02x02 - Salvador, Brazil

[bunniefuu]

Now, I'm going to reveal my secret

to the whole world.

Ever since I was a little girl,

I've spoken like this.

I stutter. And my tongue is tied.

When I was younger, my speech was worse,
almost no words came out.

So my mom took me

to have surgery.

But when I got to the operating table,
I got scared.

Let's go, son.

I fought hard and didn't want to do it,

so I ran away.

My mom got upset, but I told her,

"I was born like this,
I'm going to die like this!"

A lot of people mocked me,

but I never cared.

RE-RESTAURANT
MISS SUZANA

I'd just go about living my life.

When someone asks me where I'm from,

and I say Salvador,
they always say, "Wow! Salvador!"

The music, Carnival…

the beach.

It's a city with a lot of curves
and slopes.

Not unlike our people.

Our women are curvy, our men are happier.

Salvador is an unforgettable city.

The city has two major influences.

First is the Portuguese influence
from when we were colonized.

But the biggest influence
on the people and culture

is the African influence.

Over the centuries, Salvador received

the most African sl*ves in the Americas.

We're a piece of the African continent
in Brazil…

and we feel

that African presence every day.

In our dance, like capoeira,

our way of playing with the body.

In our religion of Candomblé.

And above all, in our food.

The ingredient that defines us

is dendê oil,

which is derived
from the African palm tree

and is the base
for our most popular dishes,

like acarajé

and abará,

that are made with black-eyed peas
and dendê oil.

We also have the feijoada bean stew
that everyone loves.

But the dish that Bahia is most known for

is the moqueca.

It's a fish stew
made with dendê oil and coconut milk.

There is a very special lady
who makes a spectacular moqueca.

Dona Suzana.

Who wants more food?

She lives on the water's edge.

She invites people inside her house
and cooks to support her family.

Her moqueca has become known
throughout the world.

She is full of joy, full of love.

She's the perfect symbol
of a woman from Bahia.

(RE-RESTAURANT, SALVADOR)

I was born and raised by the sea.

And I've never left.

In Salvador, the sea is everything.

It's where I met my husband,

and raised my two sons.

The sea is where we bathe, where we swim,

it's where we row,

it's where we fish.

That's how we feed ourselves everyday.

I've lived off the sea for a long time.

The sea gives me energy

and a reason to live.

Antônio!

Did you catch the fish?

Yes!

And I'm never tired of it.

I was a rascal growing up.

I would get in fights,
beat people up, get beaten up,

because people mocked my stutter.

I caused chaos.

Cooking is what gave me peace.

My mom was an amazing cook,

and I was always by her side
in the kitchen.

We cooked it all.

Feijoada, fish moqueca…

It gave me the greatest joy.

But after I met Antônio,
everything changed.

We fell in love.

I got pregnant…

and moved in with him.

His house was empty.

All he had in there
was a record player and a twin bed.

But I didn't mind.

Antônio became a fisherman,

and I started doing laundry

to make ends meet.

But I always dreamed
of being a professional cook.

The beach is very important to Salvador.

At the beach,
you see everyone living as equals.

The beach is solidarity, it's fun,

it's a party.

You see amazing characters
selling great food.

Martinha is coming through!

Get ready for me! Hey!

I have spiced abará!
Manioc pirão and sun-dried meat!

And sausage!

(MARTINHA DO ABARÁ, SALVADOR)

Martinha is here!

Martinha is coming through!

Ever since I was a kid,
I've always been so playful.

I'm happy, I like to laugh, I'm loud!

Oh, glory! Glory to God!

No problem, love.

But due to problems
I went through in life,

I lost my confidence.

My son's father left me,

I couldn't find a job.

That's when I became
very overweight and depressed.

And that happy woman I'd always been
was dying inside of me.

I needed to do something.

So I decided to take cooking lessons.

And I learned to make seasoned abará
and manioc pirão.

I was reborn.

How about an abará?
It's a wonderful abará. Tastes delicious!

The abará's main ingredient is beans,

grated and ground.

Then you season it
with smoked dried shrimp,

dendê oil, onion, salt,

and you wrap it
in banana leaf and steam it.

-I'll try some.
-Oh, thank you!

My pirão is made with manioc dough

that sits under the cured meat,
and sausage.

It's so tasty!

I love myself.

I think I'm beautiful!

I am happy doing what I do.

This is who I am! And that's it.

Martinha coming through!

Get ready for me!

I'll have…

four bottles of coconut milk
and four of dendê oil.

After being a laundrywoman
for a long time,

the mayor came to our community
to start a construction job.

He was going to renovate the roofs
of the houses,

and they were looking for someone to cook

for the workers.

They asked if I could provide food

for all of the 50 men.

I got excited!

-Thank you, beautiful.
-You're welcome. Bye. It's all right.

My biggest dream was to become a cook.

So this was my chance…

to prove myself.

But I wasn't ready.

I didn't have any equipment.

-Good morning, ma'am.
-Good morning, sir.

-How much for the wooden spoon?
-That's eight reais, ma'am.

Fair enough. Let's take a look inside.

So I worked up the courage,

I took out a loan,

and I bought everything.

Pans, plates, flatware,
all of the ingredients.

-Thank you, ma'am.
-Thank you.

Rice, beans,

beef, chicken, fish-- all of it.

-How about the black-eyed peas?
-It's four reais per kilo.

Let me see it.

And I went from washing clothes
for a living to being a cook.

Have a nice day.

Bye.

Acarajé is one of the most iconic dishes

in the city of Salvador.

It's impossible to think about this city
without thinking about acarajé.

(ACARAJÉ DA BAIA, SALVADOR)

Are you taking one with you?

I'll have it with some coffee.

