This Entire City Eats the Same Meal Every Monday

Welcome back to another version of Famous Finds. This time, I'm in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I heard half a million people eat this same dish every Monday, so I had to check it out. But first, I had to make a quick stop at the largest indoor market in South America. Let's go see what it's all about. Just got to the market, and it looks like even the surrounding area here just has a lot of different markets and shops. Español poquit? A little. Is it Spanish for people? Sapote. Sapote. Yes, in Portuguese. Brazilian fruit. This is great, being greeted with open hands. Wow. Only in Brazil he's saying you can get this fruit. This is amazing, that was so creamy. Like acidic, but just enough and creamy, like I can't describe it. Like a creamy pear almost. Amazon fruit. Atemoya. Atemoya. Yes. I don't know how to do that. I did not expect this when I walked in, but here we are. Delicious? Very. We have this something similar. My mom gets them for me. Persimmons. Spanish pomelo. The pomelo is kind of like an orange I would say. I haven't even gotten five steps into the market. Literally just walked in and my man is taking care of me. I'm going to take care of him too. For you. A present? Thank you my brother. Of course. Of course. A present? Thank you. Of course. That's good. In Portuguese, ameixa. Ameixa. I wish I could describe all these flavors to you. In Portuguese, maracujá. Like a maracujá. Passion fruit. English passion fruit. Solo brasileiro. This is lake fruit. Lake fruit. Fruit. Wow. Say don't chew it, just suck it. In Portuguese, caju. Caju. Yes. I'm in heaven right now. This is just what I needed after a couple days in Rio. All juiced up now. My man's still going for it. Dragon fruit. You okay? Oh wow, he got figs. And he's giving me a little honey on top. I'm getting spoiled now. He's spoiling me. That is good. Mi favorito. Mango. Mango. Si. My proud Brazilian. Brazilian fruit. My bambino's the favorite. Eliana, this one's for you, baby. Oh. I wish I could bring it back to the States. I love you. I love you. Man, look at this. I even got... Si. He's washing my hands off. Obrigado. Gracias. Bye bye. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we're in Sao Paulo in Mercado Municipal. Thank you, my brother. It is the biggest food hall I've ever seen for sure. It's got to be up there in the biggest in the world. Apparently the number one spot for me to try inside of here recommended was Bardo Mané. I'm probably not pronouncing it right. You can get lost in this food hall. That's how massive it is. But I'm glad that they got a couple like sit down restaurants like this and not just all vendors, like all counter space. That's the downfall, I would say, of a lot of food halls in America that I've been to. It's like you don't really have somewhere that you can just like hunker down and chill out. Let's dig into this thing, see what it's all about. It's like the Katz's Deli of Mercado Municipal. That's the best example I can give you. It just seems like it's legendary. You got counter service right there. You got some guys just hanging out at the bar, having a beer and slamming these sandwiches down. But it is packed to the gills. Definitely a messy one. Saltiness of the mortadella, they grill it, so it gets some nice texture on it as well. And then the creaminess from the cheese just balances all out. The bread's amazing and fresh. This market has fed Sao Paulo since the 1930s, but on Mondays the city eats something else, the Virado a Paulista. You'll find it all over town, at bars, at restaurants, even bakeries that serve lunch. Nobody knows exactly where it came from, but some say it goes way back to early explorers who needed one big meal to get through the day. We are at Pepra Fora. I just had an awesome experience. The server was awesome enough to get me inside the kitchen and check it out. They got a nice little set up back there. The food looks amazing. This place was opening up as I walked here. They literally turned the lights on and now it's already jamming with people. And the dish you ask is... The Virado a Paulista. That's it right there. You're looking at it. Got it. It's like a family meal, but it's like all the restaurants serve it. So it was an efficient way to feed the workers is what I read on this. So all the restaurants kind of serve the same thing on a certain day to kind of streamline that process. They have a bunch of pots back there going. The beans are on the one pot, the rice, the greens, the chicken. There's like a fried Plantain, I think, or maybe banana, and then a fried piece of bacon on there as well, on the side. Let me tell you how happy I am right now. If I go to a restaurant and I want to try everything, I'm going to end up ordering like five different things, six different things, but they just did it for me. Problem solved. I'm going to start digging in here. I'm going to go with the beans first. Look, refried beans, it looks like. that's good. lot of pork flavor in it. banana i guess. yeah it's a banana. I appreciate it. it's kind of like dessert. i just took a bite of dessert. that's what it tastes like. they also have these portuguese olive oil on the on the table for you. and that's what he was frying the eggs in. got a little bit of chicken breast or pork it looks like underneath. thinly sliced. definitely pork. and then got sausage. i mean how can you go wrong with this dish? Nice bite on it. They also pride themselves on the coldest beer in Sao Paulo here. Thank you. Here it is cold. Confirmed. I'm gonna read some facts here, make sure I can give this dish the proper love it deserves. It is considered a prato feito, PF, which means made plate or composed plate. The repeating set of the weekly PF specials is a Brazil-wide practice, but each daily dish varies by region. This spot's specifically prepared for a, and their logo is like a foot. It means your feet are like out because of all the outdoor seating that they have here. It's what I understood. They've been at it since 1970. I'm actually going to go for greens. I don't know. Some rice. Now he wants to do it again. Fried bacon. I'm starting to speak now. I mean, how do you go wrong with frying bacon? My mom wouldn't be happy right now, but when in Rome. Oh yeah, but egg yolk is going everywhere now. So I tasted pretty much everything straight up. They can all stand up on themselves, 100%. Each of them tastes great. Let's let's see if this can actually stand together as a mixed dish see if I can build a bite That pork chop has a bone in it by the way All the way. This is as local as it's gonna get by the way, there's not one person speaking English here just me with my camera on the table But I hope you guys are enjoying it because I am so you got the pork chop on the bottom egg on top of their little Bit of refried bean and the sausage and the bacon. It's hitting every element that you want to hit. Maybe only the spicy one. I Can definitely go for some hot sauce on top, but I'm not gonna do that right now every base is covered and then you have the umami punch of the egg yolk. Just kind of dousing everything. I Don't know after I eat this that I would want to go back to work. I would want to go to sleep Did not expect this restaurant to get packed as quickly as it did, goes to show you what bit of a job they're doing inside. But decent amount of people are eating this dish though, so it's still alive and doing well. It's not just a myth. We're here, we're eating it, they got the pots ready to go as you saw in the back, they're whipping it out, now they're ready for service and all topped off with... Piece of fried banana as dessert. We came, we got the Monday special. Hello, I am Gerardo Apallisto. We got our beer, doing it like the locals. I would hope they would be proud of me right now.