazil, the cuisine,
mainly everyday cooking, presents a
considerable homogeneity. Therefore,
is it right to say that what defines
Brazilian cuisine is assimilation, not
its origin?
Alex: In a certain sense, yes, it is possible
to agree with the idea that Brazil supersedes the
foreign cultures that came here. There is a customization of foreign culture according to the locality. So, this is one of Brazils first strengths, by
which it shows its potential for a cuisine that is
used internationally.
FB: If you believe in the existence of

a typically Brazilian cuisine, open to
Flavors from Brazil
other cultures, but without losing

its essence, why are you publishing
a book to give more publicity to the
ingredients, processes and recipes
from the Amazon cuisine?
Alex: At first, when the Europeans arrived,
they had to tropicalize their recipes. Brazil was
another reality, a very powerful one. Consequently, in many instances, our culture surpassed the
foreign culture, in a general sense. In the case of
my work, I wrote the book to promote Brazilian
cuisine.
Rice and beans, for example, is a typical
dish of a young colonized country. Despite the
fact that mankind ate even before it learned to
communicate or that eating was a vital activity,
gastronomy is only 200 years old. Because it is a
young country and receives influences from vari133
In France, a chef is
respected because he makes
French food for French
people who ate French
cooking all their lives. It
is the quality of his work
that gives him this status.
In Japan, a sushi man
is honored for the same
reason. I believe, therefore,
that a good Brazilian cook
has to show his ability
within our culture.
ous cultures, Brazil ends up depreciating its rural
cooking, the caboclos cuisine, when the act of eating acquires a certain status.
I, personally, cannot find that an egg is less
important than a truffle. So, I am a believer in a
terroir cuisine, a cuisine of the peasants, a cuisine of Brazilian heritage, because what raised
France, Italy, Spain and Japan to higher cuisine
standards was the pride in their regional culture,
the pride in their peasants, so to speak.
In France, a chef is respected because he
makes French food for French people who ate
French cooking all their lives. It is the quality of
his work that gives him this status. In Japan, a sushi man is honored for the same reason. I believe,
therefore, that a good Brazilian cook has to show
his ability within our culture.
The difference between good and exceptional comes with a repertoire. For us Brazilians,
134
it is difficult to judge truffles, caviars and even

mushrooms and sophisticated sauces; but, with
no doubt, every Brazilian is an expert in rice and
beans.
FB: When we go to a restaurant, why

are we closer to the other side of the
Atlantic or even the Pacific than
to the central lands of our country?
Why is it easier to eat Mexican,
Japanese, Chinese, Egyptian and even
Javanese food than Manauara food in
many capitals of Brazil?
Alex: I believe that the new society suggests experimentation. Habits are influenced by
this. Moreover, Brazils identity, a multicultural
country, reinforces this. It is interesting to imagine that 20 or 30 years ago Japanese food was disliked and, today, 8 or 10 years old children prefer
a sushi bar to McDonalds.
This shows that taste can be developed. If
exposed to a large variety since ones first infancy,
the palate tends to be broader. We are, therefore,
privileged in living in a country that has a wealth
of ingredients and culture.
This acceptance of international cuisine,
on the other hand, is explained by the fact that
we are a young culture, open to multiple influences.
FB: Do you think that this tendency,

on the other hand, could be a
symptom that our cuisine has no more
roots, that it has lost contact with
its own soil?
Alex: Although regional cooking has lost
some of its fire, I think this process is part of a cycle. Today there is a movement today led by people like Paulo Martins, in Belm, or Csar Santos
in Olinda. There are professionals from the enTexts from Brazil . N 13
Jaboticaba sorbet. D.O.M. Restaurante
tire country, from North to South, who carry the

banner of regional cuisines very appropriately.
illogical, as in the case of the difference between

the tutu from So Paulo and the tutu from Minas
I believe this return to our origins is part of the

maturing process of our culture.
Unlike me (as I am engaged in high gastronomy), these people defend their regional
cuisine, their origins, a stance I consider highly.
The most important, without a doubt, is to value
Brazilian food.
Gerais. They discuss something that is not important if you take into consideration that the
biome is the same.
Human culture does not respect geographical divisions much, since it is well adapted to
the biome. What is important is to know whether
it refers to the Atlantic forest, the Cerrado or an
Equatorial forest.
In regard to the Amazon, there are discussions in relation to the quality of the tucupi
of Manaus and the one from Belm; of the assai
from Manaus and the one from Belm. One tries
to find out if the nuts are from Par or from Acre.
These are discussions that, I believe, lose their legitimacy when one seeks to find a better region
FB: In this context, is it still possible

to identify, clearly, the typical
regional cuisines?
Alex: I believe that there are big intersections. In Minas Gerais, So Paulo and Rio de Janeiro there is a common Portuguese trend. So
you will sometimes see discussions that I find
Flavors from Brazil
135
My relationship with
nature reveals itself
as a strong aspect in
my personality; it is a
family inheritance. But
this is not an exclusive
characteristic of mine. If
we consider the highest
icons of gastronomy,
we will see their strong
connection with the
environment.
and forgets about the sense of citizenship which
begins within the individual and spreads out to
the collectivity.
FB: Regional cuisine comprises not

only typical dishes but also typical
ingredients. Isnt access to them
increasingly difficult, with mass
production and consumption?
Alex: I believe that in a certain sense, yes. I
could not say otherwise. On the other hand, we
Brazilians, mainly producers and extractivists,
need to improve our relationship with the basic
ingredients. Here, fish are mistreated, as well
as the greenery gathered in the outskirts of the
cities. So, I believe we sin, several times, when
regarding the respect to nature, which is so generous and is wasted by farmers and fishermen
themselves who make a living out of it.
My relationship with nature reveals itself
as a strong aspect in my personality; it is a family
136
inheritance. But this is not an exclusive characteristic of mine. If we consider the highest icons
of gastronomy, we will see their strong connection with the environment. Let us consider caviar, truffles. One has to go in search of truffles,
as well as fish the wild sturgeon to obtain the
best caviar. It is incredible how one of the highest
levels of human culture is intrinsically related to
nature.
I also believe that nourishment can be not
only a form of preserving the environment, but
also an excellent alternative to produce resources
for the riverbank populations. It is important to
add value to the forest. It needs to be worth more
standing up than torn down.
FB: In relation to traditional cuisine,

statistical data show a decrease in
the consumption of beans and rice.
What does this mean for our cuisine?
Alex: The largest concentration of the population in Brazil is still in the metropolitan areas.
This large-scale feeding means, the production of
industrialized food, is a great facilitator of everyday life, but very harmful to regional cultures,
mainly when we consider the typical dishes of the
hinterlands or of smaller cultures limited to micro-regions. Therefore, I believe that the food industry is more harmful than the fast food chains,
which are an urban phenomenon. Sausages and
other canned goods are, on the other hand, what
really reach the most destitute regions.
I have a dream. I will not say it is a project
but a dream, namely, to improve basic food
packages, not only basic products, but also the
packing itself. It is important to remember that
Translators note: Basic food packages are donations given
monthly by the government to poor families. It includes some
basic ingredients like rice, beans, sugar, milk, oil, among others. It is also used as an economic index.
Zucchini Salad. D.O.M. Restaurante
to the indigenous, to the riverbank population,

to the caboclo, the packaging of fruits is the peel,
of fish are the scales, of animals is the skin. They
throw the residue back into the environment.
to rethink their packaging, taking into consideration the regions.
However, they are sent basic food packages

that are full of plastic and aluminum. When you
FB: You have already commented on

the foreign influence on Brazilian
cuisine. Considering it a two-way
exchange, how is the presence of our
cuisine on tables abroad?
travel through the Amazon, in extremely remote

places, you come across plastic bags and cans. I
Alex: Our strongest point abroad is to be

