Saveur Magazine visits Marajó

Although the article appeared last month in the print edition of Saveur magazine, an American food and wine publication, Saveur's online edition has only recently been updated to include a wonderful article by noted Brazilian food writer Neide Rigo on the gastronomy of Marajó Island, the Switzerland-sized island that is sits right at the mouth of the Amazon River.

Neide Rigo is a perfect host for a journey to Marajó. Based in São Paulo, she has traveled the length and breadth of Brazil is search of exotic fruits, interesting grains and traditional recipes that are on the verge of extinction. Her blog Come-Se is probably the most highly-regarded and one of the most well-read food blogs in Brazil, and she has made regular appearances at gastronomic trade shows and expositions, on TV and radio and contributed to magazines and reviews.

For the Saveur article, she took the magazine's editor, James Olesand, on an exedition to discover the foodways of Marajó. A sample from the article:

Invariably, such visits become meals. On this part of the island, fishing and cattle ranching drive the local economy, and my hosts pull together extravagant dishes that speak to the bounty of Marajó's rivers or ranches, or both: casquinha de caranguejo, stuffed crabs strewn with butter-fried cassava flour; filé Marajoara, meltingly tender fillets of buffalo steak seared in a skillet and topped with slabs of queijo do Marajó, sweet, soft buffalo milk cheese that melt luxuriously over the meat; sombremesa de banana com queijo, a layered, luscious dessert of sliced banana and queijo do Marajó drenched in sweetened condensed milk and sprinkled with cinnamon. The Amazon forest harbors ingredients that just don't exist elsewhere in Brazil, and I savor the impossible-seeming flavors that the island gives in abundance. There's a tree, cipó-d'álho (garlic bush), growing outside of the Britos' kitchen that smells of garlic and, interestingly, bacon; the leaves bring a smoky-savory depth to everything from soups to grilled foods. Another morning, at the market in Soure, I'm served a bowl of pork stew that's been simmered with aromatics and jambú, a wild cress that gently, pleasantly numbs the mouth in much the same way that Sichuan peppercorn does. I eat it with rice and beans, noting its layers upon layers of flavor. The tingling sensation of the jambú stays with me after I've drained the bowl.

The article is accompanied by photos taken by James Olesand and is well worth the short time it takes to read. You can find the whole article by clicking here.

Marajó - Brazil's Island of Buffalos

The enormous island of Marajó sits at the mouth of the Amazon river system and is by all measures the largest riverine island in the world. Its 15,000 square miles (40,000 square kilometers) make it larger than the country of Switzerland or the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the 35th largest island in the world - of any type. It sits almost directly on the Equator and is hot and humid all year round.

The only access to the island is by air or water - there is no land connection. From the nearest major city, Belém, it is a three-hour ferry ride to Marajó. Ferries dock at the island city of Soure. Even on the island most transportation is by boat along the coast - there are very few roads.

The major economic activity on the island is ranching and there are significant herds of cattle and buffalo. The estimated buffalo population of Marajó is 600,000 which is just about three times the human population. The buffalo raised on Marajó are not Noth American buffalos (they're actually not buffaloes at all; they're bisons), but rather Asian water buffalos. Marajó is very low and flat and during the rainy season much of the island is flooded - making water buffalos a perfect species to raise. Buffalos are happiest in hot, muggy climates and up to their necks in water so Marajó must seem like paradise to them.

Making buffalo mozzarella on Marajó

The animals are raised both for their meat and for their milk. The species of buffalo is the same one that is raised in the Campania region of Italy, where its milk is turned into the famous mozzarella di bufala, and Marajó has a significant cheese-making industry - one that is growing by leaps and bounds as the demand for buffalo mozzarella grows. Islanders have always preferred buffalo meat to cattle, but it's only recently that there has been any demand for buffalo meat in other regions of Brazil. As the beneficial nutritional profile of buffalo meat becomes more well known, particularly in relation to the profile of beef, demand for buffalo meat has grown tremendously in recent years. Marajó supplies nearly all that demand domestically in Brazil and there is an increasing market for export as well.

Traditionally-dressed vaqueiros (cowboys)

Another growing industry on Marajó is eco-tourism and several of the large buffalo ranches offer guest accommodation and activities. Visitors to these ranches have an opportunity to experience the life of the vaqueiros (cowboys) who manage the huge herds of buffalo and cattle and who have a unique and rich culture that dates back centuries. Some even offer guests the chance to ride a buffalo - something that local police do all the time (see the photo below). And of course, all visitors to the ranches can regale themselves with lots of local (very local) buffalo-meat dishes and cheeses.