Salvador cooks with West Africa in the pan: red dendê palm oil, coconut milk, dried shrimp and malagueta pepper. Three days here run from the city's biggest market to the baiana fritter stalls of Rio Vermelho, an orchard kitchen in Cabula and old cachaça counters.
Salvador's largest open-air market sprawls beside the Itaparica ferry terminal: barrels of dendê palm oil, dried shrimp, cassava flour, guinea fowl, and Candomblé herbs sold by the bundle. Open daily from about 05:00.
The 1861 customs house now holds 260 craft stalls, but the reason to come is the first-floor terrace restaurant serving moqueca de camarão and bobó above the bay, running under the same name since the 1970s.
Rebuilt in 2016, this covered neighbourhood market mixes fishmongers, fruit sellers and cheese counters with small bars serving raw oysters, casquinha de siri and cold beer. Open Tuesday to Sunday, liveliest late afternoon.
The most-queued baiana stall in the city fries black-eyed-pea fritters in bubbling dendê and splits them for vatapá, caruru, salad and dried shrimp. Trade starts mid-afternoon and runs until the batter is gone.
A 19th-century townhouse café on the Santo Antônio ridge with a terrace hanging over the Bay of All Saints. Thick Bahian cocoa, tapioca crepes and cakes made with cupuaçu, mangaba and coconut. Closed Mondays.
The hospitality school's buffet puts out roughly 40 traditional Bahian dishes at once: xinxim de galinha, moqueca de peixe, efó, caruru, sarapatel, plus a dessert table of cocada, quindim and doce de banana.
Scooping since 1931 at the tip of the Ribeira peninsula, this hall keeps around 40 flavours built on Bahian fruit — cacau, cupuaçu, umbu, graviola, jenipapo, tapioca — served in metal bowls at long shared tables.
Contemporary Bahian cooking on a deck built over the harbour: carne de sol with pumpkin purée, moqueca reworked with line-caught fish, and cocktails on cachaça, cashew fruit and umbu. Dinner service from 18:00.
Classes open with a market walk for dendê, coconut milk, coriander and live prawns, then cook moqueca, vatapá and acarajé in a home kitchen before eating the results with the teachers. English sessions each morning.
Chef Beto Pimentel cooks inside his own orchard well outside the tourist belt, growing most of what he serves: moqueca finished with jackfruit or cocoa, prawns steamed in green coconut, house fruit liqueurs. Lunch only.
The crescent of sand below the Barra lighthouse runs on walking vendors: grilled queijo coalho dusted with oregano, casquinha de siri, acarajé, chilled green coconuts and beer carried to your towel in styrofoam boxes.
A narrow standing bar on the Pelourinho's main square pouring cravinho — cachaça steeped with cloves, honey and cinnamon — in small glasses at the counter, alongside dozens of aged artisanal cachaças from Bahia's interior.