São Salvador de Bahia de Todos Os Santos

I might be heading here soon. Anyone have any cannot-be-missed places? Any thing someone wants me to try? I already have Mercado São Jãoquim and the Baíanas de Akarajé, then visiting Rio Vermelho and some places mentioned in Jorge Amado novels.

Okay, I made it to Salvador de Bahia, the exaggerated Brazil, the state that is the birthplace of Brazil, the place were all the things that make Brazil into Brazil are found in the greatest concentration. This is a town that markets its tradition and history to visitors even if the history and traditions can be a little bit backwards. The city of capoeira, candomblé, orixás, Baíanas, berimbaus, beaches, moquecas, street food and so much more.



Museu da Gastronomia Baiana seemed like a good places to start eating my way through Bahia, and its located right in the middle of everything in Largo do Pelourinho. Its run by a business known as SENAC that trains people for service industry jobs, and their training centers can be found near any tourist area. The Museu's exhibits were completely in Portuguese, so I hope any visitor has been practicing.

Sacred foods of candomblé, where several orixás have have their own unique sacrifice to be laid at an altar:


Corn in the recipes of Bahia:


The museum space is not that large, but there are exhibits in the two restaurants, one a porquilo buffet of Brazilian food, another is the "buffet típico", all you can eat of Bahian food. The buffet is completely translated and includes an item directly translated simply to haggis. The wait staff are earnest students in training who can't wait to refill your cup of mineral water.

Moquecas made from octopus, squid, and eggs:

The buffet lived up to its R48.00 price tag, the first thing you notice is the eleven versions of Moqueca present. Moqueca is a stew most often made with seafood, like the Afro-Brazilian Bouillabaisse. The squid and octopus here were nice and soft, and the egg moqueca was more like a soufle in texture. The other dishes included four kinds of rice, with huaca or seafood mixed in. The dessert area had a particularly decadent selection of puddings and fruit and cream in sugary mixtures. This place was worth stopping in just to try the different dishes in small portions.



This was a real luxurious space with wide open windows looking over the eastern side of the city. Behind the buffet is an exhibit about the Baíanas de Acarajé, which I will explain in my next update.


Right in the middle of the heavily visited historic center:



The Museu da Gastronomia was fascinating but the Pelourinho neighborhood is just a little touristy. Just outside the historic center there are narrow streets with ancient buildings in various states of decay or restoration, and places to eat that don't simply pander to foreigners.





Going straight up the street from Largo do Pelourinho takes you up Rua Do Carmo, past a bunch of pousadas and hotels and into another public square with an ancient church and a capoeira school and a neighborhood known as Santo Antônio where some local bloggers claim the best hot dog in the city is located down an alleyway, at Travessa's Lanchonete.


The Cachorro Quentes that the local bloggers and website voters insist are the best in town were R2.20 and came to less than a dollar each. Not bad for the price, but the bread was soft, the mysterious yellow sauce was not very tasty, grated parm was not tasty either, and the hot dog would not do very well in America. Still, this was a friendly neighborhood place with locals flowing in and I was glad I ate here.


The view from Travessa's, the historic area around the pelô is filled with this kind of artwork on bare walls of abandoned buildings:



Just down the giant elevator from the Pelourinho is the declining business high rise district known as Comércio. Brazilian downtown areas are a little underrated, with their narrow pedestrian streets, high tall buildings with Air Conditioning condensation dripping into your path, and people trying to sell you almost anything imaginable from tiny stalls carried by hand. The food places here are low key and casual, usually geared towards people in a hurry with only a little cash.


How could I resist the call of the giant ham leg graphic at Bom Sabor Lanche, knowing that the infamous pernil sandwich would be inside.They ham was visible inside and upon ordering it was sliced and put into a sandwich with yellow cheese and melted to perfection. For R5.50 this was a tasty sandwich.


In case you were wondering, they also have soup:





Following the road south from the Praça da Sé takes you down Avenida Sete de Setembro, and eventally leads you to Largo Dois do Julho where the ancient relic of "salvador velha", the old restaurant Porto do Moreira which has been run by the same family for over seventy years:


The walls of the restaurant are covered with magazine articles of its history and many locally famous regulars, the most famous being the writer Jorge Amado. The restaurant was started by a Portuguese family and served portuguese and bahian dishes.



