Restaurante DaSelva and the wave of Amazonian cuisine in SP – 06/28/2023 – Restaurants

From the simplest bar to the finest gastronomy, menus in São Paulo have much more salmon, which normally comes from Chile, than tambaquis, a species native to the fresh waters of the Amazon.

The issue, of course, is cultural: the kitchens of large cities have always looked more to international cuisine than to traditional food cultures. But with the indigenous and forestry agenda increasingly in evidence, food based on Brazilian fish, fruits and vegetables is falling in the taste of São Paulo.

This month, for example, the center of the capital gained a restaurant dedicated to Amazonian cuisine. On Rua da Consolação, in front of the Mário de Andrade library, DaSelva’s flagship is precisely the tambaqui band, as common in Manaus as parmigiana in São Paulo.

Served without bones, with baião made with butter beans, Uarini flour, plantain, vinaigrette and murupi pepper sauce with tucupi, the dish costs R$150 and serves up to three people.

“Brazilians eat less fish than recommended. But they are the basis of the Amazonian diet, which the world is watching”, says Jorge Aguirre, founder of DaSelva.

There, the menu offers grilled pirarucu fillet (R$59), Amazonian tambaqui stew (R$52), tapioca pudding with coconut and cumaru, an aromatic Amazonian seed reminiscent of vanilla (R$16) and also cupuaçu, bacuri juices and taperebá (R$12). Soon, the second floor of the house will also have an emporium, so that customers can take the products from the menu home.

DaSelva is the latest addition to a movement that began in the 1980s, when Amazonian cuisine began to gain prominence with the help of Paulo Martins (1946-2010), from Pará. Ahead of Lá em Casa, in Belém, the chef became known for promoting the gastronomic culture of the region at the Ver-o-Peso festival, which annually received chefs from different parts of the country in the capital of Pará.

Martins also introduced Amazonian ingredients to international names, such as chef Ferran Adrià, from the extinct El Bulli. Today, his daughter Joanna Martins runs the Manioca online emporium, dedicated to regional products.

In São Paulo, the genre gained momentum again in 2008, when Paulo Leite, from the extinct Tucupi and Carimbó, opened the Amazônia Casa Brasileira, located in the stronghold of Bixiga. On weekends, the buffet of seven classics (R$103 per person) makes the hall fill up with enthusiasts for dishes such as duck in tucupi, fish, crab, maniçoba, vatapá from Pará, caruru and pirarucu de casaca.

“Amazonian food is light, tasty and satisfies hunger, which is why it has the potential to please a lot of people”, says Leite, remembering customers who reported having a certain prejudice with the dishes before visiting the restaurant, but who ended up leaving. animated. “Little by little, people are opening up to this universe.”

More recently, the chef has been gaining peers in the city. In 2016, the family of the publicist from Pará based in São Paulo Íris Leite was going through financial difficulties when she decided to serve food from her hometown in the backyard, in the north zone.

The buzz of customers queuing at the gate began to bother the neighbors and, the following year, the family started running a food truck on Rua Augusta. Quintal Paraense was born there, which this year grew and became a restaurant, in fact, in Casa Verde.

With carimbó presentations on weekends and a tasting menu that includes the traditional tacacá, vatapá, maniçoba, caruru and paraense rice (R$180 for two people), the house can queue for more than an hour every weekend —now, no complaints from neighbors.

In the south zone, Vila Mariana gained an Amazon flavor in 2018. First came Amazônia Soul, today Namazônia, then Casa Tucupi, by chef Amanda Vasconcelos, where the Acre spice reigns. Casa do Pará, one of the few places in the capital where you can find an açaí as delicious as the original from Pará, arrived in Morumbi the following year.

That same year, chef Felipe Schaedler opened the São Paulo branch of Banzeiro, in Itaim Bibi. Within a year, the house was recognized by Michelin in the Bib Gourmand category, which elects establishments with “excellent quality/price ratio”.

Who also followed this entire boom in northern cuisine in São Paulo and, like them, managed to survive the pandemic and see the movement gain strength again is the Pará-born Marina Cabral, who since 2015 has run Combu, a distributor specializing in Amazonian products. She sees people from São Paulo as being very receptive to gastronomy from all over the world, even respecting and paying the price charged.

“What’s missing is to see the Amazonian cuisine not as exotic, but as an original food from Brazil, ours”, says the entrepreneur. “My dream is to see tucupi, for example, being part of a weekly dish such as feijoada, which is found in all bars and large bakeries in the city.”

Da Selva Peixaria Amazonica
R. da Consolação, 41, Historic Center, central region. To have. to Sat., from 12h to 22h and Sun. from 12:00 to 15:00. daselva.com

Amazon Brazilian House
R. Rui Barbosa, 218, Bela Vista, central region, tel. (11) 99412-6142. To have. the sun. 12pm to 4pm, Fri. and Sat. also from 19:00 to 23:30

Paraense backyard
food truck: R. Augusta, 1291, Consolação, central region. Wed. to Sat., from 4 pm to 10 pm.
restaurant: R. Horácio Vergueiro Rudge, 535, Casa Verde, north region. To have. to Sat. from 12:00 to 22:00, Sun. from 12:00 to 17:00. @quintalparaense

namazonia
R. Áurea, 361, Vila Mariana, south region. To have. to Sat., from 12h to 22h and Sun. from 12:00 to 18:00. @namazoniarestaurante_

Tucupi House
R. Maj. Maragliano, 74, Vila Mariana, south region. Wed. to Sun., from 12:00 to 16:30 and from 18:30 to 21:30. @casatucupi

Casa do Pará
Rua Dr. Luiz Migliano, 1215, Jardim Caboré, south region. Mon. to Sat., from 12h to 22h and Sun. until 20:00. There is also a branch just for withdrawing açaí on r. Santa Cruz, 1671, Vila Mariana, every day from 2 pm to 10 pm, and Sun. until 23:00. @amazoniasoulsp

Banzeiro SP
Rua Tabapuã, 830, Itaim Bibi, south region. Mon. on Fri., from 12:00 to 15:30 and from 19:00 to 23:30; Sat. from 12:00 to 16:30 and from 19:00 to 00:00; Sun. from 12:00 to 16:30. @banzeirosp

Combu – Amazon Products
R. Martiniano de Carvalho, 97, Bela Vista, central region. Mon. to Fri., from 9 am to 5 pm. combu.com.br