An acarajé is basically a deep-fried "bread" made from mashed beans from which the skins have been removed (reputedly feijão fradinho -- black-eyed peas -- but in reality almost always the less expensive brown beans so ubiquitous in Bahia).

The mash is deep fried in dendé oil (derived from a nut found on the dendé palm) and the resulting acarajés are usually eaten accompanied by camarão (small sundried shrimp), pimenta (hot pepper sauce), vatapá (a paste made from sundried shrimp, peanuts, cashews, coconut milk, and dendé), caruru (kind of an okra stew), and salada (or salad, usually just diced tomatoes). These "fillers" can be included or left off at will, and the camarão will cost a little extra.

A variation on the acarajé is the abará. An abará is fundamentally the same as an acarajé except that rather than being deep-fried it is boiled in a banana leaf.

Not all acarajés are created equal, in that not all baianas are equally adept and conscientious cooks. Some are downright bad and their acarajés (and customers) likewise suffer. So if you don't know, it's a good idea to borrow from the seasoned highway traveller who dines at the truckstop with plenty of trucks parked outside: go to where the baianos are standing in line.

* (One well-known baiana with a deserved reputation for excellent acarajés is Cira, in Itapoan.)

Speaking personally, it's hard to beat a good acarajé with just the right amount of pimenta, washed down with an ice-cold Antarctica. É isso ai meu irmão! The cost of an acarajé in a working-class neighborhood is 1 real (hay-ow) sem (without) camarão and R$1.50 with. A more middle-class price is R$2 without and R$2.50 with. Some baianas-with-reputations and baianas in touristy places will charge more. Price and quality have nothing to do with each other.

If you're just looking for a meal, workingman's lunches are easy to find. Just about every bar on the street serves decent food at lunchtime. What you'll usually get is rice and beans, and chicken or beef, and maybe a salad. It's good to know that frango is chicken and carne is beef. Sometimes you'll see the word "bife"on the menu ("menu" is cardápio by the way; that's a good word to know), but in Portuguese it doesn't mean beef, it means that the meat is sliced.

Frutos do Mar, Panela de Barro

Unless you are starving, or there are two of you and you want to share a meal, you should order a prato feito (often referred to by the initials PF ("pay-ehfee"). That means that the meal is served on one plate, rather than on several platters, although in practice it's common that a PF will be rice and beans on a plate, with meat and salad coming on little individual platters. One of these meals will set you back the sum of three or four reais (less than a couple of bucks).

Getting back to typically Bahian cuisine, and to the top of my (and almost everybody else's) list, there are a couple of dishes which you should definitely know about: moqueca and bobó. These are essentially the same except that bobó is thickened with the addition of mashed aipim (manioc). The flavor base of these two dishes (by the way, one of the things that accent mark in bobó means is that that particular syllable is stressed) is similar to the ingredients in acarajés, including the ubiquitous dendé and coconut milk.  Bobós, muquecas, and most other traditional Bahian dishes are generally prepared and served in a bubbling panela de barro (clay pot).

Restaurants in Salvador da Bahia

There are a lot of them, many of them excellent in different manners and ways. For now this section is going to be free-form, rather than comprehensive, the criteria being that the restaurants set out here have (in my opinon or in the opinions of others) significant elements to recommend them.

Porto do Moreira

Celebrated Porto do Moreira -- an unprepossessing but interesting place with history -- was opened in 1938 by Portuguese immigrant José Moreira da Silva in the Largo do Mucambinho, across a side street from the Pharmácia Luz at the entrance to Largo Dois de Julho (the largo, farmácia, and the restaurant itself all figured in Jorge Amado's novel Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands).  Now run by the founder's two sons Antonio and Francisco, the establishment remains to this day a redoubt of old Bahian bohemianism, a place redolent with history, conversation, and the pungent odor of dendé.

Hangout for the Bahian Ratpack: Edil Pacheco, Riachão, Walmir Lima, Batatinha, and Ederaldo Gentil

Listen to Batatinha, second from the right above and no kid himself anymore, sing the praises of Jajá of Gamboa, an older woman who's lost none of her considerable charm...

Typical Bahian dishes are served at 20 to 40 reais (servings suitable for two) as well as steaks, chicken, and seafood (half-portions of these latter are generally available).  Tiragostos (appetizer-type food meant to accompany drinks) may also be had.

