‍That Toinha is not just any baiana is evident to those who see her, for the first time, behind her tray. What many don't even suspect is that Toinha herself is the one who makes the palm oil she uses to prepare her delicacy. She climbs the tree, drops the bunch, cooks the fruit, macerates in the pestle, and when everything turns into a paste, she separates the liquid from the bagasse in a long manual process. Then she boils the mixture again and only then does the oil appear, in a thin layer, over the water. At night she will serve the acarajés generously stuffed and packed in a banana leaf, which Toinha takes from the plant and prepares over the fire. The enterprise takes a lot of work, but who cares? - “My acarajé has to be perfect. That's why I do the work of the male and the female" - she says proudly.