Pantanal Cuisine Part II

[I realized after writing this post that Christina had already written an excellent and yummy-looking post on Pantanal Cuisine, but I figured one can't ever have too much of food, so below is more about food in the Pantanal!]

I love to eat. I plan my days around meals, I bring snacks wherever I go, and I’m unfortunately frequently victim of the pandemic disordered state known as “hangry”. Given my obsession with food, and given that food is an essential facet of any culture, I decided to do a little bit of research this week on Pantanal cuisine and see what the wetlands have in store for our gastrointestinal tracts.

One thing that struck me as I was doing some reading was the diversity of the cuisine of the Pantanal and Brazil in general. With European, African, and indigenous influences from the colonizers, slaves, and natives that came to inhabit Brazil in the last few centuries, Brazilian cuisine is a cultural salad bowl, reflective of its diverse population.

In the Pantanal, the cuisine varies slightly between the north and south. Northern food is very fishy – we’ll likely be eating lots of Pacu, dourado, and pintado. Pacu, if you recall, is our well-toothed friend and cousin of the piranha, and pintado is a local fish without scales or bones. These are often fried, grilled, baked, or smoked. Below are some of the most popular fish dishes:

Peixe a Urucum

Piranha Soup - a rumored aphrodisiac 

In the south the cuisine is influenced heavily by the cattle and wheat farms in the area, giving rise to lots of meat and grains in food. You can look forward to eating lots of beef. Some popular dishes include carne seca com abobora (sundried beef with pumpkin) and paçoca de pilã (sundried beef with manioc flour). 

Seca com abobora

paçoca de pilã

Of course, you can't forget about dessert, which in the Pantanal is sweet and yummy. Furrundu is a local favorite, made of papaya, sugar cane, and coconut. Bocaiúva ice cream is also supposed to be quite tasty!

Furrundu

Are you hungry yet? I think I'm going to have a little snack before class. Happy eating!

-Sarah

Sources

http://www.jacareonline.com.br/oferta/detalhe/50-de-desconto-em-um-delicioso-file-de-peixe-a-urucum-congelado-de-r-44-00-por-r-21-90-compre-e-use-aproveite.html

http://www.saboresdematogrosso.com.br/furrundu/

www.revistadeguste.com

The Lonely Planet: Brazil