Requeijão

Shredded chicken is dry by the time it is cooked. The spread is what makes the filling hold.

Spread it on hot bread and it slackens without splitting, because it was already melted once.

Spooned into a starch crepe straight off the dry pan, where a firm cheese would sit there and stay firm.

Raw green allium snipped through a bland fat is the only sharp thing in the filling.

Flat green against a soft fat with no edges of its own. Chop it late or it tastes of nothing.

Cooked tomato brings the salt and the acid this spread refuses to bring for itself.

It browns in a hot oven instead of running off the edge, which is what Brazilian pizza was built on.

Fat is where a burn goes to slow down. Stir it in cold and the heat arrives late.

A fat this smooth gives you nothing to chew on. Coarse pepper is the cheapest way to fix that.

Sweet shellfish under a fat that browns without breaking. That is a Brazilian shrimp gratin.

The Minas trick with the cheese loosened: paste on top, spread underneath, no knife needed.

A cheese with almost no aroma is the blankest stage there is. Stir it through cold, never hot.