Roast duck simmered in tucupi, the sour yellow broth of fermented cassava juice, with jambu leaves that make the mouth tingle.
What makes it pato no tucupi
Duck, roasted first, then simmered in tucupi.
Jambu leaves, blanched, for their tingle.
Served with rice and cassava flour.
Where it comes from
It's built on Amazonian Indigenous ingredients. Tucupi is the juice pressed from grated cassava, left to ferment and then boiled for a long time to make it safe; jambu is a leafy herb whose flowers and leaves numb and tingle.
In Belém it's the dish of the Círio de Nazaré, the great October procession, when families gather for a long lunch — often with the duck, often Muscovy, a bird native to these parts.
How it varies
Tacacá
A hot street soup of tucupi, tapioca starch, jambu and dried shrimp, sold in gourds.