Tropical rainforests seem remote to most of us. Those magical almost-mythical, modern-day Edens — located in Asia, Central and South America, and Africa — seem to exist more in mind than in matter. Few of us realize that the flavors of the rainforest are really right at our fingertips, livening up our tables and toppling into our pots and pans every day. Foods from rainforests stock our cupboards, spice racks and walk-ins. Culinary staples like coffee, tea, bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, cocoa, chicken, cloves, vanilla and cinnamon all originated in tropical rainforests, as did more exotic edibles like pineapples, avocados, kiwis, mangoes, papayas, ginger, yams and turmeric.

According to Mark Collins' book The Last Rainforest, a German botanist came up with the expression “rainforest" in the late 19th century to refer to forests dwelling in ceaseless wetness where leafy canopies close off the sky. Thanks to that ceaseless wetness, we can top customers' dry cereals with succulent bananas and squeeze rivers of fresh orange juice to quench their thirst. Those closed-off skies let us open our menus to include savory coffees and teas and a potpourri of other taste sensations.

Without those rainforest gifts, American cuisine would have quite a different flavor. "Ironically, if the American farmer had to grow only species native to the United States, we would be living off of Jerusalem artichokes, pecans, black walnuts, sunflower seeds, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and gooseberries," Mark J. Plotkin, executive director of the Ethnobiology and Conservation Team in Arlington, Virginia, writes in his book Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice.

A disappearing treasure

Many of the rainforest riches face an uncertain future. The rainforests of the world are in danger; in fact, they're disappearing. Undoubtedly, you've heard the staggering statistics about the loss of rainforests because of rising populations and the spread of farming, ranching and logging. According to the Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School, in 1996 rainforests were estimated to be disappearing at a rate of 80 acres per minute. This destruction has far-reaching effects, because rainforest loss alters the climate, diminishes biodiversity and destroys yet-to-be discovered species.

The loss of undiscovered treasures is probably the greatest tragedy. Because rainforests are so rich in diversity, they brim with many potential foods we don't even know about yet. "At least 50 to 100 species of rainforest fruits don't get to our North American markets," says James A. Duke, Ph.D., author of Green Pharmacy and a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist.

Plotkin, too, believes we have only tapped the surface of what the forests can provide. "In a nutshell, many nutritious and delicious foods that — unlike pineapple — didn't get picked up in colonial times, are out there for us to find and use. What is needed is the elbow grease, the technological expertise and the funding to domesticate these fruits, vegetables and spices, increasing their yield and palatability. Western society has problems with diversity, but some great things — like the starfruit of Southeast Asia — are starting to show up," he says.

And the rainforest riches may do more than just ease our hunger: They may be able to help heal much greater problems, especially health problems. "Camu-camu — a fruit edible like a grape — and Brazil nuts are two new rainforest foods of great promise," says Duke. Brazil nuts are a good source of selenium, which may help prevent prostate, lung and colon cancer. Camu-camu is loaded with vitamin C; just three to four camu-camu provide 400 milligrams of the vital vitamin. Food pharmaceuticals that could help arthritis come from papaya (papain and chymopapain), from pineapples (bromelain), from hot peppers (capsaicin), from turmeric and from ginger, Duke adds.

And that's just the beginning. "If we can find three plants in my back yard that can be turned into drugs — each worth $1 billion — then there should be 150 in the Amazonian rainforest, because the diversity [there] is 50 times greater," says Duke, who has been to the Amazon 30 times.

As Duke notes, those yet-to-be-discovered drugs could be worth billions of dollars, and not only the pharmaceutical companies reap those rewards. Plotkin and his colleagues insist that most large pharmaceutical companies — which use the knowledge of indigenous rainforest peoples to make medications — return a percentage of their profits to the native people and their countries to help preserve the rainforests, to keep the treasure trove of healing herbs, barks and plants alive. This new brand of "eco-commerce" may have implications for the food world as well, as more and more food manufacturers enrich their products with vitamins, minerals, and healing herbs and plants in their efforts to create more "health-packed" foods.

Restaurateurs' recipe for rainforest preservation

But what can restaurateurs do to help preserve the rainforest? The answer is plenty. After all, we handle the fruits of the rainforest on a daily basis, offering them to the world. We purchase them, clean them, cook them, plate them and serve them to our customers with our own hands. We can raise awareness about the rainforests and the importance of saving them by introducing their culinary treasures to our customers.

Douglas Stewart, president of Howler Products, a sorbet and gourmet-ice-cream manufacturer located in San Francisco, uses newly introduced rainforest fruit purees, including guanabana, a spiky-skinned fruit that tastes mysteriously floral; caja, a tropical tangerine, and acai, a palm berry that grows along the edges of the Amazon. Yet-to-be explored Amazonian foods with exotic names include uvilla, pupunha and buriti palm.

Stewart directly reimburses the indigenous peoples, colonists and small farmers for the fruits that add zest to his sorbets. Such monetary rewards assure that rainforests will be respected and will be cultivated in sustainable ways. "Our goal is that they don't move on and displace forests," he says.