The Moqueca de Carne was made with bits of beef stewed with shrimp into a deep brothy stew. This was served on some ancient pottery and the dish was boiling rapidly when it arrived. The "completo" version with sides of beans and rice only set me back R36.00 and was more than I could eat.







Its not wise to tell the story of Bahian food without mentioning Jorge Amado. He had an early phase of political activism that saw his books burned in the streets of Salvador and he was banned from visiting the USA for a long time. He later wrote books with different messages, including deep descriptions of Bahian cuisine and female heroines who cooked it. The New York Times published a travel article dedicated to his places in Salvador, including a quote from one of his characters “If after confronting all the dangers and obstacles that life offers, you don’t eat well, then what’s the point?” from “The Violent Land.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/travel/24footsteps.html?pagewanted=all

One sideplot in Gabriella Clove and Cinnamon involves the locals of a small town kidnapping an unpopular french-trained chef to get the heroine into the job of a new restaurant chef. Another part of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands sees the heroine, a cooking instructor, reunited with the ghost of her first husband. She asks him what heaven is like and what how God was, and his only reply is "God is Fat". Here with his wife Zelia Gattai in front of my next stop, Acarajé da Dinha in Rio Vermelho where Amado lived just south of the city center.



Museu da Gastronomia Baiana e Restaurante SENAC
Largo do Pelourinho
Centro Histórico de Salvador


Travessa's Lanchonete
Travessa dos Perdões, 65 (Santo Antônio), Salvador, BA

Bom Sabor Lanche, Comércio, Salvador
Rua Conselheiro Saraiva, 34 - Comércio, Salvador


Porto do Moreira
Rua Carlos Gomes, 486
Largo do Mocambinho - Dois de Julho
Salvador, BA

Part Two: Rio Vermelho and the Baíanas de Acarajé

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Rio Vermelho is a neighborhood south of the city center filled with bars and restaurants that once had a reputation as a bohemian hangout. This is the place where Iemanjá comes to the ocean in the local religion, and every year on February 2nd her followers come to this beach to put objects into the water for here. The neighborhood has at least two statues of the mermaid goddess, but they aren't very nice for such an important part of the place's identity. The street artists have added no shortage of murals small and large to her. While Iemanjá is the symbol of the neighborhood, most offerings to here a colored white. Acarajé is an offereing to the goddess Iansã, and true Baíanas do not just wear an outfit when selling it but undergo some kind of Candomblé ritual before beginning their careers.



One if the biggest attractions of Rio Vermelho is its street food that gets going later in the day. The aroma of Dendê oil and bean fritters frying in the air fills up not just Rio Vermelho, but basically all of Salvador and Bahia, and I found other Baíanas de Acarajé in other cities I visited. The stands are known as a tabuleiros, and the menu usually includes acarajé, the unfried version knows as abará, student cookies, and acarajé without the shrimp. To be clear, the Baíanas de Acarajé are absolutely everywhere. But Rio Vermelho is home of the three biggest and most successful, with public areas filled with locals and tourists getting their bean fritter fix. The three major Baíanas of Rio Vermelho are each family businesses expanded into little empires with multiple locations and dozens of employees. The lines get long late at night, when the breeze makes the air easier.



Acarajé da Regina

Regina has two locations, and this one in Rio Vermelho sits by itself with just a few plastic chairs and no bars carrying out cold beers to seated patrons. She has won awards for the best Abará, but I went with the deep fried Akarajé.



This was the usual way Acarajé is served, and its barely portable, wrapped in paper that holds the ingredients together. It really needs two hands and a fork, and you need a seat and table.


Acarajé da Dinha

Dinha has been serving Acarajé since 1966, and has been run by a pair of sisters since the founder died in 2008. The location in Largo de Santana is an open square next to a church and a couple bars. Dinha has opened a proper restaurant across the street, and the bars fill the square with plastic tables and ask people to sit in their area and order beers. A television crew with beauty queen hostess were taking pictures and interviewing the Baíana, and Dinha gets a ton of exposure as one of the most famous baíanas de acaraje.



Making the prato of Acarajé, taking the bean fritter and cutting it up, adding the salada, the pimenta hot sauce, and vatapá fish and coconut mix, and finally the dried shrimp.



