To the June and July festivals are an occurrence from south to north of Brazil, but that does not mean that the same foods have the same names — nor that they contain the exact same ingredients.
An example is that the sweet Curau as it is known in Pernambuco is known like cornmeal in São Paulo ; and the canjica from São Paulo is the sweet munguzá from Pernambuco.
A CNN talked to Fabiane Altino Associate Professor of the Department of Vernacular and Classical Letters at the State University of Londrina (UEL), to understand what causes the same foods to receive a name in each region of Brazil.
According to Altino, words reflect “in a very particular way” the history of those who use them. “When we analyze regional vocabulary, for example, we are also revisiting the facts that contributed to the formation of that people: migration, culture, their way of seeing and representing the world and their connections,” he explains.
You names of typical dishes emerged from the influence of other languages . According to the professor, the term curau intrigues researchers. After all, the origin of the word has not been found, but it refers to a sweet made with grated corn and milk, which can be with or without coconut. “This term curau is most commonly recorded in the Central-West, Southeast and South regions,” she explains.
The word canjica, however, comes from Kimbundu, a language spoken in Angola . Thus, the use of this term reflects the greater influence of the African continent in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil.
“Canjica, from the Kimbundu Kanjika and referring to the same sweet, has greater productivity in the North and Northeast Regions”, he adds.
According to Altino, words reflect the social history of the region. “When we use language, we also use what we know about the world, our choices, our culture, and all of this reflects a little of who we are,” he concludes.
Do the differences in names change the dishes?
The chef Carmen Virginia from the restaurant Ancestral Kitchen Altar which was declared Cultural Heritage and A gastronomic expert from Recife, he states that, in general, there is no difference in the preparation of the dishes — even though they have different names.
Even so, she assured that the biggest difference is that canjica is always made with white corn. “Canjica, which for us from the Northeast is munguzá, in the South and Southeast has a tradition of being made more with white corn, but for us, it is made with yellow corn,” she explains.
The chef Irina Lamb former participant of MasterChef Profissionais and responsible for the restaurant Cuscuz da Irina, also remembers that munguzá is usually sweet in the South and Southeast, but is a savory dish in some regions of the Northeast. “Mainly in the interior areas and in the backlands, it is made salty . It’s like we make feijoada: we put several pieces of pork, dried meat, and we eat it in a savory dish,” he says.
She also states that the preparation of munguzá (or canjica), in regions of the Northeast, follows the tradition of the Portuguese June festival. “Our munguzá, which in the Southeast calls canjica, is made with lots of offal, like the Portuguese used to eat,” she concludes.
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Source: CNN Brasil

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