June 25, 2015
By: Khadeeja McSeed and Marley Pulz
We woke up ready for another exciting day, starting at 10a.m., but it was pouring rain, so our departure was delayed. When we left, we swiftly travelled to the nearest bus stop where we would take a bus to the largest and most traditional market in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil named Feira de São Joaquim. This market is a place where people can buy livestock such as chickens, and goats, and also a multitude of fruits, vegetables, seafood, dried meats, and handmade objects including baskets, pottery, and cooking utensils. The venders at this market utilize the entire animal, we saw cow tongue, heart, eye, and leg bones that were being sold. This was a very unique experience for those of us who have only been to traditional farmers markets, where it is oftentimes already processed meat. Professor Brito bought a bag of acerola fruit for us to eat while we trudged through the puddle soaked dirt roads. Acerola is a native fruit to Brazil that is sour and looks like a cherry; some students really enjoyed this fruit and some disliked the sourness of the fruit.
After this adventure and some purchases, we went to another market, this one was a large municipal looking building that had restaurants and an abundance of shops. Here, they sold a variety of items ranging from small sculptures to bags that say Bahia and small sized magnets. This market was called Mercado Modelo, and here we had the best farofa (manioc flour) we experienced on the trip thus far.
After our delicious lunch, we traveled back to the hostel. We then had a discussion about the book, Laughter Out of Place by Donna M. Goldstein. Our discussion encompassed the main points about favela children and how the streets seem to be captivating to them for easy money when compared to working in a minimum wage job and as a result many children are prone to look to the streets for financial need and comfort. We also discussed the difference between nurtured children and nurturing children, and how the protagonist (Gloria) adopted children into her home, who were not hers. Nurturing children are poor children, who at a young age, take on responsibilities; such as bringing income to the mother, nurturing the household through cooking and cleaning; while nurtured children are the children of the middle class who experience a different kind of childhood as opposed to taking care of others (Goldstein 149).
After our discussion, we headed to our next activity, a tour of three neighborhoods and their restaurants/bars. At the first restaurant, the owner started it in his house and then expanded it to where he has a kitchen and numerous tables in the front, in addition to his regular house. This owner participated in a competition which includes 30 restaurant/bars and occurs annually, and for four years in a row he placed in the six best restaurants, while the past two years he was the champion of this competition. At this restaurant we had a pepper caipirinha which was voted best and shrimp cooked with cheese and coconut in a coconut shell, placed on a small wooden boat – the presentation was amazing. The second restaurant/bar, had a surfer’s vibe that made the whole place calm but this bar was still more business oriented, there were cards where your order was electronically placed. As a group we had cooked clams with garlic and tried many different flavors of caipirinha. The last bar we went to was Bar da Chica, which is considered to be a people’s bar. The tour guide discussed the background of the owner and how he lost his kiosk on the beach due to changes in municipal policy and then he created a restaurant/bar for himself, and came back from nothing. At this bar, the owner was very genuine – he wanted people to just enjoy themselves. This bar was known for a “Viagra soup” that was a combination of seafood and quail eggs – supposedly to give you strength and empowerment. The foods provided by this restaurant are the foods that were eaten by the slaves from the scraps the slave masters left them to eat. In Laughter out of Place, a woman that was interviewed by the author, discussed how a poor man’s bed is better than a rich man’s because of the food. She explained that the poor man eats a lot of soup made from the hoof of the cow and dried meats while the rich man only eats bread with jelly, cheese and butter (Goldstein 243). The woman shows that there is a difference in the way people have access to food based on who is poor and who is rich. The separation of class can be seen through food choices. The three neighborhoods we visited were different and unique because although they were in close proximity to each other, they accentuated different social classes of Salvador. The tour guide ended by saying that although we see business men in rich areas, there are also business men in simple areas and they are also important and that although their profit is much smaller it is oftentimes much more important to them and their communities.
