Five Bites Of Salvador De Bahia, Brazil

Salvador in the state of Bahia, Brazil, is the third largest city in the country, but has the largest concentration of ethnically Afro-Brazilians. Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro may be bigger, and get noticed, at first. But Salvador's fusion of its disparate roots creates a cuisine that is uniquely Bahian reflecting its history, blood and people, from the dirt-cheap simple to the sublime.

Deciding how to eat your daily dining in Salvador isn't an easy proposal.

But here are a few foods that no visitor to the city should miss:

Breakfast: Beiju de Tapioca

For visitors to Salvador most hotels provide breakfast via a vast buffet including many breads, frosted cakes of all kinds and cheeses. Often, next to the omelet station there is a chef preparing a local favorite known as beiju de tapioca, a kind of crepe made from tapioca. Various tapioca and manioc (cassava) flours are the twin pillars of Bahian cooking. The tapioca crepe is a lightly salted small Frisbee of flour cooked quickly and stuffed –sweet or savory—and folded. Popular types of stuffing are freshly grated coconut, butter, ham, and guava paste and cheese known as "goiabada com queijo" (Romeo and Juliet).

Lunch: Bahian Buffet

Next door to the Bahia's Gastronomical Museum in the heart of the Pelourinho District is SENAC (an acronym translated to National Commercial Learning Service). Along with the museum is a cooking school and a restaurant on the second floor. This restaurant has an all-you-can-eat-knock-your-socks-off lunch-only buffet service. It is the most authentic taste of Bahia you'll find, all made by the expert chef masters and students. The menu offers 40 typical regional dishes and 12 types of desserts.

"Through taste and culinary classics, here, people are deep in the history and learn of the familiar cooking process through immersion—that process is formed by African, Native Brazilian and Portuguese flavors," says Josenilton Santos, the Operational Coordinator.

The buffet's highlights include codfish, saranambi (clams), squid, hauça rice (rice mixed with dried meat) and many variations of stews featuring the ubiquitous dendê oil (palm oil). You can walk off the hearty meal afterwards with one of the museum's gastronomic tours of the neighborhood.

Street Food:Acarajé

Deep-fried black-eyed peas and onions in dendê oil, Acarajé, is an essential delicacy of traditional Bahian cuisine and an element of Candomblé–the highly popular syncretic melding of Catholicism and West African spiritualism brought over by slaves. The hot fritter is split open and doused with a salad of tomatoes and onions, and, if desired, shrimp and hot sauce. Sold at ever-present street carts, it is the perfect example of Bahian meeting of cultures. The name comes from the Yoruba dish known as àkàrà, or "fireball," and the Yoruba word jé, meaning to eat, thus "eating fireballs."

The finest acarajé in Salvador can be had in Itapuã, at Acarajé da Cira. Cira uses fresh dendê oil and sources shrimp from her own boat. A little closer to the heart of the city, her daughter runs another acarajé outpost in the Rio Vermelho (Red River) neighborhood. That area is known for its many artists, musicians, nightlife and for its yearly festival in honor of the Candomblé goddess of the sea.

Drinks: Cachaça

Cachaças, the firewater basis for the Brazil national cocktail, caipirinha (just add sugar, ice and lime), is made from distilled sugar cane. Cachaça is a good idea if you want to get drunk fast, it is typically highly alcoholic, but don't let that dissuade you from the smack of its sharp sweet flavor. There are artisanal Cachaças that come in various different strengths and flavors.

On the Terreiro de Jesus in the Pelourinho district, sits O Cravinho (http://www.ocravinho.com.br/), a dark somewhat dank tavern with walls lined with bottles and kegs. It is named for the house specialty—clove-infused Cachaças that add a smoothness and enticing aroma to the drink. There are over 20 infused Cachaças of different types for example, jatoba (chili pepper), anti-gripal (flu prevention), and gengibre (ginger).

Dinner: Moqueca

Located in the Cabula neighborhood, Paraíso Tropicalis is owned and operated by Chef Beto Pimental. Also, a trained agronomist, he puts an audaciously exquisite alchemy on traditional Bahian cuisine blended with exotic native fresh fruits from the adjoining gardens.

The main feature is the nouvelle spin on Bahian traditional moquecas. Centuries-old moquecas, a tropical fish stew, are the amalgam of spices, oils and peppers from Portuguese-speaking countries, Africa and Brazil. The classic moqueca starts with dendê oil, malagueta (hot Brazilian peppers) and a flaky fish like sea bass or grouper. All served with farofa, a condiment made with toasted manioc, sometimes with dendê oil or butter that Bahians toss on everything. Among the house special moquecas there is calapolvo, combing shrimp, octopus and lobster accompanied by a farofa, here made with added orange zest.

The canopy of fruit trees, or the Pimentel family farm, also provide an array of mixed juices and vodka-laced alternatives called roscas–fresh frozen multi-fruit juice smoothies, delicately thawed into layers with a sorbet-like texture using exotic Brazilian fruits like jenipapo, sapoti, and guarana. And bonus! On the way out the door, the waiter hands you a plastic baggy full of fresh fruits from the garden or farm to take home!

Travel expenses for this article were paid for by LATAM Airlines.