An Interview with Dadá

An Interview with Dadá

This interview was conducted by telephone on September 6, 2006, between Boca Raton, Florida, and Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.¹

LEAO: How did you learn to prepare caruru?

DADÁ: I learned it from my mother and my aunts. One of my aunts had twin daughters. I used to see her preparing caruru for Saints Cosme and Damian [in Portuguese, São Cosme e São Damião].² She would mix everything in a wood mortar, and would bake the shrimp, and bake all the rest. She celebrated the date and decorated the dishes with paper; it was beautiful. I make the traditional caruru with everything, but I also make the popular dish and the one following my mother's recipe.

LEAO: How are Saints Cosme and Damian connected to caruru?

DADÁ: I make a special caruru on September 27, the day we celebrate "Cosme and Damião." Every year I make enough caruru to be distributed among 20,000 poor children and needy people. I give food to the ones who need it. Caruru is a great tradition in the history of Candomblé.³ It is not only a regular dish that people eat, but that the saints also eat. It is a ritual dish, a saint's dish. Cosme and Damião were twins. Everybody who has twins has to donate a caruru dish to the saints in September. The "ritual caruru" here in Salvador and my caruru are made to thank the twin saints. They were doctors who did charity work and became saints. People thank them for the children they have, and also when they get the grace they had prayed for, which is my case.³ Everything I ask the saints, they give me; all my dreams become true. I make the complete caruru in difficult moments of my life, not only in September.

LEAO: Is caruru made on another special occasion?

DADÁ: Here in Salvador, we all have caruru to celebrate birthdays. Everybody does it, the rich, the poor, everyone. In Bahia, the dish of the day on Friday is caruru. The tradition is to have a dish with palm oil on Fridays. All restaurants and homes have caruru, vatapá4 and galinha de xinxim.⁶ In my restaurants we have caruru every day, as well as acarajé,⁷ which is also served with vatapá, caruru, and dried shrimp.

LEAO: Is there a difference between the regular carurucaruru and the one prepared to honor Cosme and Damian?

DADÁ: We usually serve caruru with popcorn and fried banana. When it is a "ritual caruru" we also offer food to the other orixás.⁸ We include acarajé, a slice of abará,⁹ and the white corn called canjica. We cook this corn in water until it gets tender, and then serve it as if it were rice. We also serve farofa5 and vatapá, and of course a piece of sugar cane and a slice of rapadura.¹¹ The sugar cane and the rapadura represent the sweetness in people. We also add to the offers a slice of cooked egg, which means gold, the drive to win; it is the gold of the yellow, of the yoke.

LEAO: Caruru is also a plant. Do you use it when you prepare the dish caruru?

DADÁ: We find the plant caruru in the Sertão [the dry interior of Northeast Brazil]. In the dry season, people open it and suck the liquid inside to help with their thirst. The plant can be used like this and can be cooked with okra⁶ or just like any other green. We also feed the animals with caruru; it is a beautiful plant. I don't use it when I prepare caruru and I don't know anybody who does it.

LEAO: Are the ingredients hard to find? Is caruru an expensive dish?

DADÁ: I have good suppliers, and I also buy the ingredients at the supermarket and at the green...