To debut the new category of The World in Sandwiches: the Origins of Food, I chose nothing less than, one of the favorites dishes in Brazil, with the subject: What is Farofa?
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The origins of food
Cooking more and more and also reading some books, made me realize how much globalization has shaped regional cuisines and nowadays we don’t even realize that some of the dishes we eat most on a daily basis are not of local origin.
The idea of this new category is to rescue some of the food histories, showing how it arrived and became popular in the countries I visited.
One of my passions is farofa. I wondered where it originated but had no idea of its history.
This dish became the name of my next travel season: Farofa Expedicion, a tour in Brazil, guiding me along the coast, getting to know regional cuisines.
What is Farofa?
Before continuing with the history of Farofa, I will tell you a little about what this food is and its main variations, of course, considering that it is a very flexible dish, the creativity of those who are cooking has no limits to increase the base of this food.
Farofa or quimbundo falafa, is scalded or toasted cassava flour or corn flour, what makes it crumb, most of the time it is add fat (which can be butter), in addition to being able to add various ingredients such as bacon, eggs, sausage, meat, banana and sooo on.
Read Farofa Expedition
How did Farofa come about?
Before Portuguese colonization, farofa appeared among the Tupi-Guarani Indigenous!
According to historians, to satisfy their hunger, the original residents of the place that is now Brazil needed more nutritious food.
And do you know what’s cool? The history of farofa shows that it was a creation that involved animals.
Cassava flour already existed, the Tupi-Guarani people threw the flour into the empty shell of a turtle and put it to cook, the fat was loosened and the flour was mixed, thus creating Farofa.
And here comes the colonization, the Portuguese liked the mixture and began to use it on their travels as it was a better food than just fat and it was possible to mix it with other ingredients, in addition to keeping it preserved for longer.
Curiosities about Farofa
Today is very popular in Brazil for relatively low cost, easy preparation and bringing taste to food. A few centuries ago the royalty also did not leave the house without the farofa in their bags, it was the case of Dom João VI;
Read The history of coffee in Brazil
What is my favorite farofa?
Yoki seasoned farofa is part of our daily meals at home, but we have a version of this food that we only make on commemorative dates, in fact, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which is my grandmother’s farofa with pepperoni pepper.
A simple dish, which stands out for its unique flavor and affective presence at the end of the year.
Soon have this recipe here:
So, did you already know the history of farofa? What’s your favorite version?
Who am I?
I’m Rodrigo Schmiegelow, an advertiser specializing in Digital Marketing, today I live as a Digital Nomad (what is it), in other words, that I have geographic freedom and can work from anywhere in the world.
That’s why I can have amazing experiences like this.
I started a trip around the world to get to know places, cultures and regional cuisines and I will bring great surprises from these experiences.
I’m on the Farofa expedition, getting to know regional cuisines from all over Brazil.
Follow the O Mundo em Lanches Project (The world in sandwiches) blog on Instagram.