The address is Largo do Mucambinho, 488 (a largo popularly referred to as "Largo das Flores" for the flower sellers there, on Avenida Carlos Gomes, several blocks from the Centro Histórico).  Phone numbers are 3322-4112 and 3322-2814.  Hours are from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Axego

Axego: 1st Floor

Manoel dos Santos Pereira was a guy who liked to cook for friends and family.  He had a simple summer house on the island of Itaparica, with a big veranda which on weekends he liked to set up with tables for extensive gatherings of kith and kin.  The house was close to the beach in the village of Conçeicão, which in turn is next to Itaparica's Club Med.

So one fine day a Frenchman decided to leave the self-contained confines of the Club Med for a look around at the local life.  His wanderings brought him to what appeared to be a lively restaurant packed with customers and with a wonderful aroma of seafood emanating from the kitchen.  The Monsieur stepped up, found himself a table, sat down, and ordered the dish of the day (moqueca de aratú -- aratú is a kind of crab).  The man was welcomed and happily served.

When the check was asked for Manoel explained as best he could that this was in fact was a private domicile, that the meal was a gift, and that the man should consider himself among friends.  To this day Manoel is not sure whether he succeeded in making his point clear.

Whatever the gentleman's understanding, the following the weekend he was back, this time accompanied by friends, and this time determined to pay.  Thus was born Axego (derived from aconchegado, something like "sheltering").

Some years later Axego moved across the bay to the mainland, first onto Rua dos Adobes in the neighborhood of Santo Antônio, and then into a space with a wonderful view overlooking the water, across from the Convento do Carmo.  Manoel himself went out daily and purchased the ingredients for his dishes.  He himself prepared the foods.  And it was he who waited on his customers (aided by his wife, Maria do Carmo Santos Pereira, and his son Fabrício).  The restaurant's reputation grew by dint of word-of-mouth, and it prospered.

Manoel & Rosa Passos

Prospered to such a degree (within its modest bounds) that when the lease was up the landlady figured she'd throw Manoel out and open up her own restaurant in the space.  The result for this woman was, as one might imagine, a well-deserved disaster.

After occupying a small place on the Largo do Pelourinho for several years Manoel finally found what he was looking for -- a well-appointed place with a big kitchen and plenty of space for guests.  Thus Axego will now be found just off of the Terreiro de Jesus on Rua João de Deus, 1 (one floor up).

Hours are from 12 noon until 11 p.m., seven days a week (if Manoel looks tired, that's why!).  Lunchtime is extremely busy, so it's better to go after 2 p.m.  If no music is playing and you'd like some atmosphere, just ask them to put something on (there's a great selection of Brazilian music on the premises and não é problemo!).  As a matter of fact, check out Manoel & the divine Rosa Passos to the right!

Listen to Rosa Passos

The menu changes daily, with prices varying from 20 reais or so for carne do sol and carne do fumeiro, to a little more for steak, to 30 for the fish dishes, and 40 or so for dishes including shrimp (the moqueca de camarão is wonderful!).  These are e-x-p-a-n-s-i-v-e meals which include accompaniments and serve two hungry people very amply.

In keeping with local tradition Friday is a day for traditional Bahian caruru.  A lovely feijoada is served on Sundays.

Telephone is 3242-7481.

* One of Manoel's recipes appeared in the September, 2005 version of Gourmet Magazine!

Beco de Rosália
(this is taken from our What's On page...)

What: Beco de Rosália (Rosália's Alley) is a swinging bar/restaurant with excellent live music seven nights a week.
What Time: Open from 7 p.m., with music starting up around 8 p.m. and running to sometime between 10 and 11.
Location: The neighborhood of Barris, in central Salvador, on the bairro's main street Rua General Labatut, across the street and up a bit  from the Biblioteca Central (Central Library)...a taxi ride from the nearer side of Pelourinho (the Praça da Sé side) will (should!) set you back 8 or 9 reais.
Telephone:
Cover: 2 reais when the music is playing...can you believe it!
Notes: The Beco is located in a courtyard just off the street, in the open air but with a tentlike covering a couple of stories overhead so people don't have grab things up and squeeze inside (like so many place in Salvador) if it starts to rain.

