Boston

Father and son Fernando and Michael Benevides give Marcus a tour of their storeroom for bacalhau, an ageless Portuguese take on salt cod that involves air drying, freezing, and finally thawing, which can then be used in myriad Portuguese dishes, from broth stock to savory pastry filling.

On a cold day in New Bedford, Massachusetts, singer Candida Rosa talks with Marcus about her roots. She is from Cape Verde: a group of islands 400 miles off the western coast of Africa, a crossroads of early exploration of the Atlantic, and supposedly home to the first slave trading post.

Mestre Chuvisquinho, a master capoeirista from Sao Paulo, Brazil, teaches one of his capoeira classes. Capoeira is a combination of music, dance, and martial arts, originally used by African slaves for secret intercommunication. Later, Mestre and Marcus eat at Pastelaria, a cafe specializing mostly in Brazilian street food.

Capoeira is a combination of music, dance, and martial arts, originally used by African slaves for secret intercommunication. Mestre Chuvisquinho, a master capoeirista, talks to Marcus about growing up practicing capoiera in his community in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and how it helped him focus his energies. Marcus touches on the inextricable influence of the slave trade on Brazilian culture.

Host Marcus Samuelsson goes to the greater Boston area to learn more about Portuguese, Brazilian, and Cape Verdean food traditions. Marcus eats Portuguese chowder with halibut on a fishing boat, visits a Portuguese marketplace where he tries plenty of bacalhau, and later, in a home kitchen, he makes a bacalhau gratin with cheese and potatoes.