Esfiha

Esfiha descends from the Arabic sfiha (lahm bi ajin, 'meat with dough'), a flatbread of the Levant that arrived in Brazil with the Syrian and Lebanese immigration beginning in the 1880s and continuing through the early twentieth century. São Paulo became the heart of this community, and the esfiha, like kibe and quibe, passed from immigrant homes and Arab clubs into everyday Paulista eating, typically made with beef rather than lamb. Its transformation into mass food is tied to Habib's, the fast-food chain founded in São Paulo in 1988, which built its menu around cheap esfihas and made the word familiar across Brazil. The open form spread with lemony beef is the one most Brazilians picture, alongside sweet dessert esfihas that are a later, local invention.

The open esfiha is a palm-sized soft round, the dough thin and bready at the rim, sagging slightly under a moist topping of minced beef cooked down with onion and tomato and sharpened with lemon; you fold it or eat it flat, and the juices soak the base. The closed esfiha is a sealed pocket, denser, with the same filling sealed inside a triangular parcel that holds the steam. Both taste of warm spiced beef, sweet softened onion and a bright lemon tang, the bread tender rather than crisp. Eaten by hand, often two or three at a time, with a soft drink.

The dough is a soft enriched yeast dough — flour, water, oil, a little sugar and yeast — kneaded and proofed until it relaxes and puffs, which gives the baked esfiha its tender, slightly chewy crumb. For the open form the topping must be made wet but well-drained: minced beef with grated onion, chopped tomato and lemon juice, salted ahead so the onion weeps and is squeezed out, or the base turns soggy and won't bake through. The pastries bake in a hot oven so the dough sets and lightly colours while the meat cooks in its own juices. Sealing the closed form traps steam, keeping the filling moist; pinching it well stops it bursting open in the heat.