Virado — Brazil

Virado is a composite plate reported from the state of São Paulo, in Brazil, built around beans cooked in fat with onion and garlic and toasted manioc flour, served together with a pork chop, fried sausage, breaded fried plantain, a soft-yolked egg, braised kale, rice and crisply fried pork rind. Rather than a single preparation, it is a set meal of several elements plated together. The dish is closely associated with the city and state of São Paulo, where it is reported to be eaten in large quantities on Mondays in particular, with several hundred thousand plates served across the city in a typical week. It sits within a wider Brazilian tradition of bean-and-rice plates accompanied by manioc flour and pork, shaped in this case by the specific combination of components brought together on one plate. To prepare it, the beans are simmered slowly with onion, garlic, fat and salt until soft and slightly creamy, while rice cooks separately. Manioc flour is toasted in a dry pan or with a little fat until golden, and the remaining elements are cooked one by one: the pork chop and sausage are fried, plantain slices are breaded and fried, kale is briefly braised in hot fat, eggs are fried with a soft yolk, and pieces of pork rind are fried until crisp. Everything is then arranged together on a single large plate. What distinguishes virado from a simple beans-and-rice meal is the sheer number of components brought together and the specific role each one plays: the toasted manioc flour adds crunch and absorbs the bean liquid, the plantain and egg soften the plate, and the pork rind and sausage add richness. Households vary the exact cuts of pork used, the greens chosen, and how much of each element is served, but the plate's identity comes from combining all of these parts rather than from any single ingredient.