Dona Ivanize is filled with pride when she says that it was her father who created, 50 years ago, the dish that today is the most popular in Natal and can be found all over the city. Ginga with tapioca is so important in the city that it became an Intangible Heritage of the municipality in 2016 and, as if that wasn’t enough, also of the State in 2019. This skewer of small fish (usually young sardines), breaded and fried in palm oil, and served inside a tapioca with coconut, emerged because Ivanize’s father wanted to make use of the small fish that fishermen discarded from their nets: “My father saw the fish wiggling and said, ‘Give me that ginga, I’m going to fry it and sell it with tapioca,'” she explains. Everything is bought at the centennial Mercado da Rendinha, where Ivanize and the other kiosk owners sell the famous ginga. It was thanks to it, by the way, that the market, inaugurated in 1921 on Rendinha Beach, was also designated as a cultural heritage site. “This is a local product,” she says. “I am filled with pride to have an intangible heritage that came from my family.”