Arnaldo Ferreira de Melo, like all poor northeasterners from the interior, was raised on tapioca. But in Santa Quitéria, a town of almost 50 thousand inhabitants in the semi-arid region of Ceará, the boy, the youngest of six siblings, ate it stuffed with nothing but air. “It was difficult to find coconuts in the region, and it’s not a custom to put coalho cheese,” he says. Calabresa, like the ones he sells on the streets of Flamengo, was out of the question. “Meat was only for the weekend. On other days, we had rice and beans, and in the morning, tapioca.” The family grew cassava, and the dough came from the flour house. “Today, people from the interior don’t want tapioca anymore. On the other hand, it’s very successful in the big city,” he observes. Arnaldo was eighteen years old when he arrived in Rio in 1994 and was impressed by the number of tapioca fans. “At the time, I was sick and couldn’t work with a formal contract, so I went to the streets to make some money.” He came from the Northeast to cure hepatitis. The treatment prevented him from working since medical appointments were frequent, and the only way was to engage in a flexible schedule business. “When I got better, I already had my regular customers. Since then, I’ve been here for fifteen years.”