Food of the Andes » beverages http://www.michellefried.org/blog Michelle O. Fried Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:26:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Fermented drink in the Amazon: chicha de yuca http://www.michellefried.org/blog/2008/food-in-the-amazon/ http://www.michellefried.org/blog/2008/food-in-the-amazon/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:21:01 +0000 michellefried http://www.michellefried.org/blog/?p=19 WOAH!! Did I just have my eyes opened as I walked in the Amazon jungle to a yuca field, half-way hidden beneath a canopy of tall trees.  I was led in by a Huarani woman, a member of one of the tribes most recently to be touched by “civilization”.  Gami harvested the huge “hands” of brown, hairy roots pulling the 20 or 30 pound root structure from the sandy soil.  Near the field was a small lake of boas; otherwise we could have pulled up larger hands across the lake, but the bridge was broken Gami told me.

Yuca (also called cassava or manioc) is peeled and then boiled.  Once cooked soft, women chew it, spit it out and let it ferment.  With only the addition of water, it becomes a drink.  When hunting no longer provides game or fish, this yuca “chicha” becomes the mainstay of the population.  I must admit it is not my favorite and yet it is amazing how healthy the population looks, as they subsist mainly on this fermented drink.  At least It has no sugar or salt added, and is certainly not a processed product coming from the industrialized food chain.

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