Brazilian. It is a big difference to be a big chef
think this is an aggression that we, city people,

commit against the environment, with no knowledge of the extension of the problem. Therefore,
I believe that basic foods policies should be revised, not only as to what they include, but also
from Brazil and a big chef from Ecuador or from

Venezuela, Gabon or East Timor. We carry a
charisma that the country already has, which is
something very positive.
It is something inherent to the culture of these

populations.
Flavors from Brazil
137
Another strength is the diversity of fruits,

which are big stars. When we are abroad and we
use these two strengths to show that we are a
tropical country rich in flavors, we open doors
to show the potential of tapioca, flours, herbs, tubers, heart of palms and all the range of fish and
meats. This exuberance affects people.
In high gastronomy, according to my experience, something that always inebriates the
chefs abroad is the tucupi, as complex as the curry
from India. The product is a big presentation of
our cuisine, for it is a seasoning and, at the same
time, a preservative, versatile not only in flavor
but also in application.
FB: In regard to its roots, does our

cuisine resemble any other or is it
unique?
Alex: Very unique. There are cuisines in
the tropical zone that use the same ingredients:
in the Caribbean we find some kind of white carrot or bean; in Asia, in Thailand, coconut milk,
coriander, pepper. Although there are many
common ingredients among tropical cuisines, I
think our way of using them is different.
FB: And why arent we an

international power in cuisine?
Alex: This is an impediment characteristic
of young countries. For Brazil, it is not enough
to have good work being done in our cuisine.
This is too little. In France, in Italy, in countries
of excellence, not just one good chef or one good
research, but several were necessary to reaffirm
quality. It is a process that is under way in Brazil.
FB: Why does high international

gastronomy, mainly the French one,
have so much prestige in Brazil?
138
Alex: On the one hand, this is a trait from

colonial Brazil, it is natural. On the other, the fact
that gastronomy in France had a head start in relation to the entire world gives the French leadership in cuisine. So our workforce, above all the
younger one, still pays more attention to other
cuisines than to ours. But I believe this is a process. We are in a transition phase. In the years to
come, big changes can happen in this scenario.
FB: Despite the prestige of the

international high cuisine, your
restaurant, D. O. M., specialized in
Brazilian food, was the only Brazilian
restaurant to be included in the
list of the worlds 50 best by the
English magazine Restaurant. Which
path should be taken to consolidate
Brazilian gastronomy?
Alex: Gastronomy is the art to lift an ingredient or recipe to its best moment. In Brazil, we
have products and recipes that realize gastronomy in its broadest sense. Something that must be
said in relation to gastronomy is that it does not
have to be restricted to expensive ingredients or
difficult procedures.
Ill give you an example of what I consider
gastronomy. If we go to Bahia, we find ten stalls
on the beach. One of them makes fried fish better
than the others. This happens due to the adequate
accomplishment of a series of steps. Probably,
the owner of this stall wakes up early, cleans the
fish properly and stores it in a refrigerator. Afterwards, he heats the oil to right temperature, he
seasons the fish, fries it during the right amount
of time, lays it on a nice plate, accompanied by
good ingredients and another person takes that
plate from the kitchen to the clients table. Therefore, a dish doesnt start or end in the kitchen. In
reality, it starts with the choice of the ingredients
and ends with an empty plate in front of a satisfied customer.

For me, this is gastronomy. It comprises a
process with a series of steps that need, in Brazil,
to be improved in a general way.
FB: Is it necessary to be a good cook

before being a chef?
Alex: Of course! Let me give you an example. A professor with a doctorate degree in Medicine went to college, had 4 years of residency and
then became a doctor. After continuous studies
and, more importantly, practice of his profession,
he obtained his doctorate and professorship. I believe that, in the kitchen, it is no different: whatever the amount of theory you have, practice will
lapidate the techniques.
Therefore, I believe that Italian cuisine can
be a great lesson for the Brazilian one. Mama
cooks very well, but when the Nona cooks, everybody kneels to eat. Italian cuisine is a home
cooking. Mama cooks well because she does this
everyday, and Nona cooks better because shes
been doing this her whole life. This is why Italian cuisine left us a great legacy: our inherited
recipes are very good, but what it lacks is this
devotion to cuisine, to the selection of products,
to the service, to cooking, to everything involved
in a good meal.
FB: How did your personal experience

influence this devotion you have to
cooking and your interest in high
gastronomy?
Alex: Because I was a punk, I submitted myself to washing dishes before I learned to chop.
I learned how to wash pots and pans before I
learned to cook with them and so on. It was a
learning process. I was not born chef Alex Atala,
nor did I become what I am from overnight. BeFlavors from Brazil
A dish doesnt start or

end in the kitchen.
In reality, it starts
with the choice of the
ingredients and ends
with an empty plate
in front of a satisfied
customer.
cause I needed it, I submitted myself to smaller
jobs and I fell in love with cooking.
So, when I returned to my country, I did
not want to be a Brazilian pretending to be
French, Italian, Belgian or any other national. I
wanted to be Brazilian because I believed in my
country and in my culture, in the flavors that I
knew since my childhood and which I believed
to be as good as the ones I encountered abroad.
My past, undoubtedly, helps me today with the
work I develop.
FB: Can everybody have access to

gastronomy?
Alex: The example I gave of fried fish in Bahia applies to all circumstances: in the Ver-o-Peso
Market, with assai; in So Paulo with pastis at
open markets; in Rio de Janeiro, with the food at
bars; in Cear, with dried meat or caranguejada
(crab stew); in Bahia with moqueca (fish stew).
Finally, our basic cuisines are famous not
because theyre attractive but because theyre
good. It is possible to transform them into high
gastronomy. Let us recall that croque-monsieur,
crpe suzette or penne arrabiata are, in reality, cousins of daily recipes.
139
Ricardo Luiz de Souza
Caipirinha,
that is, cachaa,
Lime and Sugar:
A brief story of a relationship
achaa, lime and sugar. When we talk

about the history of Caipirinha, we are
talking about the history of the relationship between these three ingredients, a successful, long-lasting relationship that has a legion of
admirers. And to tell this story, let us go back in
time and, briefly, recall the history of Cachaa
and sugar.
Where do they come from? Sugarcane
was originated in the South Pacific, and then was
taken over a route to India, where, for the first
time, five centuries before Christ, sugar would be
extracted from it. From India, it migrated to the
Middle East, region where the first routes connected to this product were created. From there,
sugarcane arrived in the Mediterranean and was
Flavors from Brazil
141
Cachaa was created

in the first decades of
colonization, in the
province of So Vicente,
where the state of So
Paulo is today. At the
end of the 16th century,
eight mills dedicated to its
production were registered.
cultivated almost a thousand years later, in the
Canary Islands and in the Atlantic. From these islands it was transported to Brazil, where it transformed northeastern region into the kingdom of
sugarcane. From the 16th century on, it became
the main export product of the colony.
Cachaa was created in the first decades
of colonization, in the province of So Vicente,
where the state of So Paulo is today. At the end
of the 16th century, eight mills dedicated to its
production were registered. Initially, the beverage did not have a high economic value and was
made in secret by the slaves, because their masters did not like to see them drinking it. As such
it continued until it became part of the popular
preference including the masters and was,
finally, transformed into an export product, included in the trade routes that involved slave
traffic, since it had enormous acceptance in Africa.
The term for cachaa, pinga (drip), originated from the vapor produced by the slow process necessary to ferment the liquid, which condensed on the roof as it went up and dripped.
The pinga would hurt when it fell on the slaves,
142
giving origin to another name for it: aguardente

