Mandioca

After a couple of weeks of “pre-packaged” fast foods in the States several years ago, Oscar complained to me that he wanted a REAL meal. Was he meaning the Americans do not eat REAL meals? He meant that he wants one made from scratch and with MANDIOCA! Well, we started out our search for mandioca, (yucca root) found in warm climate countries and eaten along with all meals. We were visiting Ohio! We made our rounds and finally found it in Wal-Mart in Mansfield. It was beautiful and Oscar’s mouth was already watering for it. The price seemed a little high at $2.99 a lb. That would be $2.99 x 6,000 gs.(Paraguayan money) – 17,940 x 2 (about 2 kilos per lb) = 35,880 gs. a kilo! It was outrageous! One mandioca root is 1 lb! We would need at least 4 roots for the whole family. We finally decided to buy it and packed about 8 lbs in our bag an equivalent of 4 kilos…4 x 35,880 = 143,520 gs.. All the while I was feeling so bad that we were spending so much on something SOOOOO CHEAP back home.
Well, Mandioca hit an all time LOW here in Paraguay this week. Today at the supermarket it was 370 gs a Kilo. That means it is 370 / 2 = 185 gs a lb. (185/ 5,000 gs.) which means that it was $0.04 a lb.!!!!! ( I think I did my math right on all this money exchange.) What I bought in the States several years ago would have only needed to be $0.16 but was a total of $23.92.
Anyway, we eat mandioca almost every day. The kids and Oscar just love it with every meal. Sometimes we fry it like French fries. Sometimes it is fried in little cubes and after it is golden brown you add an egg and scramble it together. My brother ate it with chimichurri. Gaby eats it with salt and lemon. Brandon pours on hot sauce and Ranch. It can be pureed and mixed with meat to make a fried patty. Some have used the pureed mandioca for a crunchy pizza crust, and it is used in many, many other ways.
Being so cheap, who wouldn’t use it in everything!