Food & Flavors

Potiguar cooking maps the geography of the state. On the coast: seafood off the day’s catch — fat pink shrimp, octopus, lobster, fish grilled in banana leaf. In the dry hinterland: sun-dried beef, coalho cheese grilled over an open flame and bottled butter (manteiga de garrafa). Two ingredients show up everywhere: cashew — toasted nut, fresh juice or candy — and tapioca, the base of both breakfast and dinner.

Pipa is the shrimp town — order the camarão na moranga at any downtown restaurant, then a burnt cocada from the bakery next door. Natal has the best breaded shrimp in the state and two ambitious bistros in Ponta Negra worth a booking. Up north, dinner by the water in Galinhos is plain and perfect: catch of the day, baião-de-dois and cold beer. Close the night with a craft cachaça from the highlands (Tropical, Caiana, Rainha do Mato) — neat, small glass, as tradition asks.