Tapiocas
(Northeastern crępes made with tapioca starch)

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Tapiocas are very popular all over northeastern Brazil and also in Rio de Janeiro, where you can buy them from street carts (in Ipanema, for example). Tapiocas are an art to be mastered and you also need to have the right kind of manioc starch (polvilho azedo). So, we aren't posting a recipe per se and recommend that you travel to Rio or João Pessoa or Maceió in the state of Alagoas where these pictures were taken...Meanwhile, you can enjoy the photographs, if nothing else. Tapiocas may be made almost as thin as a crêpe or thicker; you just spread a handful of the starch with your hand over a hot, preferably non-stick surface (or a slightly greased one), as she is doing on the photos above. Basically, it toasts on the bottom as you spread the filling or fillings on the top, then you fold it like an omelette.

Much like French crępes, tapiocas can be prepared with an infinite variety of fillings. Here are a few: grated coconut and doce de leite condensado, grated coconut and queijo de coalho, carne seca and queijo de coalho, cheese and goiabada, bananas, you name it.

Maria's Cookbook