Acarajé

The signature street food of Salvador, Bahia: a deep-fried fritter made from black-eyed pea (feijão fradinho) puree mixed with onion and salt, fried in dendê (palm) oil until the outside is crisp and the inside is dense and creamy. Split open and stuffed with vatapá (a thick paste of bread, prawns, coconut milk, peanuts, dendê, and cashews), caruru (an okra-based sauce with prawns and dendê), salada (chopped tomato, onion, coriander), and dried prawns, with malagueta pepper sauce on the side at the diner's discretion. Sold by Baianas in white lace clothing on street corners, a dish with deep Afro-Brazilian and Candomblé religious significance. The signature is the fried fritter shell, the dense bean interior, the dendê's distinctive earthy weight throughout (frying oil and stuffing), the creamy vatapá, the prawn-coconut-peanut richness, and the chilli at the diner's choice. The wine must handle fried fat, dendê depth, prawn-coconut-peanut richness, and variable chilli simultaneously.