But you don't need to donate money to help preserve the rainforests. You can use rainforest ingredients in your dishes and educate your staff and your customers to the fact that they encounter foods originally from Asian rainforests every time they use chicken, tea, bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, mangoes, kiwis, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, turmeric and cloves.

Every morning I promote respect for rainforests by telling my diners that they couldn't start the day with one of their favorite beverages if the rainforests hadn't produced it. According to The Coffee Book: A Connoisseurs' Guide to Gourmet Coffee, by John Svicarovich, Stephen Winter and Jeff Ferguson, that aromatic cup of Arabica coffee was first cultivated in an Ethiopian rainforest in the seventh century. It was adopted in the Middle East shortly thereafter; then King Louis XIV of France introduced it to colonies worldwide.

"The rainforest tropics have produced caffeine plants such as cola nuts from Africa, coffee from Ethiopia, plus cacao, mate and guarana, which Pepsi is now using in one of its new beverages. And Middle Eastern coffee drinkers often top their beverages with cardamom, another rainforest product," says Duke.

Caffeinated creations aside, our freshly squeezed orange juice can be traced not to Florida or California orange groves but to rainforest sweet oranges originally from Southern China. Our "Tropical Morning Fruit Salad With Mandarin Oranges, Kiwis and Pineapples" is a potpourri of Asian and Central and South American rainforest influences, with nods to Indochina and Southern China (Mandarin oranges), China and Taiwan (kiwis), and Central and South America (pineapples).

Later in the day, our rainforest-inspired menus heat up with dishes like "Thai Barbecue Chicken Marinated in Limes," which mixes chicken, descended from a wild Asian rainforest red fowl, with the Asian rainforest citrus, limes. The subtlety of "Chinese Lemon Chicken" is not lost on customers who love the pairing of two foods originally found in Asian rainforests. Asian rainforest ingredients also abound in a "North Indian Lamb" dish, which is tenderized in a green-papaya-and-yogurt mixture and then seasoned with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.

There's a dizzying array of rainforest-related desserts, since so many dessert ingredients are indigenous to rainforests. Swiss chocolate descends from a plant native to the Amazonian rainforests, cacao. Vanilla originated in tropical Mexican and Central American rainforests. Think of all the dessert puddings that you can splash with cinnamon, dash with cardamom or dot with cloves. Picture the pies that you can stuff with bananas, lemons and limes — or fruit salads in which you can mix mangoes, papayas, oranges, bananas and kiwis.

Our rainforest dessert choices start with vanilla ice cream and other tropical coolers like "Mango Cinnamon Sorbet," which is flavored with mangoes, pineapple juice, lime juice and freshly ground cinnamon. Our signature "Creme Caramel" marries rainforest vanilla with orange zest and eggs. "Brazilian Sweet Avocado" mixes avocados and lime juice into an unexpectedly tempting dessert, and our "Mocha Cashew Pudding With a Sweet Cardamom Sabayon" is an inspired concoction rich in some of the rainforest's finest fare — coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla.

Then there are the chocolate choices: chocolate cakes, chocolate cookies, chocolate pies and chocolate puddings — all derived from cacao. We top our chocolate cake with sweet mangoes and dot our chocolate pound cake with crushed Brazil nuts and cashews. And our "Rainforest Parfait Pudding" pairs chocolate pudding with tapioca, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and mango mousse.

"Singing in the Rainforest" promotion hits a high note

To celebrate the riches of the rainforest in grand style, we host an annual promotion known as "Singing in the Rainforest," which features a huge tasting buffet laden with dishes made from ingredients that originated in rainforests around the world. Even if your lemons now come from Florida or your yams from Louisiana, you can still praise the source of their birth with a similar promotion.

Our "Singing in the Rainforest Buffet" offers "Baked Brazilian Pineapples Stuffed With Lobster" and "Mexican Chicken in Oaxacan Black Mole," which features a luscious sauce flavored with Mexican chocolate. Samovars filled with Arabica coffee and plates piled high with "West African Yam Fritters"and "Ghanaian Yam Balls" celebrate two fruits of the African rainforest: coffee and yams. To this scintillating spread, we add sumptuous dishes mixing rainforest foods from multiple continents, such as "Steamed Bananas With Peanut Sauce," a Ugandan specialty that weds bananas from Asian rainforests with peanuts from South American rainforest clearings. Culinary concoctions like "Caribbean Papaya Banana Chutney," "Jamaican Pineapple Banana Rum Bread," and "Rainforest Chicken Pot Pie With a Yam, Clove and Brazil-Nut Crust" help make the event a hit with diners. The meal ends with our "Singing in the Rainforest Dessert Bar," which is filled with an array of dazzling desserts.

Feel the power of the jungle

You can harness some of the power of the jungle and pump it into your restaurant by raising awareness about the rainforest and its foods — both the exotic and the everyday. Rainforests have given us more than most of us ever realized, and so much more is just waiting to be discovered.

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