The finished prato, served on top of the sexist Devassa beer logo. These beer logo tables are everywhere, you literally cannot escape them.


Acarajé da Cira

Acarajé da Cira began in the nearby beach suburb of Itapoã, and I wanted to spend a "Tarde em Itapoã" and try the original but couldn't get around to it. Cira has been operating over fifty years, winning the Veja Magazine best Acarajé award 13 times. Cira now has three locations. The Largo de Mariquita also has a tapioca beiju stand, a guy cooking yakisoba, and a couple more stands with queijo coalho or espetinhos of meat.


Student Cakes, Bolinhos de Estudantes



Passarinhas, cow spleen snacks, I did not try these:



Prato de Acarajé



The Baíanas at Dinha


Its important to not that changing social values in Bahia over the years has seen Baíanas de Acarajé go from operating only at night in out of the way places and into official recognition from local government, forming a trade union, and even the National Ministry of Culture giving them their own official day.



The Memorial das Baíanas, right down a staircase from the Praça da Sé in the Pelourinho neighborhood, features a small museum and a meeting place for the union of Baianas, and space for Candomble initiation rituals. There was a ritual going on while I was visiting, with a young Baíana being brushed with the branch of some kind of bush while an older lady chanted something.


Sponsored by Coke, the Baíanas have a long complicated relationship with Coke and McDonalds and other companies who have tried to commercialize the institution of Baíanas de Acarajé over the years. The latest brewhaha with the international food giants was over street food during the World Cup, when FIFA wanted only its sponsors selling food in a large zone surrounding the stadium during the event.



Museum Exhibit of Baíana serving Acaraje:

The costume of the Baíana is not directly from Africa, but has influences from Portuguese lacework and the muslim heritage of many of the slaves brought to Bahia. At a certain point the local government decided to start marketing the local Afro-Brazilian culture to tourists, and the Baíanas and their outfits became symbols of local identity. But when the local government decided that all Baíanas wear the outfit, when not all could afford it. The local government proceeded to make loans to many small time Baíanas to buy their outfits. Stores selling the dresses are found right outside the Pelourinho.


Ethnographic photo of Yoruba woman in Africa serving bean fritters, its often repeated that Akara means bean fritter in Yoruba and other West African languages, while Je means eat:



Statue of Baíana near memorial, tucked behind another memorial and in disrepair with cracking peeling paint:




Acarajé da Regina
Praça de Santana, s/n, Rio Vermelho
Salvador, Bahia, Brasil


Acarajé da Dinha
Largo de Santana, s/n, Rio Vermelho
Salvador, Bahia, Brasil

Acarajé da Cira
Largo da Mariquita (Rio Vermelho),
Salvador, BA Brasil


Memorial das Baíanas de Acarajé
Praça da Sé, s/nº
Salvador, Bahia Brasil

These are amazing posts, I'm really savoring them, thanks.

Yes, awesome, thank you.
As a huge fan of Brazilian music– Samba and Topicália especially– their birthplace, Bahia has been on my bucket list for some time.
Food looks like another righteous reason to get there.
Quick q- that first Acarajé, what is the vegetal topping in play there? It looks like peppers or celery, or both, but also looks a bit like broccoli rabe.

Part 3: Mercado, Feiras, Markets

These are just a handful of the food marktets around Salvador, and after Feira de São Joaquim they really weren't worth going out of your way. There are people selling fruit eveywhere, there is even a Sams Club and a Wal Mart, so there are no shortage of places to shop for food around Salvador.




Mercado Modelo:

The Mercado Modelo was the main market a long time ago, and its slowly changed from being where people go for food or imported goods to being almost entirely aimed at tourists. Its right across the street from Elavator Lacerda and the Perlourinho neighborhood. Nearly every stall is souveniers and toy berimbaus. There is an open area behind the market with a few tourist restaurants, and the open space around the market is filled with street venders and several Baíanas de Acarajé.


Mercado do Peixe:

This is a landmark in Rio Vermelho, and it used to be a place for fishermen to sell their catch. But today its all restaurants that serve food after the bars close. There are some unique food items for hungover or still going late night eaters, but I didn't have time to find anything good. I came by during the day and most of the places were closed, and the others had annoying people asking me to stop and eat. Oddly, just a couple blocks away, the Casa de Iemenja had a shrine to the goddess in one room, and fishermen processing fish and selling it in the rest of the building.


