Acarajé

Acarajé is black-eyed pea fritters deep-fried in dendê palm oil and split open for a shrimp-and-pepper filling. It's Bahia's signature street food, sold almost exclusively by Baianas — women in traditional white dress — from stalls that line the streets of Salvador, and it carries the same West African heritage that gives the dish its close relative, akara, on the other side of the Atlantic.

What it really is

Dried black-eyed peas soak, peel and grind into a thick, aerated paste, whipped until it's light enough to hold air before it's shaped into rough ovals and lowered into hot dendê oil — the deep orange, distinctively flavoured palm oil that defines Bahian cooking. The fritters fry until the outside turns a deep golden-orange and firmly crisp while the inside stays soft. Once fried, each one splits open and fills with vatapá, a shrimp-and-bread paste, along with caruru (a okra-and-shrimp side) and fresh salad.

It arrived with enslaved West Africans and never left. Acarajé's direct ancestor, akara, is eaten across West Africa in similar form; the version that took root in Bahia grew its own identity there, tied specifically to Afro-Brazilian religious and cultural tradition, including its continued sale by Baianas as a recognised occupation and cultural symbol.

How it's served

• Hot, split open and filled, wrapped in paper, eaten by hand.
• Sold from street stalls, most famously by Baianas in traditional dress.
• As a street food snack or light meal, rarely served in a formal restaurant setting.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the crustaceans in the filling.
• Say what fillings are included, since vatapá, caruru and salad together are the traditional combination.
• Note the dendê oil, since its distinctive flavour and colour are central to the dish, not incidental.