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Eating, drinking and nightlife
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At weekends virtually the entire city moves out to the beaches, which are large enough to swallow up the masses without getting too crowded. You will quickly discover one of the delights of this coast: the
seafood
. The seas and rivers around here teem with life, most of it edible. The beach stalls do fried fish, the prawns are the size of large fingers, and whatever they don't cook you can buy fresh from a stream of vendors - juicily tender crabs, battered open with bits of wood, or freshly gathered oysters, dirt-cheap, sold by the bagful, helpfully opened for you and sprinkled with lime juice. One thing you won't find outside MaranhA?o is
cuxA?
- a delicious dish made of crushed dried shrimp, garlic and the stewed leaves of two native plants.
Except during Bumba-meu-boi and Carnaval, SA?o LuAs is quieter than most Brazilian cities of its size. The largest concentration of nightspots is just over the bridge, in SA?o Francisco , a little on the tacky side for the most part. However, there are now plenty of bars and restaurants in the Zona, and Wednesday nights are when the historic centre really lets its hair down, with loud reggae music blasting out till dawn.
Eating out
in town is rewarding, thanks to the abundant seafood. The best in SA?o LuAs is the
caldeirada de camarA?o
(shrimp stew) at the
Base do Edilson
restaurant, served with
pirA?o,
a savoury manioc porridge that's the perfect accompaniment. The restaurant is buried deep in the
bairro
of Vila Bessa, at Rua Alencar Campos 31, but the short taxi journey from the centre is well worth the effort. Good
caldeirada
is also to be had at the
Base do Germano,
also a short taxi ride from the centre on Avenida Wenceslau BrA?s, in the
bairro
of Camboa. In the city centre, one of the better seafood restaurants is the
Base da Lenoca,
at Av. Dom Pedro II 181. The
Restaurante SA?o LuAs,
PraA§a Benedito Leite 20, offers a wide selection of local dishes by the kilo and is excellent value. Salvador's SENAC restaurant school has a branch at Rua de NazarA© 242, in the Zona. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Brazil,
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