Your host Fab Fabrício

Owner Fabrício is almost always on hand, quick to grab the telephone and offer an impromtu prize for whoever can name the title of a song the band will play a few bars of , or whoever is first to name the capital of Burundi or some such place, all in good fun. The Beco is also a musicians' hangout and you're as likely as not to have some really talented people scattered around you.

The food is very good and very reasonably priced, medium-sized pizzas (one size only) running some 12 to 16 reais or so, and there's good artesenal cachaça on the premises as well as beer, etc.

Sorriso da Dadá

Dadá and her famous smile!

Sorriso da Dadá (Dadá's Smile) has within a relatively short period of time become part and parcel of the lore of Bahia.  Dadá is Aldacir dos Santos, who arrived in Salvador from the town of Conde in the interior of Bahia at fourteen years of age to work as domestic servant.  She opened her first restaurant -- Tempero da Dadá -- behind a house in the working-class neighborhood of Alto das Pombas (Dove Heights) and from there became famous for the magic she put into traditional Bahian dishes.

The restaurant moved to a small space in Pelourinho and eventually came to assume the name it bears today, becoming de rigueur for anyone wishing to experience the cuisine of Bahia at its most subtly delicious.

Time has passed, however, and a couple other restaurants in Dadá's name have opened (Caranguejo da Dadá: on the beach at Patamares, and Varal da Dadá: in her old neighborhood of Alto das Pombas -- both of which I'll be covering shortly).  Meanwhile the restaurant in Pelourinho has taken on an upscale look (white tablecloths and wine glasses), and Dadá is seldom on the premises.  The food is okay nowadays, but without Dadá around the magic isn't there anymore.

Prices are in general 60 reais or so for dishes which serve two people.

Sorriso da Dadá is located at Rua Frei Vicente, 5, and is open daily from noon 'til midnight.  The telephone number is (71)3321-9642.

Cruz do Pascoal

Oratório Cruz do Pascoal

The Cruz do Pascoal is an oratório, a column crested by a niche housing a saint.  In this particular case the column was erected in 1743 (by Pascoal Marques de Almeida, an immigrant from Lisbon) and the saint on top is (was rather, she's been stolen) Nossa Senhora do Pilar.  The Cruz do Pascoal, however, which is specifically of interest here, is not the oratório, but rather the bar by the same name across the street.

Situated on the Largo do Pascoal and vested in the same blue tile, Bar Cruz do Pascoal looks like a small nondescript stand-up place with maybe a couple of cheap folding tables set up out front.  But the trick is to move past the bar, through the doorway, past the refrigerators, and on out to the expansive terrace behind the bar with its truly marvelous views of the bay.

This is a place which is exceedingly popular with the locals, and on a Friday or Saturday evening there may be a wait for a table (though you'll probably find temporary respite at one of the several tables inside, just off of the terrace).  Later in the day is the best time to show up.  Beach-type umbrellas are set up while the sun is still high enough in the sky for patrons to want protection from the glare, and as the sun sets, the umbrellas do as well.

The house specialty is carne do sol accompanied by purê de aipim, generous portions of which are priced at 9 reais.  The beer is usually ice-cold.

The Largo do Pascoal is located in the bairro of Santo Antônio (behind Pelourinho and itself a part of Salvador's Centro Histórico) on the principal street which connects Pelourinho to the Largo to Santo Antônio (the official address is Rua Joaquim Tavor, no. 2).  Locals tend to call Bar Cruz do Pascoal by the name of its Spanish owner: Porfilio.

Open every day but Sunday.  Telephone 3243-2285.

Alaíde do Feijão

Alaíde do Feijão

Alaíde do Feijão (Alaíde of the Beans) is a small restaurant located in Pelourinho and named for the owner,  Alaíde (Ah-lah-EE-gee) da Conceição, who began cooking at her mother's side over forty years ago (at a table set up in Praça Cayru, in front of where the Mercado Modelo is now located).  Even under such simple circumstances Alaídes' mother (Maria das Neves) achieved a certain esteem, deservedly passed on to her dutiful daughter.  Alaídes' restaurant is particularly well-known and appreciated among local congnoscenti of Afro-Bahian heritage.

