978-1-4222-3341-2

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

Barbecue, yucca chips, and cassava bread.

Cassava root shown just harvested from the ground.

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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: BRAZIL