(junction of the words gua water and ardente
that burns). This hypothesis is disputed, however, since the beverage that was produced by
distillation was called by the European alchemists, in the 12th century, aqua ardens.
Still in the colonial period, there was a differentiation between the imported beverage and
the national one. The distilled imported beverage from Portugal was called bagaceira, and
Cachaa was the beverage produced in Rio de
Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Cachaceiro meant at
the time just the trader of the beverage and later on became a term for a drunkard. The term
Cachaa is, by the way, specifically Brazilian.
Cmara Cascudo, an expert on this subject, not
only guaranteed the inexistence of the word in
Brazil, but also affirmed he had never heard the
word in Portugal. In Spanish, on the other hand,
Cachaa is a type of lee wine.
The beverage rapidly became popular and
spread out through the whole country as it was
being populated. In Minas Gerais land of gold,
diamond and cold weather , Cachaa found a
fertile soil for its production and consumption.
The inconfidentes even elected it as a sort of national beverage, a symbol of the Brazilians, to be
consumed instead of Portuguese wine, considered the beverage of despots. Domingos Xavier,
for example, one of the leaders of the Rebellion,
owned a distillery and satiated the participants
of its meetings with Cachaa from his own production. And, going a bit further in time, we can
recall that the revolutionaries of 1817 in Pernambuco also wanted to transform Cachaa into a national symbol, as a response to one more attempt
from the obstinate Portuguese to forbid it.
In this sense, the beverage was used to
baptize the Port of Paraty, and pinga became its
synonym. Or was it Paraty that baptized the
Caipirinha.
Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau (Embratur)
Flavors from Brazil
143
Cachaa was normally

produced in small mills
called engenhocas and
its consumption was
predominantly linked
to the lower classes of the
colonial population.
Cachaa? The order of the factors is not so important. The fact is that distilleries were built around
the port by the Portuguese. The Caminho Novo
(New Trail), connection between Minas Gerais
and the sea, facilitated the ascension of Cachaa
to the mountains, which already had several distilleries and small Cachaa mills that proliferated
as a symbol of more sophisticated Cachaas. Production soon spread throughout the province of
Rio de Janeiro, reaching Campos dos Goitacases,
a traditional sugar producer. The beverage was
so important that the region became a stage for
the Cachaa Revolt, in 1660, when rebels took
over and governed the city of Rio de Janeiro for
five months, protesting against the prohibition of
producing and selling aguardente.
Cachaa was normally produced in small
mills called engenhocas and its consumption
was predominantly linked to the lower classes of
the colonial population. In Minas Gerais, for example, the large production of aguardente in the
18th century was due to the consumer market of
gold mining communities, but another determinant factor was the unique location of the mills in
Minas Gerais: with no access to the external market, they specialized their production in small
scale local trade.
144
After the Independence, a continuous productive cycle was maintained, which has turned
Minas into the major center of production. Therefore, the existence of engenhocas in the interior
of Minas Gerais was attested by several people
who traveled throughout the region during the
19th century. Richard Burton mentioned the existence of one of them in Jaboticatubas, and Count
Castelnau mentioned another one near Juiz de
Fora. Saint-Hilaire defined cachaa as the countrys distilled beverage.
Thus, like tobacco, cachaa became a trading commodity in slave traffic, including the
product in an economic circuit that went beyond
the domestic level, turning many engenhoca owners that produced aguardante to foreign trade.
Nevertheless, a dichotomy was created.
The large sugar mills were directed to the foreign
market and engenhocas mostly illegal and lacking the appropriate machinery to produce sugar
and the money to purchase them dedicated
themselves to the production of hard raw sugar
and cachaa, products aimed mainly for the internal market.
It is worth mentioning that cachaa and
wine were not the only alcoholic habits of the colonial period. For example, alu African name
for a fermented beverage of corn of indigenous
origin was popular. And even the consumption of cachaa developed some varieties like the
cachimbo or meladinha, cachaa with honey.
Alcoholic beverages were also consumed
as medication on several occasions. It could be
used as a fortifier, if taken in the morning or in
situations that required a large physical effort, or
as a protection for the organism, in specific situations.
Economically, cachaa was considered a
less noble product than sugar, because it was
aimed, predominantly, for local consumption
and, when exported, its destination was Africa,

not reaching the desired European market. Although not very noble, it withstood in the market
and became increasingly popular.
As for the relationship between cachaa
and wine, in the colonial period, another dichotomy was created that still exists in the alcoholic
habits of Brazilians. Wine was served at parties
and traditions, like the coreto, festive gatherings
where the salutations were sung accompanied
by drinking. Thus, it is a beverage traditionally
related to solemn occasions and to the elite, contrary to cachaa; altar wine became, in this sense,
a proverbial expression.
From then on, cachaa became an uncomfortable competitor for Portuguese wine, encouraging the Crown to forbid its production.
The first measure to forbid it dates back to 1639,
which is clear evidence of the popularity of the
beverage. However, such measure was not successful. Sensing that the prohibition would never
be enforced, the Portuguese Crown preferred to
give in to the enemy and explore it through several taxes, such as the tax created to help rebuild
Lisbon after it was destroyed by an earthquake in
1765 and the literary subsidies created, in Minas
Gerais, to finance the payment of royal professors.
The beverage was later recognized as a
fortifier and, even more, was considered a vital
food for the slaves, which fact was acknowledged even in reports written by employees of
the Crown. Thus, cachaa and its varieties, such
as the pinga with lime and honey, were used from
very early on as a sure medication for the cold
and the flu, following the rooted popular custom
and the popular pharmacopoeia that, from the
beginning, conveyed to the beverage consumed
of course in small doses therapeutic functions.
Flavors from Brazil
Nor is it known where

the habit of making
batidas with cachaa was
originated, caipirinha
being only one among
many, although it is
the most famous and,
undoubtedly, the most
characteristic one of
Brazil.
In relation to caipirinha, it originated when
the slaves, these great inventors and tasters of Brazilian cuisine, decided to mix cachaa with fruit
juices that, like lime, were completely ignored by
the white elite. It had as a predecessor the lime
batida (drink), also of slave origin, and became
complete when they added sugar and lime peel.
However, the origin of the term caipirinha is
still unknown. There is no historical connection
between its consumption and the caipira himself,
inhabitant of the interior of Brazil, traditionally
associated with the regions of Minas Gerais and
So Paulo.
Nor is it known where the habit of making
batidas with cachaa was originated, caipirinha
being only one among many, although it is the
most famous and, undoubtedly, the most characteristic one of Brazil. Coconut, cashew and passion fruit are also used, besides other varieties
like leite de ona, made from cachaa and cocoa
cream. All these drinks have predecessors, like
jinjibirra, made with sugarcane juice and fruits,
nicknamed beer of the poor and found in the
145
146
Aged cachaas. Christian Knepper (Embratur)
Northeast until the beginning of the 19th century.