The food is traditional Bahian, and it is also eminently affordable, with dishes running between 5 and 10 reais (caldo de feijão -- bean soup -- is priced at 2 reais).  Feijoada, rabada, and mocotó are served seven days a week, and Bahian dishes such as vatapá and caruru are served on Fridays.  The address is Rua 12 de Outubro, 2 (down the small street to the left of the Igreja de São Francisco, and around the corner), and hours are daily from 11:30 a.m., with closing time at 7 p.m. (or so) on Sunday, 8 p.m. (or so) on Monday, and 11 p.m. (or so) Tuesdays through Saturdays.  The telephone number is 3321-3634.

Aconchego da Zuzu

Dona Zuzu

Aconchego da Zuzu (Zuzu's Cozy Place) is located in the bairro popular (working class neighborhood) of Garcia, where it is nestled in behind a wall running between two houses, occupying a plaza-like area.  The name's intimation would indicate something on the small side, but the area the restaurant occupies is actually quite spacious and is felicitously presided over by an enormous mango tree.  Dona Zuzu, at 97 years of age, doesn't cook or wait tables anymore, her extended brood attends to these chores, but the menu is hers and it features the classics of Bahian cuisine at extremely reasonable prices.

Friday and Saturday nights are given over to live music, Bossa Nova on Friday nights and Chorinho and MPB on Saturday nights, from 9:30 p.m (5 reais cover charge).  This is an excellent spot and the place draws a good and well-behaved crowd from inside and outside the bairro. 

Hours are from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.  The address is Rua Quintino Bocaiúva, 18, and the telephone numbers are  3331-5074 and 3331-8149.

Comida a Kilo

Okay, this isn't a restaurant, but a category rather ("Food by Weight"), and within this category I'd like to mention a couple of places which stand out for different reasons...the first being an establishment (which by my reckoning) was at one time

THE GREATEST BAR IN THE WORLD!

Now granted, there are many, many bars on this planet of ours, including many that I haven't been to, but a grooving place with hot music (live), and hot samba on wooden floors between beat up tables, in a hot (metaphorically as well as literally) place like Salvador da Bahia... well, that place can't be too far down the list.

The place of which I speak is Cantina da Lua, on the Terreiro de Jesus in Salvador's neighborhood of Pelourinho...

The samba was one floor up...

Cantina da Lua (Cantina of the Moon) has for the past thirty-five years been run by Clarindo Silva, and it was for years (together with Porto do Moreira) a hangout for Bahia's bambas.  Then, beginning in 1994, Pelourinho was rebuilt (in stages, and in typical Bahian style the final stage has -- twelve years later -- yet to be finished).  In this process Cantina da Lua was also reformed (adapting the Portuguese way of putting it to English, and I haven't utilized this adaptation lightly; "reformed" is right on the money).  But why reform the greatest bar in the world?

Because money makes the world go 'round.  In Cantina da Lua it made the samba go away, to be replaced upstairs by comida a kilo.  The food is good there, and inexpensive, and you can eat it under ersatz street signs delineating the byways of bambas past.  And if you don't have the cash in your pocket there's an ATM right out front, and they take every credit card under the sun, and who am I to feel that Clarindo should have kept the place the way it was and earned less?  Still, while lunching there regularly, I live with my memories of the place the way it was.

And to give Clarindo his very substantial due, when Pelourinho was at its lowest ebb ever, having fallen to a state of degradation below even that lived by Jorge Amado's roaring cast of bohemians and gamblers, prostitutes and misfits, it was Clarindo who initiated the area's rehabilitation in part by the creation of the Tuesday night bêncão (blessing), a weekly Pelourinho-wide party.  And it was Clarindo who worked tirelessly to see that the heart of this great South American city wasn't completely destroyed, this place which has seen it all...riches, poverty, feast, famine, war, peace, slavery, liberty...a place which ironically came very close to being felled by one of the most insidious destroyers of all...neglect.

Address: Praça Quinze de Novembro (this is the official name, which nobody ever uses, the original and commonly used name being Terreiro de Jesus), 2
Telephone: 3322-4041

More Comida a Kilo...

