intangible cultural heritage

[asakiyume]

UNESCO has conferred the status of intangible cultural heritage on casabe, flatbread made from cassava. It was nominated by several countries of the Caribbean including Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Honduras ... but I remember fondly from Leticia, Colombia. (link.... but I just heard the story on NPR, so later this evening you can go there, too.)

The Ticuna word for casabe is dowü.

Here are some photos of my tutor's mom kindly letting me help with making one. You can make it with grated cassava, which is what I do at home, or with cassava starch (tapioca!), which is what my tutor's family does (and I think it's widespread practice).

... The photos are cropped to preserve privacy, but the woman in pink is my tutor's mom. I'm in orange ;-)

First we strained the starch. The tool used for this is called a cernidor in Spanish, cuechinü in Ticuna.



Then we pressed it onto a hot pan (look at the yummy fish in the foreground!)



And here it is, done!

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I remember eating soemthing similar in Jamaica, called "bammy". It came as dried discs about 1 cm by 14 cm, and when soaked expanded to 2 cm by 16 cm. It was edible that way but my grandmother always sliced it into wedges and fried it before feeding it to me.

This post lifts my heart.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, the dried disks are what you can get in the supermarket. I hadn't thought to try to soak them! That makes sense!

In one restaurant in Leticia, they did the casabe up like pizzas. The possibilities are myriad!

This post lifts my heart. -- I am so happy for the Caribbean and for Amazonia! This is a great food and deserves celebration.