Food in Brazil

Food in Bahia is always spicy

I explored all kinds of food in Salvador and Leçóis, both in the Brazilian state of Bahia. There was a lot of spice and a lot of unfamiliar fruits. Below are just a few of my favorite culinary discoveries.

Maniçoba: Manioc leaves are cooked for 3 days to remove toxins.

Moqueca: An explosion of flavors cooked in an earthen pot and served with rice and farofa.

Cuscuz: The simplest can be the best. Corn meal is steamed and served with eggs and fried plantains.

Galinha caipira: Spicy chicken in a rich sauce

Feijão: So many bean dishes, served with farofa

Tutu de Feijão: More bean dishes, still served with farofa.

Farofa: Grated and roasted manioc with a variety of flavors.

Spice mixes: Brazilian cuisine combines ingredients from Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Dried shrimp & black-eyed-peas: These are two of the most commonly used ingredients in Bahian cuisine.

Carne do Sol: A partially dried beef, beloved by Brazilian carnivores.

Cashews: This nut is only edible after being steamed or roasted. Raw cashews contain urishol, the irritant produced by poison ivy.

Palm oil: This African ingredient is one of the signatures of Bahian cuisine.

Acarajé

You can’t talk about food in Salvador without including acarajé. It’s the most traditional food, made by Baianas, who have their own museum. Acarajé dough is made with crushed, boiled black-eyed-peas and onion, then deep fried in palm oil, which gives it a distinctive red color. They are stuffed with shrimp and veggies, served with hot sauce.