In Minas Gerais, in the same way, the consumption of a punch made with cachaa, bitter orange
and sugar became popular.
What is, after all, a caipirinha? According
to the definition in the Decree N 4.800, of 2003,
it is a typical Brazilian beverage, with alcoholic
level of fifteen to thirty-six per cent in volume, at
twenty degrees Celsius, mixed exclusively with
cachaa, with the addition of lime and sugar.
Born from the hands and creativity of the
slaves, caipirinha acquired, over time, an international status. Nowadays, it has been included
by the International Barmen Association among
the seven classical cocktail drinks of the world,
being very much appreciated in countries like
Germany and the United States, countries with
a considerable consumer potential and alcoholic
tradition.
In these markets, Brazil seeks to occupy its
position having, currently, around 30 thousand
producers of cachaa of five thousand different
labels. The annual production reaches 1.3 billion
liters of which 900 thousand are industrial and
400 thousand are from distilleries. Exports reach
70 million liters, destined to over 70 countries.
Caipirinha, however, is still essentially
a homemade drink, although there is a market
for industrialized caipirinhas. But tradition goes
that each one should make their own, for self
consumption or for friends, or that, in bars or
restaurants, the barman prepares a dose for each
customer. The drink is also associated to special,
festive occasions and is not connected to daily
consumption, as is cachaa. To prepare a caipirinha is, therefore, a festive ritual, although it is
not for everyone: it is necessary to know how to
prepare it, and the task is always given to someone who is considered an expert on the matter.
Flavors from Brazil
Born from the hands and

creativity of the slaves,
caipirinha acquired, over
time, an international
status. Nowadays, it
has been included by the
International Barmen
Association among the
seven classical cocktail
drinks of the world.
Traditionally, the drink is seen as a lighter and
more socially accepted drink, which unveils a
curious situation: an appreciator of caipirinha is
not always an appreciator of cachaa, which is
considered too strong. Therefore, caipirinhas and
batidas are, in general, festive varieties of cachaa.
Thats how they are considered, thats how they
are consumed.
Ricardo Luiz de Souza
Doctor in History, University of Minas Gerais.

Professor, University Center of Sete Lagoas
(UNIFEMM). Author of Identidade nacional e
modernidade na historiografia brasileira: o dilogo
entre Silvio Romero, Euclides da Cunha, Cmara
Cascudo e Gilberto Freyre (National identity and
modernity in Brazilian historiography: a dialog
between Silvio Romero, Euclides da Cunha, Cmara
Cascudo and Gilberto Freyre). Belo Horizonte,
Autntica Press, 2007; and dozens of articles published
in academic journals among which Cachaa, vinho,
cerveja: da colnia ao sculo XX (Cachaa, wine
and beer: from the colony to the XX Century). Estudos
Histricos, n 33- Rio de Janeiro - FGV, 2004
147
How to prepare
a traditional
caipirinha
O
ne of the most appreciated cocktails worldwide, caipirinha has a number of recipes.

In Brazil, Decree n 4851 determines that
caipirinha is the typical Brazilian beverage,
with alcoholic level of fifteen to thirty-six percent
in volume, at twenty degrees Celsius, mixed exclusively with cachaa, with the addition of lime
and sugar. This broad definition permits it to be
prepared in several manners, depending on the
customs and preferences of each person. However, there are some clues on how to prepare a
caipirinha that are followed by almost all recipes.
For example, the use of ice cubes and not crushed
ice, which melts faster and makes the caipirinha
too watery, and the use of short, wide glasses to
facilitate the crushing of the limes. Texts from
Brazil presents, on the next page, one of the most
traditional Brazilian recipes to prepare caipirinha.
Flavors from Brazil
149
1. Cut a lime in medium-sized pieces. Half a

lime is enough to make one dose of caipirinha.
2. Put the lime pieces into a glass and

add two or three tablespoons of sugar.
3. Use a small wooden mallet or pestle

to crush the lime to release the juice.
150
4. Add cachaa to taste.
5. Add two or three ice cubes.
6. Stir the drink to dissolve the sugar.
Flavors from Brazil
151
152
Bar inscription with synonyms for cachaa.

. N 13
RicardoTexts
Azoury
/ Pulsar
Imagens
from
Brazil
Demstenes Romano
How to recognize
a good cachaa
H
ow do you recognize a good cachaa? To begin with,

when it is really pure, unlike the cachaa sold in supermarkets, it has a pleasant aroma, it does not burn when
you swallow it, and it does not give you bad breath or hangovers.
Although it is a distilled beverage like whisky, and not fermented like wine, a really good cachaa is more similar to wine
than to whisky. Unfortunately, very few people are aware of this.
There are very few alembics that produce the legitimate and traditional Brazilian beverage with the special quality that every cachaa could have (according to historical records, the first sugarcane
mill in Brazil was built in 1534 by Martim Afonso de Sousa, donee
of the Capitania of So Vicente).
In the rich and little known universe of cachaa, the consumer is immersed in a storm of commercial information and inconsistent opinions that are almost always contaminated by exhibitionism from producers or consumers, as if the production and
savoring of a good cachaa was a mystery and exclusive to few.
Flavors from Brazil
153
Before owning my first still, I carried out

extensive research on the production and consumption of cachaa in Brazil. I visited many
producers, took courses, read everything I found,
went to the few universities that had any interest
in the subject, had many long conversations in
rural towns in Minas Gerais.
In my quest, I was surprised to discover
the promising future of cachaa, although it was
still embedded in amateurism, prejudice and
marginality. Just as occurs in life and in business
management, the lower the evolutionary stage,
the broader the opportunities for expansion.
If the reader believes he cannot produce or
savor a good cachaa, relax, this happens even to
Brazilian appreciators.
If you think you are ill informed about
cachaa, be sure that the problem is not yours:
lack of information surrounds cachaa, almost
always disguised in simple indefinitions, starting by the name of the product: cachaa, pinga,
caninha or aguardente? Not to mention the most
popular synonyms: birita, branquinha, cobertor de
pobre, dengosa, uca, tira-teimas, m, gua que passarinho no bebe, canjebrina.
Since what concerns us here is to discuss
some guidelines in production and quality evaluation, we will leave this matter to the readers
preferences.
To help the layperson, let us make it clear
that we are referring to the artisanal cachaa,
produced on a small scale, because quantity and
quality do not go together in this process, in the
same way that there is a substantial difference
between preparing a good meal for ten people or
for one hundred on a wood burning stove.
To summarize, this is how the traditional
process goes:
1. Sugarcane cultivation any of the hundreds of varieties of sugarcane can be used
154
for distillation. The difference between one

