Via Lost in a Supermarket

Acaraje with vatapa, tomato salad, and malagueta pepper sauce.

The state of Bahia located in the North-East of Brasil is has the most distinctive african culture in the country. From capoeira (afro-brasilian martial arts dance), african derived music forms such as samba and axe (aah-shay), the west-african derived religion called candomble, to its cuisine with strong links to Africa, Bahia is a treasure. Dende oil (palm oil), extracted from the West African palm tree that was brought by slaves to Brasil is a defining ingredient in Bahia cuisine.

After missing eachother for the past month and a half due to my busy schedule, I finally hooked up with Reni(hay-ne) and Ilma(Eel-ma) of Sabor da Bahia catering for some acaraje(a-cah-rah-jay) today. Acaraje is like a Brazilian version of falafel. A black eyed pea fritter which is deep fried in dende oil then shaped into ball, split open when cooked, and then stuffed with vatapa.Vatapa is a creamy paste made of bread crumbs, shrimp, coconut milk, and dende.Malagueta peppers, Brazil’s chiles, are ground into a sauce to put in the acaraje, and a tomato salad adds to the party, but not without some dried shrimp thrown in.In Brasil, acaraje can be the size of a softball, quite a filling meal. This is street food, the most common item you will find in the colonial part of Salvador da Bahia called Pelourinho. The baianas(bahia women) wear traditional white clothes with a head wrap.Baianas are so cool that every samba school in Rio and Sao Paulo has a procession of baianas in traditional costumes.

Reni and Ilma make party size acaraje, the same size of falafel. And friend and I stopped over to watch them make it to order. This is a labor intensive food.Their are baianas in kitchens at our Brazilian restaurants here in LA, but they don’t have acaraje. Too much work.

Whole black eyed peas are first ground into smaller pieces. These are then soaked in water and peeled. The outer layer of the black eyed pea must be removed to yield a perfectly white batter.

For the spice,malagueta peppers are soaked in vinegar and spices then kept refrigerated until use.You can buy them here in LA at the Brazilian markets, but the homemade version is much more satisfying.For Sabor da Bahia’s pimenta(hot sauce), they mash it up so it spreads easily on the split open acaraje. When we peeked in the kitchen, the vatapa was in a bowl of warm water on the stove to preserve its consistency.
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The LA Times reports:

Thirty-three years after being classified an endangered species, the El Segundo blue butterfly is flourishing on 200 acres of sand dunes near Los Angeles International Airport.

Entomologist Richard Arnold, a consultant to the airport, said Wednesday that the butterfly population there has grown to 35,000 to 100,000 insects, depending on the year, up from a few thousand when the federal government placed it on the endangered list in 1976.

More info here.

Butterfly photo from SoCalButterflies.com Sign photo by AuntiLaurie.

In August 1983 James Brown and band were playing the Beverly Theatre in Los Angeles with legendary blues man B.B. King for what was already a formidable pairing of music royalty. Then halfway through the set that evening James Brown introduced a very special guest to join him onstage – a 25 year old Michael Jackson, hot on the heels of his Thriller album at the time, inconspicuously watching the show from the audience. Michael wowed the crowd with a spontaneous song and dance performance that was spectacular and all too brief.