Acarajé is a black-eyed pea cake
that is fried in dendê oil

and stuffed with shrimp or yam puree.

It's sold by these very special women
who bring color and sparkle to our city.

I am a Baiana do Acarajé.

We are characterized by our attire.

The necklaces, the skirt,
the tunic, the undershirt,

and the beautiful headwrap
of a Bahia Woman of Acarajé.

There is no Salvador without us.

The Baiana costume
is the traditional costume of Candomblé…

which is a religion created
by the Africans in the city

in order to preserve
the Black African identity

that was fragmented by sl*very.

Food plays a very important role
in Candomblé

because we communicate with our gods
through our food.

-Thank you.
-Thank you. Bye.

My grandmother and my mother
were Bahia Women of Acarajé.

So it's very gratifying for me to be one.

I'm maintaining a tradition
from my ancestors.

When you are in front of a Baiana,

you are facing a true goddess,
a true priestess.

Cooking for the workers
made me very happy.

I was serving them breakfast
in the morning and lunch at noon.

I made different dishes every day.

They liked everything.

It was wonderful!

But when the construction ended,
and I went to collect my money,

they left me hanging,
and I got paid nothing.

I was counting on that money
to pay back my loan.

I was very sad and I cried a lot.

This was my chance to have a new life…

and it turned out to be the biggest
disappointment I've ever been through.

And after being cheated like this,

I never wanted
to hear about cooking again.

Never.

I started doing laundry for money again
to pay my debts.

Those were hard times.

Really hard times.

During that time, I was also taking care
of my bedridden mom, because of a stroke.

She passed away
and it was another sadness.

I suffered.

When times are tough,

I ask Yemanjá,
the Queen of the Ocean, for help.

I ask for guidance,

to relieve me from this hardship,

and to give me a blessing.

Without a doubt, capoeira
is one of the biggest examples

of the resistance

of black culture in Brazil.

It was persecuted, repressed,

precisely because whatever united us,

whatever gave us identity,
it was all forbidden.

When I saw capoeira,
it was love at first sight.

I used to gather my capoeira friends

and make feijoada for them.

They loved it.

(BAR DÚ KABAÇA, SALVADOR)

Feijoada is a bean stew
with all kinds of meat.

Dried beef, sausage, bacon, ribs, rump…

Anything you can imagine, all mixed up.

It's good stuff!

It's very rich food.

It's energetic.

Feijoada is a great food,

especially for capoeira.

Capoeira relieved me from negative energy.

Cooking is the same thing.

Takes my stress away.

Makes me feel free.

-Go paint, dude.
-I don't feel like it.

Go paint, bonehead.

We are Julio, Bigode, and Prisk.

Man…

Darn it. Bigode is drying up all the cans!

We go by Musas.

We are a graffiti group.

We use graffiti to change the world.

"Musas" stands for Museum
of Street Art of Salvador.

The residents' houses are our canvasses,
and our museum is out in the open.

We were painting some work
here in this community,

and we had to eat lunch on location.

So we asked if there was anyone
who served food around.

In 2013,

the Musas boys showed up,

and I was like,

"Who are you guys?
Where did you come from?"

-Dona Suzana, I'm hungry!
-Hi, neighbour!

I said, "I'm not selling food anymore,
this isn't a restaurant."

But they insisted and insisted.

They offered to pay me in advance.

So I said, "Okay. Antônio, go fish…

so I can make the fish moqueca
that my mom taught me."

Made with coconut milk…

guaricema fish…

and dendê oil.

When we ate the moqueca, we said,
"Wow! We just found the best moqueca!"

Let's taste Dona Suzana's moqueca.

Excuse me.

The Musas boys started spreading the word
about my moqueca…

and people started to show up.

But I still told them,

"This is not a restaurant!"

Because of the big disappointment
I had gone through.

She needed to realize
that it was a restaurant,

so Julio said we had to give
Dona Suzana's restaurant a name.

I thought about her stutter
and her speech impediment.

So I made the sign
and wrote "Re-Restaurant."

RE-RESTAURANT
MISS SUZANA

When I saw the sign,
I felt like a real cook.

I felt this urge in my heart

to start selling food again.

That was the official beginning
of Re-Restaurant.

The Musas boys
started advertising it online.

They gave away my address

and people came to find me.

That's when everybody started coming.

A lot of people.

SUZANA'S MOQUECA

The newspapers came to interview me.

And that brought people
from São Paulo, Rio, Brasília.

Everybody wanted to try my fish moqueca.

Even French people came,
Americans, Italians…

-Go hug the chef after the meal.
-Thank you.

So good.

Some days, I had no chairs available,

so people sat on the floor.

People always teased me and mocked me

for the way I talk.

Look at me now.

Because of my stutter,

I'm now the most famous woman
in the world.

I'll be cooking forever!

When you eat at Dona Suzana's,
you see that she was born to be a cook.

She's pure love.

The people from Bahia
who sell our traditional foods

in the streets or out of their houses

are helping us preserve our roots
and connect with them.

Street food gives us identity.

It gives us the opportunity
to talk about the life story

of the men and women
who make up this magical city.

Oh! That's delicious!

These cooks who offer their soul
and feed people,

they give Salvador life!

They had to overcome obstacles

to create this identity that we have.

We are diverse,

we are colorful,

and above all,

we are full of life.

I've been living with Antônio
for 40 years in this house.

It's me and him together,

until God takes us both.

One day,
a gringo came by to try my food…

and he told me, "Come to Italy with me.

You can cook and make lots of money!"

And I confidently said, "No!"

I love my Brazil,

I love Salvador.

I love my Bahia.

And I will never leave Bahia
or my beautiful, wonderful sea.