Mercado Popular:

This was the main fish market in the downtown area, just a few blocks north of the Mercado Modelo. The stuff here was almost all fish venders, and the water and ice was flowing in abundance to keep the catch fresh. Lots of people here were loading up their cars with big fish. There were a couple lanchonetes here but I did not stop to eat.






Feira de São Joaquim

The most exotic and chaotic, unique and very Brazilian food market is without a doubt the Feira de São Joaquim, or Mercado São Joaquim. Its just a short bus ride from the Mercado Modelo and the touristy area, and a stream of visitors make the easy trip to check out this bazaar of tropical and spiritual ingredients.

Dark hallways:

Do you like the idea of a giant maze of dark hallways and exotic smells and strange ingredients that you can't identify? The disorganization and total chaos of São Joaquim is probably for you. They even fit giant delivery trucks down these narrow paths.

Dried shrimp or camarão seca:

Essential ingredient for the Acarajé and several other Bahian dishes.

Shop specializing in candomblé articles:

This is the big draw for tourists, items used in the candomblé rituals.

Ki pipoca, popcorn:

This is also used in a candomblé ceremony where popcorn is poured over a persons head as an offering to Omolu, or while watching movies.


Tree bark spices:



This way to local peppers:


Local peppers, pimentas:


More pimentas:


Tropical fruit on pallets, bananas and sugar cane in the background:


Some kind of meat on hooks:

Some guy sprayed water on these, the market has some cleanliness issues. I can deal with flies swirling around goat heads, but there are also cats and dogs. People process the foods and just leave scraps on the ground to be cleaned up later.

Fruit:


Sometimes, I just don't know:



The view from the ferry boat leaving Salvador from the São Joaquim terminal.




Coming up: I got on the ferry boat, I must have gone somewhere

Great stuff, Tyrgyzistan! Can't wait to see the next leg of your adventures.

Part 4 Ilha de Boipeba and Praia Cueira


Ilha Boipeba is the island described in the guide book as "less developed" or "unspoilt" compared to some of the other beach resort towns up and down the coast of Bahia. Getting here involves a trip across Salvador, a ferry boat ride, another bus ride, then another boat. Only one of the beaches on the island is filled with those beer logo tables and sunshades, and a short walk takes you to the less commercialized beach. The island has no cars, only horses donkeys and tractors, and its distance means it remains less developed for the overseas visitors.

At the far side of the city of Velha Boipeba is where the trail to Praia Cueira begins, and its just an electric pole with spray paint of an arrow and the name of the beach. The two kilometer trail has a bunch of unmarked forks and is covered in water in several places. I think there is a another way to get to the beach from some of the hotels, but I didn't find it. Praia Cueira had several empty and abandoned huts and only one real building with an actual restaurant inside.


Guido's Restaurante:

It seemed like every tourist on the whole island was at this restaurant, and together they almost filled up one seating area. I should say that they filled up the front section which faces the beach and allows people to jump in the water after ordering. The beach "artisans" selling carved coconut shells or woven palm leave baskets were here walking in between the tables talking to the tourists, and there was a guy with an ice-cream bar cart here too. If you look closely at this pic you can see the fire of the open kitchen, and the Queijo Coalho barraca next door.


The giant lagostas with antennae sticking out:


This is the tourist food destination of Ilha Boipeba, and the tour boats from the next resort town up the coast drop people off here for lunch. The open kitchen lets people hold up the lobsters and pose for pictures with the magnificent sea insects with their gigantic antennae still attached.


The best lobster you will find here:



The open kitchen that faces the beach, this guy does nothing but cook the lobster.


My camera can't really focus on the fire and the pot with the Lobster:


Lagosta grelhada na cascada, grilled lobster in the shell:

The big pile of lobster, served with beans and farofa for some reason

casquinha de siri and aruatu

I had to come back again because all the other restaurants open during the day just didn't look like anything special. I didn't splurge on lobster again, but went with some porções, small serving of crab meat and something called Aruatu served in a bowl shaped like a crab shell.


Guido's was by far the nicest place to visit on the island, but the lobster meal was the most expensive thing I have eaten in Brazil, almost double anything else I've eaten. Ilha Boipeba is undeveloped and its not exactly a food destination, more of a place to get away from it all.


