Street Stall · Steamed Bean Cake
Abará
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It's acarajé's ritual twin: because it's steamed in banana leaves instead of fried in dendê palm oil, Candomblé tradition offers abará to Oxalá, whose diet forbids oil and salt.
A soft cake of mashed black-eyed peas, onion, and dried shrimp, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed rather than fried. Bahian street vendors, often the same baianas selling acarajé, keep a steaming pot going alongside the frying oil so both can be sold from one stall.
Why it's made this way: Bahia's Afro-Brazilian street-food tradition, rooted in Candomblé temple kitchens, produced this fried/steamed pairing nowhere else in Brazil with the same religious and commercial weight.
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Acarajé
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Cocada
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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