Then there is another place within a two-minute walk of Cantina da Lua, and with not nearly so noble a history...but the place does have a wide variety of very good food indeed, a little more expensive than that at Cantina da Lua but very affordable nevertheless.  It's called "Coliseu" (Coliseum), and it's set on the second floor (1st floor, British style) of a building on the Praça Cruzeiro do São Francisco (to the right as one faces the church of São Francisco at the end of the square), the square itself being set just off of the Terreiro de Jesus.  Lunchtime hours are from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday (they are also open for dinner, with a folkloric show, but I've never been there for that).  Phone numbers are 3321-6918 and 3321-5585.

Trapiche Adelaide

A trapiche is a warehouse for goods to be shipped. And Adelaide was the sister-in-law of the man who built this particular trapiche (that's to say, the one which stood here around the end of the nineteenth century). Nowadays the establishment is quite a bit more upscale and is run under the guiding hand of Italian chef Luciano Boseggia. Trapiche Adelaide is considered by many to be Salvador's finest restaurant dealing in "international" cuisine.

Lunch is served from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and likewise on Sunday. On Saturdays the restaurant is open continuously from 12 noon to 1 a.m. Dinner is served from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Friday.

The bar is open from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 6 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Trapiche Adelaide is located in the Bahia Design Center (Cidade Baixa), down a bit and across the street from the Igreja da Conceição. The address is Praça Tubinambás, 2, Avenida Contorno, and the phone number is 3326-2211.

The bar at Trapiche de Adalaide

Ramma

Ramma is a natural foods restaurant in Barra, occupying an open and very tastefully done space, with food so delicious that you don't have to be natural foods "type" at all to thoroughly enjoy the place.  "Rama" is "shoot" in English (in the sense of "plant shoots"), the extra "m" having been added by owner Marina Neves upon the advice of a numerologist.

Food is buffet-style per kilo, with fish and chicken served in addition to the salads and vegetarian fare.  Location is several blocks up from the beach at Rua Lord Cochrane, 76 (Rua Lord Cochrane is a cross-street running between Rua Princesa Isabel and Avenida Marquês de Caravelas).  Hours are Monday to Friday, 11:30 a.m. 'til  3 p.m., and from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.  An average meal runs 10 reais or so.  Telephone is 3264-0044.

Boi Preto

Boi Preto (Black Bull) is a churrascaria, and a churrascaria is pretty much the polar opposite of a natural foods restaurant ("churrasco" being Brazilian barbecue, minus the sauce).  At most churrascarias -- including this one -- the meat is served "rodizio" style, meaning that waiters continually circulate with various cuts of beef, offering you all you want.

Boi Preto happens to be a chain out of São Paulo, but it doesn't have the ambience of a chain restaurant.  The service is fabulous and, in addition to the rodizio, Boi Preto offers a sumptuous buffet with salads and smoked salmon and lobster and shrimp and an extensive array of cheeses, and lots and lots more.  And you eat all you want and all is included in the price of the rodizio (a little over 40 reais).  It's a very good deal.

Boi Preto is located across from the Aeroclube Plaza on the Orla (Avenida Otávio Mangabeira, no number) in Armação.  Hours are Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 6:30 p.m. 'til midnight; Saturday and holidays from 11:30 a.m. 'til midnight; and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.  The telephone number is 3362-8844.

Recanto da Lua Cheia

Recanto da Lua Cheia (Hidden Away Place of the Full Moon) is located in an area called Pedra Furada (Rock With a Hole in It) -- I know, sometimes the poetry in a phrase or expression gets lost in the translation -- on the peninsula of Itapagipe not too far from the Igreja do Bonfim.  It's an informal, outside place (though a part of it has overhead covering), set among coconut palms and with a striking view of the bay.  It's also another place very popular with the locals.

Seafood is the specialty here, including crab (siri-bóia and caranguejo), lambreta, muqueca de camarão and more, all to be washed down with cold beer.  The address is Rua Rio Negro, 2, Montserrat, and the place is open Wednesdays through Fridays from 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Telephone is 3316-3986.

Picui

Picuis

Picui is a restaurant (several of them, actually, named for a small bird) serving the cuisine of the Northeast of Brazil (Bahia is a member state), the interior of which is a hot, dessicated land of grinding poverty.  And in the manner of Brazil's renowned national dish feijoada, which rose from its humble origins as the food of slaves making do with what wasn't wanted in the Casa Grande (Big House), the food of the Northeast has via the creativity of its denizens risen beyond mere expediency to become something truly delicious and fully satisfying.

