Amazonian cuisine includes the foods and preparation methods of various peoples in the

Amazon jungle The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, including the dishes they have popularized among neighbors.

Brazil

Maniçoba Maniçoba is a festive dish in Brazilian cuisine, especially from the Amazonian region state of Pará and Bahia. It is of indigenous origin, and is made with leaves of the Manioc plant that have been finely ground and boiled for at least four d ...

is an Amazonian dish from Brazil made with pieces of meat, sausage, manioc, and

culantro ''Eryngium foetidum'' is a tropical perennial herb in the family Apiaceae. Common names include culantro ( or ), recao, chadon beni (pronounced shadow benny), Mexican coriander, bhandhania, long coriander, sawtooth coriander, and ngò gai. It i ...

leaves. Amazonian cuisine includes many freshwater fish such as peixe nobre (noble fish), the

pirarucu The arapaima, pirarucu, or paiche is any large species of bonytongue in the genus ''Arapaima'' native to the Amazon and Essequibo basins of South America. ''Arapaima'' is the type genus of the subfamily Arapaiminae within the family Osteoglos ...

(the world's largest freshwater fish), and tambaqui. Smaller fishes such as surubim, curimatã, jaraqui, acari and tucunaré are also eaten, often grilled or sometimes fried. Served in a tomato sauce, the dishes are known as

escabeche __NOTOC__ Escabeche is the name for a number of dishes in Spanish, Portuguese, Filipino and Latin American cuisines, consisting of marinated fish, meat or vegetables, cooked or pickled in an acidic sauce (usually with vinegar), and colored w ...

; they can also be prepared in coconut milk or stewed in

tucupi Tucupi is a yellow sauce extracted from wild manioc root in Brazil's Amazon jungle. It is also produced as a by-product of manioc flour manufacture. The juice is toxic when raw (containing hydrocyanic acid). Tucupi is prepared by peeling, grati ...

(a sauce made with fermented

manioc ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

juices).

Tacacá Tacacá () is a typical dish of Northern Brazil (mostly consumed in Pará, Amazonas, Acre, Amapá and Roraima). It is made with ''jambu'' (a native variety of paracress), and ''tucupi'' (a broth made with wild manioc), cooked tapioca starch ...

is a shrimp soup and

vatapá Vatapá (Yoruba: vata'pa, ) is an Afro-Brazilian dish made from bread, shrimp, coconut milk, finely ground peanuts and palm oil mashed into a creamy paste. It is a typical food of Salvador, Bahia and it is also common to the North and Northea ...

is a Bahian seafood dish. Staples of Amazonian cuisine include manioc, a starchy root vegetable, as well as fruit. Juices and ice creams are made from them, including acerola, graviola, fruta de conde (also referred to as ''ata'' in Spanish and as sugar-apple in English), and

cupuaçu ''Theobroma grandiflorum'', commonly known as cupuaçu, also spelled cupuassu, cupuazú, cupu assu, or copoazu, is a tropical rainforest tree related to cacao. Native and common throughout the Amazon basin, it is naturally cultivated in the jung ...

. Açai is gaining widespread notoriety. There are also juices from palm trees such as taperebá,

buriti ''Mauritia flexuosa'', known as the moriche palm, ''ité'' palm, ''ita'', ''buriti'', ''muriti'', ''miriti'' (Brazil), ''canangucho'' (Colombia), ''acho'' (Ecuador), or ''aguaje'' (Peru), is a palm tree. It grows in and near swamps and other wet ...

and bacuri.

Brazil nut The Brazil nut (''Bertholletia excelsa'') is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and it is also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seeds. It is one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the Amazon rainforest. ...

s have gained widespread popularity.

Guarana Guaraná ( from the Portuguese ''guaraná'' ), ''Paullinia cupana'', syns. ''P. crysan, P. sorbilis'') is a climbing plant in the family Sapindaceae, native to the Amazon basin and especially common in Brazil. Guaraná has large leaves and cl ...

is now widely consumed as an ingredient of popular energy drinks.

Peru

Juane is one of the most popular dishes from the Peruvian jungle. It is widely consumed during the Catholic

Feast of San Juan A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...

(St. John), held on 24 June each year. The dish was named in honor of San Juan Bautista. The dish could have a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

origin. With the arrival of the Spanish, missionaries popularized the Biblical story of Salome,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

and

Herodias Herodias ( el, Ἡρῳδιάς, ''Hērǭdiás''; ''c.'' 15 BC – after AD 39) was a princess of the Herodian dynasty of Judaea during the time of the Roman Empire. Christian writings connect her with John the Baptist's execution. Family relat ...

. Some believe the dish's name comes from the reference to the head of San Juan. Another popular Peruvian dish from the jungle is

tacacho Tacacho is a traditional Peruvian meal that is typically served for breakfast. It is popular in the Amazonas region, where the natives boil or grill plantains, peel them, then mash them in a large wooden mortar. When mashed, the plantains are co ...

, made from fried slices of plaintain mashed with chicharones (fried pork fat). It is usually accompanied by

chorizo Chorizo (, from Spanish ; similar to but distinct from Portuguese ) is a type of pork cured meat originating from the Iberian Peninsula. In Europe, chorizo is a fermented, cured, smoked meat, which may be sliced and eaten without cooking, or ...

(fried sausage). The dish is typical of Iquitos as well as the Peruvian Amazon. It is widespread in the rest of the country. The term ''tacacho'' derives from the

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

term ''taka chu'', which means beaten. Tacacho consumption varies depending on the region where it is made. In Madre de Dios and San Martín, many people eat tacachos for breakfast, while in other regions, it is a dish served at lunch or dinner. In the San Martín region, tacacho is included in the Christmas dinner. In the Amazon region of Ecuador, the dish is known as ''bolon''. It has a counterpart in the

Caribbean islands Almost all of the Caribbean islands are in the Caribbean Sea, with only a few in inland lakes. The largest island is Cuba. Other sizable islands include Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. Some of the smaller islands are re ...

, where it is called ''mofongo''. Peruvian chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffano has tried to highlight Amazonian cuisine and ingredients in his restaurant.Peruvian chef's focus on Amazonian cuisine
With the 2012 World Gourmet Summit wrapped up on Thursday, Debbie Yong spotlights three ambitious chefs who are serving up cuisines on the cutting edge Chefs to watch, May 05, 2012 The Business Times Lifestyle

Brazil

Peru

References

Further reading