Bahian cuisine
Known throughout Brazil as the country's best, evolved from an improvisation of African, Indian and Portuguese dishes using predominantly local ingredients. Its spiced and peppery. 

These three cultures were put  together by the Portuguese colonisation of Brazil in the sixteenth century and over the next 350 years a distinctive culinary culture developed around this mix of influences.

Nearly every street corner has a Bahiana selling a wide variety of local snacks, the most famous is the acarajé, a kidney bean ball fried in oil which has its origins in West Africa. To this the Bahiana adds vatapé, a dried shrimp and coconut milk patè, fresh salad (watch out!) and hot sauce (pimenta). Salvador alone consumes 12 million pieces of aracajé every month.

Beware of the newly arrived tourist stomach may react to the shrimps that are served with cooked shell, tail and head. Ask a cab driver to bring you to Dadá (in Pelourinho) or Dinha (in Rio Vermelho), if you want the most popular and original stuff.

Flavours
The three primary ingredients of Bahian cooking that set it apart from others in Brazil are all of African heritage. They are coconut oil, hot malagueta chilli peppers and dendê, a bright orange palm oil extracted from the nuts of a West African tree successfully transplanted to Brazil. 

Since dendé has a reputation for upsetting travelers stomach, you are adviced to consume it small amouts, unless your stomach have already been properly adjusted to the local flavours of the cooking.

Apart from the traditional bahian cuisine, you’ll find every kind of food from other parts in the world throughout the state. Everything from spanish, german, Italian to japanense.

Churrasco
Even though churrasco is not a regional bahian menu, it’s worth mentioning as a delicious brazilian speciality.

Churrasco (barbeque) modality (rodízio) consisted of serving all tables at the same time; the waiters would come around with several skewers of different types of meat, offering it to whoever wanted the cut, and as much as they wanted. Today, this practice is found throughout the country, and it is loved by admirers of good roasted meat.

Today, a modern churrascaria (restaurant where churrasco is served) works with at least 10 different varieties of meat, besides all the side dishes – salads, rice, beans, manioc flour and much more - making it one of the most popular dishes in Brazil.