and another is reflected more on productivity, quantity of juice or sucrose content
than on the quality of the cachaa. By the
way, one should not use any poisons, fires
or other practices that harm the environment.
2. Milling sugarcane is ground, usually
in conventional mills, to extract the juice
commonly known as garapa. At this stage,
two aspects decisively influence the acidity level of cachaa: cleanness and hygiene
of the mill and time between cutting and
milling (the shorter the better).
3. Fermentation from the mill, the garapa
goes to tanks or tubs to be perfected, undergoing more filtering in order to remove
small bagasses and solid residue. In these
containers, each day, new and cleaned
garapa is placed, with a sucrose content
of around 15 degrees Brix (scale used to
measure the content of sucrose, the device
is called a saccharimeter) and pH level of
4.8 to 6.0. In the artisanal process of producing cachaa, using caipira (peasants)
fermentation, around 20% of the tank
contains toasted maize flour and a small
amount of soybean flakes and rice flakes.
In these organic nutrients soaked with garapa, microorganisms proliferate and some
yeast, eukaryote cells predominantly
saccharomyces and schizosaccharomyces which are the most effective in
transforming sucrose into ethanol. The
conversion of sugar into alcohol provides
the transformation of garapa into must,
material ready for the distillation phase. In
good conditions, the fermentation period
varies between 12 to 24 hours, including
decantation.
Flavors from Brazil
Bottle of cachaa.
Ricardo Azoury / Pulsar Imagens 155

The cachaa is good or not (in flavor,
aroma, lightness, softness, in the day after
consequences) depending on each detail of
the production process. The combined details of fermentation are essential and difficult to manage. Let us recall that, in practice,
what we call fermentation is the creation of
living beings, yeasts, which are not visible to
the naked eye, which are very sensitive and
demanding regarding their feeding schedules (renewal of the naturally sweet garapa),
their resting period (decantation), the environmental conditions (local temperature
and hygiene of the tank) and the conditions
for reproduction and renewal of the cells.

If you have the opportunity to visit an
alembic in a cachaa distillery, give preference to the vital part which is the fermentation area, and try to observe the five indicators of the process that have a direct influence
on the quality of the final product:
3.1 when arriving, breathe deeply and smell the
aroma. Is it of ripe fruits, mild and pleasant
or is it a mixture of alcohol and something
sour, as if something is decomposing, exhaling acidity?
3.2 check if there are flies and mosquitoes in the
fermentation area. The presence of vinegar
flies (Drosophila) indicates an acetic bacteria infection that increases the acidity of
must and of the final product.
3.3 another indication of the quality of fermentation (i.e., of the cultivation of yeasts) is the
aspect of the foam that stays on the surface
of the must, which looks like it is boiling. It
is the action of yeast on sugars, causing the
formation of carbonic gas in the proportion
of one molecule of gas to each molecule of
ethanol. Also, with the naked eye, be aware:
it is a bad sign to see bubbles (the bigger the
156
bubbles the worse the situation is) and it is a

good sign to see the foam moving, as if it is
boiling, like boiling sweets.
3.4 ask about routine schedules for renewing
the garapa, decantation period of must, Brix
level (sucrose content) of garapa when it
enters the tanks. The greater the constancy
and discipline the better.
3.5 a key question to obtain macro information:
how often is the yeast renewed, changed
or recultivated? A good indicator of quality is if they do not weaken, get ill, or
spoil during at least the whole conventional harvest period of about six months.
For those who produce all year around, it
should be good for the whole year, only being oxygenated once in a while.
4. Distillation after all the feeding with
sugar from garapa, the yeast transforms it
into must, decreasing the sucrose content of
more or less 15 degrees Brix to zero. Then
the must without sucrose is left to rest for
a short period, to decant or for the yeast to
rest and, afterwards, it goes into the stills,
enormous pots with capacity from one
hundred to one thousand liters of must.

The cachaa distillation occurs by heating (over direct fire or furnace) the must that
starts the evaporation process when it boils.
The vapor rises in the still and transforms
itself into liquid, condensing when it comes
in contact with the bottom of the hood filled
with cold running water.

At this stage, it is absolutely essential
to remove the first liters of cachaa (this
first part is called head) that are inevitably contaminated with elements that cause
damage to the consumers health and to
the taste of the cachaa. After these more
volatile elements, the distillation begins
the production of the best part of cachaa,

called heart. This better quality product
represents ten percent of the must. After
the heart comes the tail or last run
that is just as dangerous to the consumers
health and well being as the head.

This is where it is evident that you
cannot conciliate quantity and quality in a
genuinely artisanal and ethical production
of an excellent cachaa. A good option to
obtain a good product is not to mix heart
with head and tail.
5. Storing and aging bottling new cachaa
and putting it onto the market without
maturation should be a matter of public health. To market new cachaa without
bottling it, should be a matter for the police.

The cachaa stored in hardened
wooden barrels, tubs or vessels make an
enormous difference in flavor and in occurrence of volatile elements. In these
circumstances, there are striking differences between the beverage produced on
the same day, the one stored for a month
and the one aged for six months, mainly
if the wood used has good pores, age and
oxygen exchange, without interfering with
the flavor, like oak and balsam. If stored in
glass, the aging is very slow, taking years to
achieve the maturation obtained in months
with wood.
How to recognize a good cachaa? The answer, without any contraindication, is: tasting it
and being demanding.
Do not be impressed by labels, folders, or
interesting stories: taste it and do not drink it if it
burns while swallowed or scratches like a cats
claw. Also, do not drink it if you smell alcohol
and not sugarcane. If you observe acidity (flavor
Flavors from Brazil
How to recognize a
good cachaa? The
answer, without any
contraindication, is:
tasting it and being
demanding. Do not be
impressed by labels, folders,
or interesting stories: taste
it and do not drink it if it
burns while swallowed or
scratches like a
cats claw.
or smell of vinegar), remember the respect you
should have for your digestive system!
Do not devalue your sense of smell or
your palate because of conditions and folklore
in relation to colored cachaa or white cachaa:
the dishonest counterfeiters know how to color
or whiten a cachaa. Believe in your capacity to
evaluate, analyze and compare them, like almost
everything we do in life.
I regret not being able to invite each one
of you to my distillery to see the production and
taste the Cachaa of the Fazenda Boi Parido.
Those who come will be welcomed.
Demstenes Romano
Journalist and cachaa producer

Article originally published in the 1st edition

of the magazine Taste of Brazil, MRE, 2004.
157
Interview:
Carlos Eduardo
Corra Nogueira
C
arlos Eduardo Corra Nogueira is the

Director for International Affairs of the
Brazilian winery Miolo, one of largest in
the country. In this interview to Flavors from Brazil, Nogueira comments on the quality of Brazilian wine and tells us a little about the successful
history of grape cultivation and the production
of fine wines in Brazil. According to the agronomic engineer, Brazils winery tradition is little
known abroad. There is still some resistance in
some markets, despite its high quality standards.
Nogueira describes some initiatives that are being undertaken to break the stereotypes that are,
in many cases, imposed on Brazilian wine in order for it to enjoy the same international success
that Brazilian cachaa and caipirinha do.
Flavors from Brazil
159
160
Barrels.
Source: Vincola Miolo Ltda
FB: What are the origins of Brazilian

wine production?
CECN: The first register of winegrowing
in Brazil dates back to 1538 with Brs Cubas, on
the coast of So Paulo, who began to study the
development of this culture. Afterwards, some
seedlings were taken to others parts of the country by the Jesuits. The culture established itself in
the region of Sete Povos das Misses and on the
islands of the estuary of the Guaba River in Rio
Grande do Sul, south of Brazil. However, as an
effective commercial activity, winegrowing started in 1875 with Italian immigration to Brazil.
FB: In Brazil, winemaking tradition,

however long in existence, is still
relatively unknown. What have
the institutions related to wine
been doing to improve the image of
Brazilian wines?
CECN: The institutions, nowadays, have
been working intensively on their marketing.
The main idea is dissemination. Uvibra (Brazilian Vitiviniculture Union), specifically, has been
working at a national level for 40 years. It is the
main forum for the protection of Brazilian winegrowing and for government relations. Their
main task, which we would like to develop even
further, is to promote Brazilian wine through advertising campaigns, the promotion of wine consumption and of its health benefits. This is the
main goal of the organizations besides protecting the industry and working with government
to elaborate sectorial policies.
FB: Is there a marketing plan by

