What we cooked...

We made three fish dishes: tambaqui fish in a manioc sauce, and tambaqui baked with spices. We also fried fish after dredging it in tapioca flour and spices. We made farina and a rice and river shrimp dish. We also made some kind of a crunchy tapioca pearl salad. For dessert we made a sort of layered torte with a creamy filling and an Amazonian fruit jam sauce for the top. Crushed cashews were sprinkled on top. We ate buffet style, and they served whole fresh fruits as well: mangoes, passion fruit, guavas, and other local fruits that we had never seen before. A number of students ate whole mangoes, while others were more adventuresome and tried the unknown. It did take some trial and error to figure out what parts if the mystery fruits were actually edible, and at one point the chef had to come over and show us how to peel and eat one of them.