A thick, creamy paste of bread, dried shrimp, peanuts and cashews cooked with coconut milk, dendê and ginger.
What makes it vatapá
Bread or cassava flour cooked to a thick cream.
Ground dried shrimp, peanuts and cashews.
Coconut milk, dendê and ginger.
Where it comes from
Another of Bahia's Afro-Brazilian dishes, built on the ground nuts, dried shrimp and palm oil of West African cooking. It's eaten with rice, served alongside moqueca, and spooned into acarajé.
In Pará, far to the north, it's made its own way and is part of the family lunch for the Círio festival.