Queijo Coalho do Jó

Right next to Guidos was the beach hut, a barraca, known just as Queijo Coalho do Jó. The building wasn't much, and the menu on the sign was only for the busy period. The only offering today was Queijo Coalho, the melted cheese served as a street snack almost everywhere.


The one lady inside was walking between the tables at Guido's taking orders for the queijo coalho. She then walked to the back of the hut to hold the cheese over hot coals with a handheld fan to spread the heat. Oregano was dropped on after the right amount of meltiness was achieved. This was a tasty snack, and for R3.00 it was a great value.


I love me some anthropomorphic cheese.


The town of Velha Boipeba has about twenty restaurants, but they were all closed for low season or looked like the kind of places you see in a small town and just have no interest in going inside. Think bad pizza, pasta, or crepes. The main square where guys are playing soccer all day has a small paved road with several street food kiosks opening at night. More than half of these were closed for the seasons, but there were a couple stands selling fruit juice with alcohol mixed in, and a male Baíana de Acarajé. I visited a stand selling tapioca beijus for just R3.50 with fillings like Corn with cheese and oregano or goiabada paste with bananas. Just R11.00 was more than enough to fill yourself with these folded over tapioca snacks from Tapioca Na Praça.


Guidos Restaurante
Praia Cueira
Ilha de Boipeba
Cairu, Bahia Brasil

Queijo Coalho do Jó
Praia Cueira
Ilha de Boipeba
Cairu, Bahia Brasil

Tapioca Na Praça
Velha Boipeba
Ilha de Boipeba
Cairu, Bahia Brasil

Coming up: I can't spend all my time at the beach, I have to go inland.

Part 5: Lençóis and Comida Nordestina or Comida Sertanejo


Did you know that Bahia is approximately the same area as Spain and Portugal put together? How about that Bahia is about two thirds occupied by a desolate scrubland known as the Sertão? The people here identify themselves as Nordestinos or Sertanejos, their food is Comida Nordestina or Comida Sertaneja adapted from the desert badlands and the scarce agricultural bounty this brutal land creates. Think the most hardcore desert survival foods. The main ingredient in many dishes is Carne-De-Sol, and dried out beef that preserves well and is mixed with the potato-like Aipim for some basic meat and starch meals.

Lençóis is the tourist gateway to a region known as the Chapada Diamantina and its National Park. This was once a prosperous diamond mining town, and there are still garimpeiros working in this region trying to pull precious stones out of piles of rubble. An average day for the visitor here may include hiking up to ten miles, and the local restaurants have large portions of carb loaded meals to feed these people when they get back late in the evening. At night the commercial streets of the historic areas become filled with open air dining for the restaurants, and there are plenty of choices of local or foreign food.



Lampião Culinária Nordestina

Lampião cam mean lamppost, the old lampposts are one of the symbols of the historic towns like Lençóis. But Lampião is also the name of the notorious bandit of the Sertão region who became something like the Jesse James in the local mythology. Lampião has a giant painting of the bandit leader looking over its dining area in the street of Rua da Baderna.

Carne de Sol with Aipim puree:

This was like a mashed potato of Aipim (cassava or yuca) over a mixture of cheese and the dried beef. The cheese added some richness to the beef, and I liked this Brazilian desert version shephards pie.




Quilombola Culinária Baiana

I think Quilombola means from the Quilombo, the Quilombo being a settlement of runaway slaves which occured in every region of Brazil. The menu looked boring but had the one local specialty, Godó de banana, of the Chapada Diamantina region.


Godó de banana:

I had a different beef and banana dish on my last visit to Brazil, and like this it was really.... something. This was definitely different, but bananas cooked forever to where they turn to mush, and dry beef and sausage absorbing the juices, just didn't seem like something worth trying agains. At least now I know what Waiting for Godó is about.


Pastelaria Do Rai

Right next to the moto taxi stop, in the main square is a hole in the wall pastelaria with a hand painted sign of the table-shaped hills of the Chapada Diamantina.


My sources tell me that these are loosely based on fried Asian wantons brought by Japanese immigrants to Brazil, not some local version of the Empanadas found throughout Latin America. For just R2.50 its like they were giving it away. This was R250 for a huge fried pocket of stretchy melted mozzarella.


