About: Cuisine of Pará

Pará Cuisine refers to the traditional cuisine native to Pará, Brazil. Foods from this region primarily draw influence from Indian, African, and Portuguese cultures. The core ingredients are sourced from the Amazon jungle, and may include meats such as shrimp, crab, seafood, fish, poultry, bush meat, and duck; these are all cooked with leaves (boiled leaves called maniva, chicory, coriander), peppers and herbs. Dishes are cooked in clay pots or barbecued in moquéns (wrapped in leaves and roasted) and soaked in tucupi, a yellow sauce extracted from wild manioc root, native to the Amazon. Dishes may be served in bowls, in containers of clay, wrapped in cocoons of banana leaves or even in urupemas (vegetable fiber sifter); this gives a pleasant flavor to Paranese dishes.