Dining In The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest provides many fresh and exotic ingredients that could not be found elsewhere. There are many different dishes that can be prepared with the local ingredients that grow in the rainforest.

Meat Dishes

The Amazon Rainforest is not the place where you could expect to have many meat dishes but there are some made with cecina or pork used as the most common meat.

Maniçoba is a Brazilian dish that is prepared with the leaves of the manioc plant (needing seven days to simmer to remove poisonous hydrocyanic acid). The leaves are then combined with pieces of bacon, sausage and other types of salted pork.

Pato No Tucupi is the most famous dish in the Brazilian Amazon. This is a dish prepared with a duck that is served in an exotic tucupi sauce. The duck is roasted, shredded, and cooked with garlic, chicory, basil and tucupi. It is then served over rice with hot pepper and a sprinkling of fermented manioc flour.

Juane is a specialty from Peru. It is prepared with chicken, rice, olives, hard-boiled eggs and turmeric all wrapped up in banana leaves. Then boiled and served with fried plantain. If not made with chicken, fish or vegetables can also be used.

Tacacho Con Cecina is a specialty of Iquitos and the Peruvian Amazon. It is a popular breakfast food. Plantains are grilled or boiled, peeled, and mashed in a mortar along with small pieces of pork rind, lard, and salt then shaped into balls or patties. It is served with cecina, dried, smoked pork made with traditional spices from the jungle.

Fish Dishes

Fish can be plentiful considering the Amazon River and its tributaries. Freshwater fish has become a main staple of the diet in the rainforest.

Patarashca is a dish made with grilled fish and different vegetables like onions, tomatoes, chillies, and coriander all wrapped up in a large bijao leaf.

Tacacá is a delicious shrimp soup origination in the Para region of Brazil. The broth is made with wild manioc, jambu (a native variety of paracress) and small yellow peppers. The broth makes the shrimp very tasty.

Manioc

Manioc also called cassava or yucca is a starchy root vegetable and is used in many dishes in the region. It is a staple that replaces the potato. In Brazil, it is turned into manioc flour by grating it and leaving it out in the sun to dry.

Bolinho de Macaxeira is a delectable Brazilian appetizer. It is prepared with cooked manioc that is mashed and stuffed with cheese and then deep-fried in hot oil. The manioc dumplings are really tasty.

Plantains

Plantains are another staple of the rainforest. This is an unripe fruit similar to bananas but not as sweet. It is prepared by steaming, boiling, or frying but cannot be eaten raw. Its texture and flavor are similar to potatoes.

Patacones are the most common way to serve plantain. Using very green plantains, they are peeled and cut into two or three parts. Then they are partially cooked in hot oil, smashed flat and deep-fried until golden making plantain chips.

Fruit

The Amazon Rainforest has a lot of sweet, exotic fruit that can be used for sauces, desserts, and drinks.

Cupuaçú Ice Cream is made with capuacu which is a tropical fruit that is similar to the cacao fruit. It has a scent that is a cross between chocolate and pineapple and it tastes like pear mixed with bananas. The cupuacu is frozen and placed in a blender with condensed milk, and limes to get the ice cream.

Palm

Palm trees are also used in cooking and cuisine. The leaves are used to wrap around different foods and can be cooked in a variety of ways.

Chonta Salad is made with hearts of palm that have been cut into strings similar to fettucini and seasoned with local spices.

Peppers

The genre Capsicum species, which belong to all peppers originated in the Amazon Rainforest. In the rainforest is the greatest concentration of wild pepper species among them the red Amazon Pepper that has a fiery flavor with hints of celery and the Aji charapita, a tiny pepper that is hotter than a jalapeno.

Charapita Tomato Salsa is common to the Peruvian Amazon. The dish is prepared with raw onion slivers, tomatoes, lime, and lemon juice, some coriander, and a spoonful of chilli sauce made with charapita pepper.