Uvibra or wine producers? How is it
carried out, particularly abroad?
CECN: Dissemination abroad is done
through Wines from Brazil, which is our big enFlavors from Brazil
As an effective
commercial activity,
winegrowing started
in 1875 with Italian
immigration to Brazil.
tity for the representation of national wine cultivation for export. It is an integrated sectorial
program, supported by APEX (Brazilian Trade
and Investment Promotion Agency), in partnership with other entities, such as Sebrae (Brazilian Micro and Small Enterprises Bureau). The
goal of Wines from Brazil is to promote Brazilian
wine abroad. Today, if I am not mistaken, there
are 17 wineries associated. These wineries get together to promote Brazilian wine internationally,
by participating in fairs, doing technical visits to
markets, promoting special events such as dinners coordinated with wines , tasting events at
hotels, restaurants, and even at our own embassies (the diplomatic staff have been very helpful).
At the international level, these are the main activities.
FB: Which markets are more receptive

and which are more indifferent to
Brazilian wine?
CECN: The most receptive markets are
the ones that are traditional consumers of wine,
namely, Europe and the United States. These already mature markets recognize good quality.
There is no use in trying to sell a good quality
product to someone who does not recognize it.
The more mature markets are the ones that accept our product, essentially because Brazilian
wine today presents an excellent cost/benefit ratio, mainly in the premium and higher catego161
This large diversity,

not only of climate but
also of soil, and even
cultural, enables us
to have a very large
diversity in production,
thus offering products
that other countries,
traditional producers,
cannot.
This is the main situation with Brazilian wines.

So, more mature markets that recognize quality,
that can open two bottles of wine and say: well,
this one is worth more than the other, these are
the most receptive markets.
The less-receptive markets are the less-mature markets that still dont know wines and buy
them according to reputation. Since Brazil does
not have a strong winery tradition and is not yet
an internationally acclaimed large producer of
wine, it frequently suffers from prejudice and is
not able to penetrate emerging markets, such as
China and Latin America, which do not yet have
the culture and the habit of consuming wine.
Our main markets are: the United States, Switzerland, France, Germany and England. All traditional producers of wine, except England.
ries. Brazil is not currently positioning itself to

compete price-wise with Argentina and Chile,
mainly because of a production volume issue.
Brazil produces around 40 million liters of fine
wine, while Argentina produces 1.2 billion and
Chile 900 million. They are able to produce wine
at lower prices due to the large economy of scale.
Nevertheless, in terms of quality, given its diverse
climate, Brazil produces wine from the extreme
South to the Northeast. In Chile and Argentina,
for example, all the vineyards are irrigated with
cold water from the Andes; in Australia, the majority of the vineyards are found in semi-desert
areas. This large diversity, not only of climate
but also of soil, and even cultural, enables us to
have a very large diversity in production, thus
offering products that other countries, traditional producers, cannot. This has been our great
differential for the external market. We are not
presenting ourselves as one more producer who
has arrived to sell cheap wine; we present differentiated, sophisticated wines with added value.
162
FB: Besides the fact that Brazilian

wine is still relatively unknown, what
other challenges does the promotion
of Brazilian wine face abroad?
CECN: The first challenge is to transform
Brazil into a well-known wine producer. We must
develop in the minds of international consumers
the idea that to talk about wine and Brazil in the
same context is not absurd. This still happens
today, although it is now changing. The second
step is to show that Brazilian wine is a high quality product and that it presents an above average
cost/benefit ratio. Nowadays Brazil focuses on
wines with premium quality or higher, with added value. Thus, our second challenge is precisely
to enable international consumers to recognize
the quality that we offer. The third challenge, at a
more advanced phase, is to be able to differentiate the internal regions of Brazil for international
consumers. Some years of presentation and communication of the Brazilian product abroad will
Flavors from Brazil
Vineyard.
Source: Vincola Miolo Ltda
163
Nowadays Brazil focuses

on wines with premium
quality or higher, with
added value. Thus,
our second challenge
is precisely to enable
international consumers
to recognize the quality
that we offer.
be necessary in order to enable this market to
differentiate the wine produced in different regions of Brazil, such as the Vinhedos Valley, the
Northeast region, in Santa Catarina, and in the
Campanha region in Rio Grande do Sul. We hope
that, in the future, these regional specificities will
be recognized, as occurs in the majority of countries that have reached this advanced stage.
FB: Are there denominations of

origin in Brazil? Which ones?
CECN: Yes. The first denomination of origin that was developed in Brazil, Vinhedos Valley, dates from 2001. It is a geographical indication. Other regions are working in this sense, but
currently, with the approval of the INPI (Brazilian National Institute of Intellectual Property) as
a geographical indication, only Vinhedos Valley
for now. There are in Brazil, several production
zones, which are mandatory for export, without which the market does not recognize a fine
wine. They are: the border production zone, that
encompasses the south of Rio Grande do Sul;
the production zone of the mountain area of Rio
Grande do Sul; and the production zone of the So
164
Francisco River Valley, which includes the whole

production zone of the Northeast. The idea is to
enlarge and create new production zones, mainly
with the development of the region. In Santa Catarina, for example, much has been done so that
soon it may become a production zone and, who
knows, acquire some denominations of origin.
FB: Many specialists stated that

Brazil would not be able to produce
high quality wine due to its tropical
climate. On what are these statements
based?
CECN: The New Zealanders ended this
theory that quality wines could only be produced
in temperate regions, between the parallels of 40
and 45 North and South. They produce excellent
quality wine above 45 south latitude. The Canadians, with their ice wines, also helped to overthrow the theory. I believe that the Northeast is
going to end this idea once and for all. In reality,
there is universality in grape production. It has
already been perfectly proven that grapes can
be produced from Greenland to the Northeast of
Brazil. Countries which were jokes in the wine
producing world, such as England, of which was
said: it is as rare as English wine, today produce excellent wine. This lobby of a preferential
region was overturned many years ago. Today
Brazil, with its continental dimension, produces
wine everywhere except in the Amazon. In other
parts of the country there are very interesting
production regions, very interesting wines, very
well developed projects that have been advancing rapidly.
FB: At which stage is the grape

cultivation project of the So
Francisco River today? Many people
have said that it wouldnt be possible
Jancis Robinson, the

