During our Upper City tour earlier in the day, our tour guide had given us several Bahian restaurant recommendations. It was difficult to remember all those Portuguese names; however, there was one restaurant name that was quite easy to remember and quite easy to say to a taxi driver - Da Da. My wife and I hooked up with eight others from our group and shared taxis to the restaurant later that evening.

The taxi ride, although short, was quite unnerving. It seems traffic lights are just for decoration in Salvador. Our taxi driver took us as close as he could to the Pelourinho district. There were barriers restricting motor-vehicle traffic at night. We navigated the cobblestone streets of Pelourinho on foot until we found the Sorriso da Dadá restaurant.

Dadá is an interesting little restaurant. The 10 of us were seated at a table in the back section. It has a cozy atmosphere and nice pictures on the walls. The interesting thing about this back section is that as long as you don't look up, you never realize that you are actually outside! The exteriors of the surrounding buildings are decorated to make you feel like you are inside. Not only could we see the night sky above us, but we could also see clotheslines strung from the buildings surrounding us. These clotheslines had bed sheets, shirts, pants, and even panties hanging from them. It rained very briefly during our meal, but it was so light that it didn't bother us.

We were given menus that were printed in Portuguese, French, Spanish, and English. This restaurant served authentic Bahian food that was very foreign to us. Each of us ordered an entrée, not knowing that the portions were big enough to feed two people. The waiters did not speak English, so we pointed to what we wanted.

After a long wait, our food finally arrived. However, the waiters placed the entrées in the middle of the table. Each of the entrées was covered in sauce. We couldn't tell which dish each of us had ordered. We asked for the menus and then attempted to ask the waiters which dish was which, but they did not seem to understand and walked off. After awhile, we just decided to get some plates and sample the various entrées. Most of the food was cooked with palm oil and coconut milk. There were a lot of seafood dishes with rice, shrimp, and/or fish covered in sauce. All of the food was good, although there was nothing that stood out as exceptional. However, it was fun to try out these exotic dishes.