Origins and History
Bahian cuisine, revered throughout Brazil as the
country's best, evolved from an improvisation of African,
Indian and Portuguese dishes using predominantly local ingredients.
These three cultures were thrown together by the Portuguese
colonisation of Brazil in the sixteenth century and over the
next 350 years a distinctive culinary culture developed around
this nexus of influences. Ninety per cent of Bahia
is of African origin, a fact that's given rise to the saying
that 'the blacker the cook, the better the food'! |
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Staples
The three primary ingredients of Bahian cooking that set it
apart from others in Brazil are all of African heritage. They
are coconut oil, hot malagueta chilli peppers (so
important that a container of them, minced in oil, is usually
provided on tables) and dendê, a bright
orange palm oil extracted from the nuts of a West African
tree successfully transplanted to Brazil.
Trying Bahian Cuisine
in Brazil
Visiting Salvador, the centre of Afro-Bahian
cuisine and the old colonial capital, it's likely that the
first time you'll whiff its enticing smells is from the stalls
of street vendors. The proud Bahiana women, descendents of
slaves who bought their freedom through selling very similar
foods, offer trays of tantalising edibles such as acarajé
to passers-by. This is a round ball made from a mashed bean
paste, mixed with ground shrimp and onion and fried in dendê
oil (to give it that orange glow). It's then split open and
filled with okra sauce and topped with a whole dried shrimp.
You'll never be stuck for a restaurant in Salvador. For truly
traditional food, visit one of the restaurants belonging to
local celebrity Dadá. She started
her career with a modest café in the favelas (shanty
towns) of Salvador but her popularity allowed her to expand
to the area of Pelourinho, Salvador's beautiful
historic centre. Here you can sample dishes like Moqueca,
a fish stew made with garlic, parsley, coriander, peppers,
coconut milk and dendê oil. She's recently added two
more restaurants to her repertoire - two beachside restaurants
side-by-side. Caranguejo da Dadá specialises
in crab while Restaurante da Dadá is
more upmarket.
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