main English wine
critic, commented on
the quality of wines
produced in the Northeast
of Brazil saying that
they had developed
many varieties, which
were very unique and
adapted to the region.
Among these we can
mention the Shiraz and
the Muscatel.
to produce quality grapes in the
region, but, currently, it produces
two harvests per year.
CECN: Exactly. This project of the So Francisco Valley is very interesting and very old, it
started in the 1940s by Cinzano, which produced
vermouth in that region. In 1970, the Milano
Farm, of the Prsico Pizzamiglio group, developed a very interesting project which included
wine production. In 1980, Aurora winery began a
project called Bebedouro (water fountain) that
promoted the immigration of grape producing
families to the region. Currently, several projects
are being undertaken in the area, such as Garziera of Brazil, Garziera of Italy, Bianchetti Tedesco, Ouro Verde, Boticelli, which is quite old,
and more recently, Rio Sol, that came about from
the union of Portuguese Do Sul, Raimundo da
Fonte group and the import company Expand.
Flavors from Brazil
Thus, we can observe that this project is not a recent invention, as it has been developed for 67
years. It is not a challenge or a curiosity anymore,
but a reality. Jancis Robinson, the main English
wine critic, commented on the quality of wines
produced in the Northeast of Brazil saying that
they had developed many varieties, which were
very unique and adapted to the region. Among
these we can mention the Shiraz and the Muscatel. What we are seeking in the Northeast are
new varieties of grapes adapted to the region to
broaden the scope of production. However, the
varieties already planted, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Muscatels and Chenin Blanc, are
fully developed, they are in the international
market and are recognized.
FB: Where does the majority of

Brazilian wine production come from?
CECN: One can say that the majority of
national wine production, about 90% of the fine
wines, comes from Rio Grande do Sul. Only 5 to
7% of the production is concentrated in the Brazilian Northeast. In Brazil, there is a striking difference between fine wine and regular wine. Just
so you can have an idea, the total Brazilian market is around 350 million liters. Of these, 268 million are regular wines that are made with hybrid
American grapes. The remainder, 82 million liters are fine wines which are produced with wine
grapes (Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, etc.).
FB: What are the main qualities of the

Brazilian wine?
CECN: To speak of Brazilian wine as a
whole is complicated. We have a very large diversity in production. We can comment on the
characteristics of the wine from the mountains
of Rio Grande do Sul or the aspects of the wine
165
from the Northeast or from Santa Catarina. Each

region has very distinct characteristics. What can
be said, however, is that the largest production is
from Rio Grande do Sul. The main characteristics
would be light wines with a strong fruity flavor.
They are very fruity wines, with an excellent balance between structure and acidity. Since they
are very well balanced in the alcoholic degree,
they are light and pleasant to drink. But, as I said
before, Brazil is very big. In Rio Grande do Sul
lie the border region and the Campanha region,
where, due to their excellent climate and soil,
wines are very fruity, well structured, but with a
higher alcoholic level due to the lack of rain during harvest. However, in general, we can say that
the main characteristic of Brazilian wine is that
it is fruity, light bodied, with a pleasant bouquet
and well balanced in alcoholic level.
FB: Brazilian wines still suffer

prejudice from Brazilians themselves?
What is the preferred wine among
Brazilian palates?
CECN: Yes, it still endures a great deal of
prejudice. Brazil places itself among the countries
that are not yet mature. Our per capita consumption is around 1.8 liters/year. According to 2007
data, the total sale of fine wines in Brazil is of 70
million liters: 22 million are national wines and
48 million are imported. As to sparkling wines,
the market consumes 12 million liters: 7 million 600 thousand are produced nationally and
4 million 500 thousand are imported. What we
have observed is that as culture grows, wine consumption also grows and there is a higher appreciation for the national production. This happens
frequently abroad, where consumers already
know how to recognize a good quality product. I
believe that in Brazil this will soon be the case.
166
Obviously, this is not totally the consumers fault. Producers have a big responsibility in
the bad perception of Brazilian wine. Only in the
last 10 years have there been large investments in
national fine wine production and an incredible
increase in its quality. Many Brazilian consumers have not followed up on this evolution and
still have the image that Brazilian wine is a lowquality product. Formerly, this distorted image
was justified in some products that were offered
with low technology, but, currently, Brazil is
ahead of many old and traditional wine producing countries because we have acquired what is
most modern in terms of winemaking; the main
Brazilian wineries have international consultants
that help with the development of technology.
This has enabled Brazilian wine to achieve, over
a ten-year period, an international quality level,
so much so that it is recognized throughout the
world as an exportable product.
FB: Are there any differences

between Brazilian wines produced
for the internal market and the ones
reserved for export?
CECN: They are basically the same product. They are even bottled at the same time. The
difference is on the label. The one on export
wines shows the legal requirements of the country of destination. What we can observe is that,
in regard to export wines, the market seeks and
consumes wines with higher added value, from
premium up.
FB: The quality of Brazilian sparkling

wine puts it among the best in the
world. What are its characteristics?
CECN: The main production region of the
sparkling wines is the mountains of Rio Grande
do Sul. The varieties like Chardonnay, Pinot
The refreshing
characteristic of
Brazilian sparkling
wines is what
makes it distinctive
internationally. We can
say that in the last five
years Brazil has only
lost to the Champagne
region in France in
terms of number of
international prizes.
Noir, and proseccos themselves, have adapted
very well to the region because of its climate
and soil, leading to a product that is fresh and
jovial. Brazilian sparkling wine has a pleasant
bouquet, and its freshness is achieved by an excellent balance between structure and acidity. In
the regions that are not able to achieve the same
structure and acidity, the sparkling wines are
less refreshing, and the refreshing characteristic of Brazilian sparkling wines is what makes it
distinctive internationally. We can say that in the
last five years Brazil has only lost to the Champagne region in France in terms of number of international prizes.
FB: And how is the receptiveness to

Brazilian sparkling wines abroad?
CECN: The largest problem about exporting sparkling wine is that Brazil does not produce
regular sparkling wine, our exports are focused
on premium sparkling wines, and the market is
Flavors from Brazil
dominated by cheap sparkling wines, mainly the

Spanish cavas or the Italian proseccos products
that dominate the market at a low-price level. In
relation to value added products, the French, due
to their reputation, practically dominate the market on their own. However, the market is now
changing. The consumption of sparkling wines
which was not so large in the world, limited to
festive occasions and celebrations, is now starting to include daily consumption. In Brazil, as in
the rest of the world, champagne bars where
quality starts to be appreciated and price is important can be found. In these places, when you
want quality and you are not prepared to pay a
high price for it, Brazilian sparkling wines come
on the scene, because they are quality products
but are not so expensive. It is in this market that
Brazil is advancing the export of its sparkling
wine.
FB: Does the success of Brazilian

