It wasn’t too long ago that plastic was being used for almost everything: lunchboxes, building materials, and even dinner plates. However, restaurants and fast food chains, have slowly started to evolve their image, moving from fast, convenient, and on-the-go to a more refined model that prioritizes the customer experience. As part of this change, many restaurants, both fast and traditional, have begun to use wood in the presentation of their food.
Wood has become a symbol of high-end living, as in the case of wood floors, wood decks, and real wood cabinets. Restaurants took a hint, and many have started presenting their meals on beautiful wood planks during commercials. Some fast food chains have gone even further and remodeled their locations to feature wood accents. More traditional restaurants have begun to serve food on wooden dishes. This is happening throughout the world, but especially in Brazil.
Ipe in Brazil is like pine in the United States. They use it for buildings, furniture, decks, and flooring, and many scraps make their way into the Brazilian dining scene. They prepare the ipe for culinary use by washing it with denatured alcohol to remove the naturally occurring oils that permeate the hardwood. So if you have a couple ipe scraps left over, clean them thoroughly with denatured alcohol and enjoy a beautiful dinner on them!
Oh and here’s a picture of a Brazilian passion fruit drink whose recipe will be given out through Facebook and Twitter! Stay tuned and follow/like us!