The acarajé is the most famous and typical dish of Bahia and it is impossible to go to the state and not experience this delight. However, those who are allergic to shrimp should be careful.
This food is very common in Nigeria and Ghana, where they are often eaten for breakfast.
The dish is made with black-eyed bean paste and fried in palm oil. After that, it is cut and stuffed with shrimp, vinaigrette, vatapá and, if you like it, a lot of pepper.
Acarajé can also be stuffed with caruru, an okra stew with an appearance similar to a thicker cream.
Abará is actually a different version of acarajé. It is a traditional candomblé food, offered to orixás. Abará is a dumpling made with bean paste and cooked wrapped in a banana leaf, which is where it differs from acarajé, which is fried.
The baiano vatapá is a very creamy dish and arrived in Brazil through the Africans. Its main ingredients are coconut milk, peanuts, French bread, cassava flour, cashew nuts, ginger and shrimp. In addition, we have the main star of many Bahian recipes, palm oil.
It is widely consumed as a filling for acarajé, but it can also be served with rice and caruru. In addition, it is eaten with fish, seafood and can even be served with chicken.
Caruru differs from vatapá because it is made with okra. So, it's a creamy food and its ingredients are: okra cut very small and cooked, dried shrimp, seasonings and palm oil.
The most traditional and consumed moquecas in Bahia are the shrimp and fish moquecas, but the dish can also be prepared with crab or shellfish. In addition, it has coconut milk, seasonings and the essential palm oil as ingredients.
The shrimp bobó is also of African origin but ended up gaining Bahian seasonings in Brazilian lands. This dish is very similar to moqueca, but it is thicker and denser.
The big difference between the two recipes is cassava, which is added while the shrimp are cooking and thickens the broth. Added to this, the other ingredients are seasonings and palm oil.
Chicken xinxim is a typical Bahian dish made with chicken and was formerly made at popular festivals. The ingredients of this dish are chicken, dried shrimp, rice, cashew nuts, peanuts and spices.
This mix may seem strange but it's so worth trying!
Sarapatel is a dish of Portuguese origin. It is made with diced pork viscera, sautéed, boiled and with various seasonings. In addition, blood is added to the spoonful in the preparation of the dish. Usually, it is served with cassava flour or with rice.
Tapioca is of indigenous origin and became very popular in Bahia. It is made from manioc flour, which comes from cassava. Its filling can be quite varied, with coconut milk, condensed milk, cheese, fruit, meats and the simplest one is made with just butter. However, in Bahia, tapioca stuffed with fish and dried shrimp is very common.
The quindim has Portuguese origins and arrived in Brazil in the colonial period and was modified with Brazilian ingredients. In the absence of some Lusitanian ingredients, such as almonds, coconut was added.
Its ingredients are egg yolk, sugar and grated coconut and it is very popular in Bahia.
This is yet another dish of African origin that has become a tradition in Bahia. Hausa rice became even more popular after it was reported to be the writer's favorite dish. Jorge Amado.
The food consists of white rice cooked with coconut milk, dried meat and a touch of palm oil.
Mungunzá is very popular in Bahia, but it has another name in different regions of the country, such as the name Canjica. In other parts of the country, this food is quite common during the June festivities, but in Bahia it is frequent throughout the year.
This dish is made from a different type of corn, boiled and mixed with other ingredients, such as animal milk or coconut milk, sugar, cinnamon and peanuts.
The cocada is not only popular in Bahian cuisine and, in fact, it has spread throughout Latin America. Despite this, cocada is very traditional and popularly made in Bahia, so that it is already linked to the baianas board.