caipirinha and cachaas abroad,
almost as a patriotic icon, hinder the
external projection of our wines?
CECN: Everything that you present with
quality that comes from Brazil helps the Brazilian wine. Abroad people talk very highly of
caipirinha, which is a Brazilian icon, and also in
our country it is considered an excellent cocktail
drink. Different initiatives, be they related to cachaas, wines, fashion designers, models or soccer
players, achieve fantastic international success.
Everything that is disseminated, presenting a joyous, sophisticated Brazil, with its positive side
in view, helps, indeed, to promote the Brazilian
wine. Germany, today, is one of the main caipirinha consumers of the world, and one of the main
markets for our cachaa, and Germany is also an
excellent importer of Brazilian wines.
167
Glossary
Abar black-eyed beans crushed and seasoned
with spices and dried shrimp rolled in banana
leaf cooked in water bath or vapor.
Aca Rice or corn cake, very common in the
Afro-Bahian cuisine.
Acaraj black-eyed bean cakes fried in palm
oil, usually served with shrimp or vatap filling.
Aa also known as assai, a typical fruit from
the Amazon region.
Alcamonias sweet made, in general, from molasses and flour
Alfola dough of sugar or sugarcane honey,
in a thick texture, that when kneaded becomes
whitened. Used for candies.
Alu - Soft drink made from pineapple or rice,
sugar and lemon, sold commonly by black women in the colonial cities.
Ambrosia a traditional Portuguese dessert.
Arroz carreteiro rice, shredded dried meat and
spices mixed together.
Baba-de-moa a typical sweet from Brazil made
from yolks, coconut milk and sugar syrup.
168
Baio de dois rice, beans spices and often meat

all cooked together
Barreado a typical dish from the coast of
Paran.
Beijus A type of manioc or tapioca biscuit baked
and rolled.
Bob de camaro creamy shrimp stew made
with maniocs and palm oil.
Bom-bocado sweet made of sugar, yolks, flour,
grated coconut or cheese.
Bolo de estudante fried cake made with tapioca
and grated coconut.
Brevidades crackers of polvilho (manioc flour),
sugar, eggs, etc. baked.
Buchada de bode goat viscera thoroughly
cleaned and cooked in its own stomach.
Canjica a white variety of corn, very typical
of Brazilian cuisine commonly used in a sort of
sweet porridge.
Carim cake prepared with fat manioc dough,
in the shape of flattened discs dried in the sun.
Caruru Afro-Bahian food made with okra, dried
shrimp and peanuts.
Catimpuera type of fermented beverage made

from cooked or smashed corn or manioc, mixed
with water and bee honey
Chimarro strong tea prepared from the greens
of the yerba mate, a South American traditional
beverage.
Cocada grated coconut and sugar.
Empadinhas tidbits made in small molds with
a crumbling crust filled with shrimp, chicken,
meat, cheese or vegetables like palm of heart and
spinach. A large version of empada is usually
served as a main course and is called empado.
Farinha dgua manioc flour made from the
manioc roots after it has been left to soak in the
river for a few days, producing a more humid
flour.
Farofa toasted manioc flour
Lel cake made with corn and coconut.

Me-benta a sweet cake made from cornstarch,
butter, sugar and eggs.
Manioba food made out of manioc shoots
mixed with meat and/or fish and seasoned with
salt and pepper.
Mendubi peanuts
Mineiro de botas dessert made with fried bananas and melted cheese.
Mocots cow feet
Mojica a stew of spotted surubim fish cooked
with manioc and spices.
Moqueca capixaba a fish stew of native Brazilian influence, Esprito Santo style.
Moqueca de banana-da-terra a plantain stew.
Fub maize flour
Paoca a dish made of meat with manioc

meal.
Galinha cabidela cooked chicken with blood

sauce.
Pamonha sweet or salted corn paste rolled and

baked in fresh corn husks.
Gergilada sweet made from sesame seeds.
Papo-de-anjo dessert prepared with yolks

beaten with sugar, baked in small molds.
Guariroba variety of heart of palm with bitter

taste;
Flavors from Brazil
169
Passarinha roasted ox spleen.

Pastis fried pastries made from wheat-based
dough with salt or sweet fillings.
P-de-moleque a sweet made with candy and
peanuts.
Pequi rice rice cooked with pequi (a souari
fruit), typical of the Cerrado with a strong smell
and taste.
Pinho nuts of the Paran pine
bay leaf, onions, garlic, cumin, clove and lime

juice.
Sarrabulho Guisado of lamb or porks viscera
and blood.
Vatap traditional dish of the Afro-Bahian cuisine with fish or crustacean mixed with a mush
made from manioc flour, palm sauce and pepper.
Xerm thick corn flour
Pinhoada sweet made from honey and pine

nuts.
Piro mush prepared with fish broth
Queijada a pie made with flour, milk, eggs,
cheese and sugar, cheesecake
Quindim a cake made with yolk, sugar and coconut
Tacac a shrimp-based dish from the amazon
region
Tapioca a flavorless starchy ingredient produced from treated and dried cassava (manioc)
root and used in cooking.
Torresmo crackling (crisp, browned rasher of
lard)
Tucupi a seasoning prepared of pepper and
manioc juice
Tutu de feijo mashed beans in broth thickened
with manioc flour.
Sarapatel dish made with pork or other animals viscera and blood, seasoned with parsley,
170

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Preface

ell me what you eat, and I will tell

certain flavor and a specific circumstance occurs

you who you are. Brillat-Savarins

frequently at the individual level. Nonetheless,

a whole. Brazilians who live abroad, as well as

gesting food is a biological act, but eating is a

occur, from the preparation of the ingredients to

an acaraj, a caipirinha or a good cachaa. In the

ing their neutral appearance and revealing the

table. In this sense, the texts that compose this

typical dishes and eating habits of each region,

Information Coordinating Office

Flavors from Brazil

ashed white carrot has recently been

als for corn flour, such as the polenta of Veneto.

their male visitors.

Broth made from tapioca, a grainy starch extracted from manioc.

Texts from Brazil . N 13

raphy and is relegated almost as a diabolic root

less influence from the elite and more popular

for soldiers and slaves should not be scattered

gergilada, pinhoada, preserved fruits, quince and

that Portugal paid more attention to the spices

to India and Guinea, or roasted sardines by the

Colquios dos Simples e Drogas da ndia (Colloquia

around their necks, jewelry, bracelets around

Flavors from Brazil

Texts from Brazil . N 13

tion of the provisions. Foreign eaters, like the

meat. They are noted for the ritual killing of pork

the expensive cereals with nuts, legumes and

omnivorous Portuguese were more prepared for

Stew prepared by sauting the ingredients.

Flavors from Brazil

Rural workers. Di Cavalcanti (1940).

as he arrived, in 1768, about the food of the land

uit Joo Daniel in Tesouro Descoberto no Mximo

unbearable squirting cucumbers . The illustrious

boring viandas like mocots, carurus, vataps,

that registers the mouth-watering baking skills of

coconut rice, coconut bean, polenta, rice or corn

carim cakes and beijus. Wines and liquors are

finite types. Nevertheless, his list reveals a first

pap. Passion fruit juice in vinegar goes well with

Any type of food or snacks.

Meats conserved in salt.

Texts from Brazil . N 13

manatee sausages are even sent to Portugal. Friar

Flavors from Brazil

The Brazilian ingredients

Article originally published in Nossa Histria (Our History)

Paula Pinto e Silva

grows. This was the motto of the

Flavors from Brazil

This is how we have a land

Texts from Brazil . N 13

Manioc mill. Butler.Lithography, 1845.

With the entire workforce dedicated to

Flavors from Brazil

as mouth-ammunition; it was easy to produce,

Market and fair. Edgar de Cerqueira Falco, Aquarelle.

the Jesuits banished by the Marquis of Pombal,

ing their backs to the coast, the human nucleus