River Bites #2: Coastal Stories of Akara

Pariticipants chopping. Photo by Jordan Rosenow.

This past weekend we continued River Bites, a 4-part series in partnership with Oko Farms and One Love Community Fridge, exploring how connections to land and water are deeply intertwined with African diasporic foodways.

This session focused on the coastal connections between West Africa and Bahia Brazil through Akara. We spent some time looking at different types of field peas that are rooted in regions such as Nigeria and Cameroon and have migrated to the Southern United States, the Caribbean, and our focus of the day, Bahia. During demonstrations participants got to see how akara batter, citrusy shrimp, and salsa verde are prepared.

Participants then jumped into preparing these different elements together so that we could share in a meal together. Recipes for everything we prepared can be found in the Costal Stories of Akara Mini Book available now in our shop!

Our participants observing a culinary demonstration. Photo by Oko Farms.

Maya demonstrating knife cuts for collective meal preparation. Photo by Oko Farms.

Some of our younger participants sauteing up the shrimp. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Frying up the akara in the greenhouse. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Hot akara with the shrimp and salsa verde. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Our full spread of salsa verde, akara, and saute shrimp that our lovely group prepared together. Photo by Maya Marie S.