Salvador de Bahia was
almost designed for sunsets.
The sun goes down slowly on the Baiae do Todos os Santos (The Bay of All Saints). The sea turns orange with the fading light. People sit on the sea wall and are lit up in silhouette with the receding sun behind them.
I saw all this through the aperture of the beachfront restaurant Churrascaria Ancoradouro. This is a small restaurant, only about 12-foot by 40-foot in size, and has one of the best locations on the Porto do Barra. Across the small road is the Orla (sea wall) and the nearest beaches to the centre of Salvador. Afro-Brasileiros sit on the seawall and chat to each other watched over by the tourist police. The promenade is busy with cashew-nut salesmen, coco-vert sellers, joggers, surfers, street kids, and the occasional international tourist. The barrage of noise that is Barra carries long into the night.
The restaurant itself is very spartan, with tiled walls, about twenty seats grouped around tables, a television hovers in one ceiling corner, and the whole thing is crewed by a two man team. They seem to be one of the features of Barra, and not a minute goes by without someone stopping by the aperture and sharing the time of day with them. The two men were exceptionally friendly, but it was the food that drew me back. This is a working man's restaurant, one which he/she retires to after a day on the beach. A lot of the food was plain Brazilian but very good, exceptionally cheap, and of big portions. The number-one selling point for me was the steaks. Picanha is rare and costs about 9 reals, as does filet mignon, and each comes with rice, vegetables, and "wood sauce". I never worked out what "wood sauce" was, but it was very nice.
The sun goes down slowly on the Baiae do Todos os Santos (The Bay of All Saints). The sea turns orange with the fading light. People sit on the sea wall and are lit up in silhouette with the receding sun behind them.
I saw all this through the aperture of the beachfront restaurant Churrascaria Ancoradouro. This is a small restaurant, only about 12-foot by 40-foot in size, and has one of the best locations on the Porto do Barra. Across the small road is the Orla (sea wall) and the nearest beaches to the centre of Salvador. Afro-Brasileiros sit on the seawall and chat to each other watched over by the tourist police. The promenade is busy with cashew-nut salesmen, coco-vert sellers, joggers, surfers, street kids, and the occasional international tourist. The barrage of noise that is Barra carries long into the night.
The restaurant itself is very spartan, with tiled walls, about twenty seats grouped around tables, a television hovers in one ceiling corner, and the whole thing is crewed by a two man team. They seem to be one of the features of Barra, and not a minute goes by without someone stopping by the aperture and sharing the time of day with them. The two men were exceptionally friendly, but it was the food that drew me back. This is a working man's restaurant, one which he/she retires to after a day on the beach. A lot of the food was plain Brazilian but very good, exceptionally cheap, and of big portions. The number-one selling point for me was the steaks. Picanha is rare and costs about 9 reals, as does filet mignon, and each comes with rice, vegetables, and "wood sauce". I never worked out what "wood sauce" was, but it was very nice.
Other food is Frutos de Mar (seafood), including squid, octopus, and lobster for about 30 reals. The food is exceptionally fresh, and one of the things that struck me about Brazil is how like beef the beef tasted. I know that sounds strange - but in the homogenised, plastic-packaged Western European world, I began to forget how good "cow" tasted. To top it off, capirinhaand cachaca are available. And Brazilians like their beers cold (not surprising, when Bahian summer temperatures hit 40 degrees each day), and often it arrives in a "cooler", surrounding it and frosted glasses.
An enjoyable restaurant and one smack bang next to the Barra Turismo hotel, so it saw a lot of my custom. One more thing about Salvador is to keep an eye out for the street kids. Some you will find lugging old braziers around on sticks made out of old tins and glowing with embers, much like a church censor. For five reals, they will grill little lumps of cheese on a skewer over these braziers. Eating grilled cheese on a beach is one of Bahia's little pleasures
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