Barra

We spent the last week of Salvador by the beach in the Barra neighbourhood. Overall, Barra felt much safer than Pelhorino but it took us a few days to get over our jitters from being mugged last Sunday. We essentially lay low and just took advantage of the yummy fruits that we easily found at the various fruit stalls peppered throughout the neighbourhood.

The quality of the fruit at the fruit stalls was high but the prices were low. A fruitarian's dream! A mango or small papaya typically cost R$1. A big bunch of bananas cost R$4. The most expensive fruit we bought was soursop at about R$10 each. We bought two of them and wished we bought 20 mangoes instead with our R$20. Soursops look like a cherimoya on the inside but they sure don't taste like cherimoya. They're a little sour, a little musky... not our cup of tea. We essentially tossed them in the garbage.

Our dining out included a moqueca at Todo Azul and more memorably, the buffet lunch at Oliva Gourmet located in the Barra Shopping mall. The buffet was R$37.90, all-you-can-eat including pastas made to order. The buffet itself had quality food with lots of vegan choices. I particularly enjoyed the grilled veggies which were not too oily, the rice salad made with broccoli and mushrooms, and the mini pao de queijos. The paos aren't vegan since they're made with Minas cheese but they're gluten-free since they're made with cassava. The texture and taste were phenomenal, cheesy and a little chewy. Roch thought they were like savoury marshmallows.

We also tried the beans and rice at two of the three mama-papa restaurants around the corner from where we were staying. Beans and rice were really the only vegan/vegetarian options available to us at these eateries but no complaints as the food was usually delicious and a generous portion typically cost R$10. Washed down with an ice cold Skol and life was pretty sweet.Read more