Mandi’o — Paraguayan Cassava Foodways

Mandi’o

Specialised

Cassava is to Paraguay what bread is elsewhere: boiled MANDI’O sits on the table at nearly every meal, unremarked, the way bread does in Europe. From it also: ALMIDÓN, the extracted starch that makes chipa and mbejú; farinha; MANDI’O CHYRYRY, fried; pastel mandi’o, the cassava-dough pasty; and PAYAGUÁ MASCADA, cassava and minced beef fried in cakes. ⚠ THE PLANT AND ITS PROCESSING ARE INDIGENOUS — Guaraní domestication and detoxification of the bitter varieties long predate any European arrival.