One of the mainstays of this cuisine and a Picui specialty is carne do sol (literally "meat of the sun", salt-preserved meat which is no longer sun-cured, as in the days of yore), born of a lack of refrigeration and maintained both because it has become a part of the regional lore and because it is so highly appreciated.  Surubim no espeto (surubim on a spit) is another popular Picui favorite (surubim is a meaty freshwater fish without small bones, somewhat like catfish; it's served breaded).  Aipim frito or cozido (fried or boiled yucca), feijão tropeiro (beans with cassava flour), and manteiga da garrafa (bottled, or clarified, butter) are common accompaniments.  One order will serve two people to busting!  Prices are extremely reasonable.

The Picui most accessible to those in the Barra area is in Barra at Rua João Pondé, 1 (João Pondé is several blocks up Avenida Princessa Isabel from the beach, at the stoplight) and the restaurant is open daily from 11 a.m. until midnight.  Telephone is 3264-7638.

Picui continues to operate during Carnival and is a great option for this period (as well as for any other time!).

Koisa Nossa

Koisa Nossa is a lively Thursday and Friday night tradition in Salvador, lambreta (steamed clams, a dozen for R$4.90) being the specialty (accompanied by cold beer at less than 3 reais for a big bottle), served at tables set out on the street.  Location is the central Salvador neighborhood of Mouraria, on Travessa Engenheiro Alione, 3 (behind the Quartel General; everybody in the neighborhood knows where it is).

Pizzeria Romolo e Remo

Pizza has not traditionally been one of Bahia's strong points.  Flavorless cheese on a soggy crust, no sauce and so completely devoid of flavor that locals are accustomed to eating eat it topped with (equally flavorless) catchup and mayonnaise.  Beats me why they bother!

There are, thankfully, some exceptions.  Here is a new and commendable one...

Founders of Rome

Chef Alessandro Narduzzi -- creator of La Lupa, the excellent Etrusacan wolf-themed Italian restaurant in Pelourinho -- has opened an Italian pizzaria just down the street from his first establishment, one in which the theme continues: Pizzeria Romolo e Remo.

Chef Narduzzi's pizza is uma maravilha, with crust no ponto and sauces and toppings bem saborosos (in deference to local customs, however, catchup and mayonnaise continue to be served).  *And Americans might be forewarned that the term pepperoni on the menu refers to red bell peppers, not to a variety of sausage.  They got me on that one too.

The restaurant has an open area out back where it's possible to take in the air and not be hassled by street vendors, and more, prices are very reasonable -- between 8 and 18 reais for a "medium-sized" pizza cut into 8 slices (which for most people would be an individual serving).  Calzonis and crostinis are also on the menu, as are sweet pizzas (nutella, and banana and cinnamon) and antipastos.

The address is Rua das Laranjeiras, 27 (at the end of the street, on the right), and the telephone number is 3321-8060.  Opens at 6:30 p.m. from Tuesday through Sunday.

Açai: The Little Berry That Got Big!

The Power of the Amazon!  The Forbidden Fruit!  Açai (ah-sah-EE) has grown to become very popular in Brazil -- it's served all over the place in Salvador -- and efforts are underway to promote the spread of this popularity to Europe and the United States.

Açai is a small, very dark-blue berry for which great claims are made, the fruit of a palm tree found in the region of the Amazon (though the tree can be found as far afield as Venezula and the Brazilian state of Maranhão).  The berry can be served in a variety of ways, but is most often put into a blender with ice, guaraná, and other fruits, where it is beaten to a sherbet-like consistency and then served in a bowl.  One of the claims for the berry is that it is "energizing".  I personally doubt that açai in and of itself is any more "energizing" than any other fruit happens to be, and my unscientific assumption is that the origin of this claim lies with the guaraná that goes into the blender along with the rest of the stuff.  Guaraná energizes in (much) the same way that coffee does.

But this isn't meant to be disparaging; açai is delicious and refreshing.  It goes down well on hot days and the pick-me-up is one those "ahhh" moments.  I'm glad they have it here and I think it's deserving of wider fame, irrespective of any hyperbole.