The pastels of Lençóis allowed for a direct comparison with their Latin neighbor the empanada. Wondering up and down the open air bar and restaurant streets was a guy in an Argentina soccer jersey with a basket full of chicken empanadas for R3.00 each. The delicate bread and lightly spiced chicken of a good empanada is really something special. The Empanada Guy has a good business plan because Argentina is the number one country of origin for visitors to Bahia. Many businesses aimed at tourists are owned by Argentines, like bed and breakfasts or restaurants with names like Porteno Grill. On a side not, I can't understand a single word these Argentine people say. I can't even tell what language they are speaking, its crazy.


Lampião Culinária Nordestina
Rua da Baderna 51
Lençóis, BA

Quilombola Culinária Baiana
Rua Da Pedra 89
Lençóis, BA

Pastelaria Do Rai
Praça Horácio de Matos s/n
Lençóis, BA

Empanada Guy
Look for guy in Argentina soccer shirt with basket of Empanadas


Coming up: I would love to spend more time in the desert, but a 8 hour bus ride back to Salvador beckons.

Tyrgyzistan wrote:
My sources tell me that these are loosely based on fried Asian wantons brought by Japanese immigrants to Brazil, not some local version of the Empanadas found throughout Latin America. For just R2.50 its like they were giving it away. This was R250 for a huge fried pocket of stretchy melted mozzarella.

This photo caught my eye because that looks very much like what KFC sells as empanaditas in Chile. It is nothing like a Chilean empanada (large, baked, meat or seafood filled). I think a side of three empanaditas at a KFC in Santiago costs about a US dollar or less, but they'd be smaller than the one in the photo. I also found this line in a 1994 NYT article about KFC's and owner Pepsico's presence in Chile and other Latin American countries: "Though Kentucky Fried Chicken has abbreviated its name to KFC, Chileans, who still equate fried with tasty, continue to call it by the old name." Made me smile to remember that. Actually, they don't call the restaurant chain by its full name, "Kentucky Fried Chicken," as USofAns do. They just call it "Kentucky."

Tyrgyzistan, have you mentioned or seen pão de queijo (pan de queso, or cheese bread, little round balls of Parker House roll-type bread with a melted cheese filling) in São Salvador de Bahia? I have seen that in little bakeries in Chile and have had it in restaurants in Brazil and Brazilian restaurants elsewhere, so I always thought it was Brazilian, but apparently it's originally a Colombian thing. WikiP also says pão de queijo is popular in southern Brazil, e.g., Minas Gerais; perhaps not so much in the northeast.

p.s., I went back to highlight "who still equate fried with tasty" -- Did New Yorkers give up thinking fried foods were tasty in the early '90s?

Katie wrote:
Tyrgyzistan, have you mentioned or seen pão de queijo (pan de queso, or cheese bread, little round balls of Parker House roll-type bread with a melted cheese filling) in São Salvador de Bahia?

Hello Katie,

I have seen pão de queijo in the display area of nearly every fast food snack places, often with other Salgados or salted snacks. Its hard to find good pão de queijo just walking the street in Salvador, it always looks too old or like it was baked a long time ago, priced at R2.00 or less. The category of Comida Mineira is very popular in Brazil, and I would like to try more of it someday. Its based in the inland state of Minas Gerais which is like the agricultural heartland of Brazil, much of the state is hills with grazing animals and old farmhouses. The state takes its beans, pork, and cheese seriously. The restaurants advertizing Comida Mineira will often have giant black iron pots filled with bean dishes or various kinds of slow cooked pork served buffet style. The only places in Bahia where I saw Comida Mineira were mall food court buffets, and they didn't look good.

Part Six: Outro Lado do Rio Vermelho

Salvador has some great neighborhoods to check out, but I kept coming back to Rio Vermelho whenever I wanted something to eat. It has tons of choices from lanchonetes to sucos to yakisoba or street food or fine dining or flown-in seafood or one of those super pricy churrasco grill places.


Pãozinho do Céu

I was walking around the neighborhood and this European styled building with countless delivery bikes buzzing in and out caught my eye. Pãozinho must mean little bread or biscuit, and there were a dozen fillings on the menu but only a couple in stock when I stopped in.

