Tapioca

Tapioca is tapioca starch dry-fried, without any oil, into a thin, rubbery crepe and folded around a filling. It's Brazil's Northeast breakfast staple, gluten-free by nature since the whole base is starch rather than wheat flour, and it's become a common street food and café order across the rest of the country too.

What it really is

Hydrated tapioca starch granules — moistened just enough to clump loosely, not a wet batter — sprinkle into a hot, dry, ungreased pan and press flat with the back of a spoon. Under heat, the starch granules fuse together into a single, cohesive, semi-translucent disc within about a minute, without any oil or fat needed in the pan. A filling — grated coconut and condensed milk for a sweet version, or cheese for a savoury one — spreads over half the disc while it's still warm and pliable, and it folds in half like an omelette.

No oil goes into the pan, and that's what makes it tapioca rather than a crepe. The starch granules fuse under dry heat alone; adding oil or making a wet batter turns the result into a different kind of pancake entirely, missing tapioca's distinctive rubbery, slightly chewy bite.

How it's served

• Warm, folded over its filling, cut into wedges or eaten whole.
• As breakfast, with coffee, or as a street food snack.
• Sweet with coconut and condensed milk, or savoury with cheese — rarely both at once.

How to write it on the menu

• Say what the filling is, since sweet and savoury versions are equally common and very different orders.
• Flag the dairy if cheese or condensed milk is used.
• It's naturally gluten-free, worth calling out for guests avoiding wheat.