Street Stall · Steamed Bean Cake
Abará
Photo: Flaviohmg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
It's made from the same black-eyed pea batter as acarajé; only the cooking changes, with the dough steamed in banana leaf instead of fried.
A soft cake of mashed black-eyed peas, onion, dried shrimp, and dendê oil, 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: Abará comes from the same Afro-Bahian tradition as acarajé, rooted in Yoruba cooking and in Candomblé, where both are ritual foods, and baianas have sold the two together on Salvador's streets for generations.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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