Pãozinhos, little stuffed bread rolls:

The fillings were bad, like bad cheese or chicken with cheeselike stuff, they were dusted with more cheese that didn't taste any good. There is just something about the humid tropical climate and the lack of good bread in Salvador. By the end of my trip I would kill for a good bakery.





Box do Alemão MERCADO CEASINHA Rio Vermelho:

Where have all the German restaurants gone? This one is in a market in the middle of Salvador Bahia.

Salsicha de Frango, chicken sausage for which I don't know the German name:


This was nice and juicy and lightly spiced with some bread mixed in so it was extremely juicy, served in a gigantic portion. The sauerkraut had some bacon mixed in, and this place was selling one giant bag of the parmesan bread after another to the customers. I don't understand how the locals can eat this cold weather food, its like a hot humid midwestern day from the middle of summer and everyone here is downing giant sausages and German beer.


Box do Alemão was inside a place named CEASINHA, and CEASINHA is the diminutive form of another acronym CEASA, which is short for Centro de Abastecimento, or supply center. Its the farmers market for the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, and the stores were a little more specialized than the other markets. In fact it was really clean and well lit, and it had a French cafe right next to the German box.


Tapioca Beiju.com

The open square of Largo da Mariquita is dominated by Acarajé da Cira, but there are other street food vendors. Tapioca Beijus are served all over the place, but most often by night from street vendors.


This was so stuffed with meat, cheese, eggs, and tomatoes that if felt like a giant tapioca taco. Most of the time the tapioca covers the filling and can be pressed down around the edges. This was just overstuffed and the cheese was like a binder holding all the meat together.



Porto Caymmi Bar

Porto Caymmi is a music themed boteco bar that has live bands later in the night, its named for a classic sambador and it has the lyrics to Garota de Ipanema printed on the wall. My internet searches made me want a dish called Aipim Mania, but they were out when I was here.


I went for the classic Nordestino combination of Carne De Sol com batatas fritas. Carne De Sol is almost entirely dehydrated, and cooking it in onions only returned a little but of moisture. This meat is always just tough, and the whole dish required pimenta hot sauce to make it tastier.




Restaurante Dona Mariquita:


Dona Mariquita is near the top of any list of places to eat in Salvador from the guide books to the local websites. It has a chef obsessed with "disappearing" or "endangered" foods of the Bahian sugar growing basin, the Recôncavo Baiano, and the Nordeste region of Brazil. Many of the dishes are served in over the top presentation in portions for two or three people, like Carne De Sol in a pumpkin. This place probably had the nicest interior of any spot I visited, with many subtle artistic references to Bahian culture in the art and decorations.

Frango ao Molho Pardo, Chicken in brown sauce:

This was a Nordestino dish with chicken and potatoes slowly cooked in a deep earthy brown sauce. I don't know how people in this hot area can eat such heavy food, but the brown sauce and potatoes and chicken tasted like I had eaten it before somewhere.


Peixe grelhada com legumes, grilled local fish with a white sauce and vegetables. This was more like it, food for a hot tropical day with a strong sun beating down from above.




Pãozinho do Céu
Rua Macaúbas, 102
Rio Vermelho, Salvador BA
http://www.paozinhodoceu.com.br/

Box do Alemão
Av. Juracy Magalhães Jr. 1624 (Mercado Ceasinha)
Rio Vermelho, Salvador - BA

Tapioca Beiju.com
Largo da Mariquita
Rio Vermelho, Salvador - BA

Porto Caymmi
Praça Brigadeiro Faria Rocha, 237
Rio Vermelho, Salvador - BA

Dona Mariquita
Rua do Meio, 138
Rio Vermelho, Salvador, BA
http://www.donamariquita.com.br/restaurante/

Coming up: my flight home gets delayed, and I take a trip to the ice cream shop.

Part SEVEN! Final day and Ice Cream

A Cubana Elevador Lacerda:

I had my doubts about the giant elevator in the middle of Salvador, its hard to look at a map or pictures and understand how important the thing is. The old city of Salvador was just a bunch of fortresses and churches built on sharp cliffs with later fortresses and churches build on top. There have been trams and elevators operating here for hundreds of years, and the modern elevator dates from about 1930. The bus stations just below the elavator and a block away from the top are essential for the commutes of many people. Fare is just R0.15


Its also important because there is a Sorveteria, A Cubana right at the exit with two scoops of ice cream for R6.00:


Sorvete De Milho Verde:

How long is too long to go without sweet corn ice cream? They even have milho verde flavor picoles (popsicles) at the beaches here.

Right at the exit:




Le Glacier Laporte

Le Glacier Laporte is located in some prime real estate right beside one of the ancient churches in the Pelourinho neighborhood. The sign has a graphic of the Eiffel tower turning into an ice cream cone. It has a tagline of "a twist of French in the heat of Bahia", at least the French understood tha Bahia is very hot and everyone needs ice cream.

Sorvete de Umbú:

It turns out this fruit comes from a tree called the Umbuzeiro which I saw while hiking around a national park earlier. This sorvete was two scoops for R7.00




A Cubana Pelourinho

A Cubana is the institution of ice cream in the old historic neighborhood, and the original location is just off Largo do Pelourinho on the north side of the old city:

Sorvete de Graviola e Coco Seco

Some research on the internet tells me that the fruit of Graviola (or Soursop) has some uses in alternative medicine to ward off cancer. I don't think this protected me from anything, but the coconut ice cream underneath was good too.





The two sorveterias in the Pelourinho neighborhood were good, gut they left me a little unsatisfied. They aren't even nominally Brazilian, but Cuban and French places. Surely there had to be a more Brazilian place for locals to get their ice cream. My answer after a bit of internet searching brought me to the Bonfim area just a long bus ride away from the city center. There is an ancient church with a room full of plastic body parts, and outside the church is the sight a a major Candomblé ritual once every year. There is also an ancient Italian style fortress just down the road. This neighborhood at the far end of the peninsula known as Itapagipe is home to Sorveteria da Ribeira, since 1931.


Sorvete de Jenipap e Kiwi

Jeninpap is translated as Genipa, the kiwi ice cream is the bright green stuff underneath. The huge portion of two giant scoops set me back R10.00

Sorvete de Pitanga:

Pitanga is listed as Surinam Cherry on the menu. Underneath is an unseen layer of Tapioca ice cream.

Translated menu:




Final Thoughts:

If I had more time or better planned things out I would have tried the local chicken and cashew dish known as Xim Xim da Galinha. I also would have gone to some of the other towns around Salvador like Praia do Forte or Santo Amaro, but I just did not like going to the bus station to get to any of these places. Google maps and other guides were not much help, and many streets had changed names or numbering systems and finding anything was difficult.

Whatever people call this area unsafe or dangerous are crazy or out of date. The old town was patrolled by countless military police, they even drove in packs of scooters down the side streets. The other areas seemed perfectly fine, I just walked around with a little cash and a point and shoot camera during the day.

Further Reading about food in Bahia and Salvador:

The blog Flavors of Brazil was run by a Canadian guy living in Recife, and it stopped on a dime in March 2013. But there are detailed posts and recipes from every region of Brazil
http://flavorsofbrazil.blogspot.com.br/ ... abel/Bahia

Veja Magazine is a nationwide magazine with local publications Comer e Beber with guides to eating and drinking places. They have a local jury pick the best options in several categories, and the ballots are visible somewhere on the site.
http://vejabrasil.abril.com.br/salvador

Destemporados has boatloads of restaurant blogger reviews from across brazil, with tons of photos and the entries are easily sorted by food type or city and state.
http://www.destemperados.com.br/regiao/ba

Salvador Central is a guide written by an American living in Salvador, and I don't think it gets updated much, but it has several sections worth browsing:
http://www.salvadorcentral.com/FoodinSalvador.htm

Le Glacier Laporte
Largo do Cruzeiro de São Francisco, 21
Pelourinho, Salvador, BA

A Cubana Sorvetes
Praça Thomé de Souza, 1
Elevador Lacerda, Salvador, BA
Pelourinho, Salvador, BA

A Cubana Sorvetes
Rua das Portas do Carmo, 12
Pelourinho, Salvador - BA

Sorveteria da Ribeira
Praça General Osório, 87 -
Largo da Ribeira, Salvador, BA

Bravo! What a wonderful trip and report. Was there in 1990 and want to return based on your posts---after the World Cup madness.