Vigorón

Granada's plate of boiled yuca under crisp chicharrón and a sharp vinegared cabbage salad, served on a banana leaf and eaten with the fingers

Origin: Granada & Nicaragua

From the journey of Cassava.

Vigorón is three things on a banana leaf: boiled yuca, crisp pork chicharrón, and curtido, a raw cabbage and tomato salad sharpened with vinegar and chilli. There is no plate, no cutlery, and no sauce beyond the vinegar from the salad running into the yuca, and it is eaten standing or sitting on a bench in the Parque Central of Granada, which is where it comes from. The invention is credited to María Luisa Cisneros Lacayo, known as La Loca, who is said to have begun selling it in Granada's central park in 1914. The name is generally traced to a banner advertising a tonic called Vigor that hung in the park at the time, which she is said to have borrowed. The account is specific, is repeated consistently in Nicaragua including by the family, and is at least plausible; it is not documented in any contemporary source, so it sits as tradition rather than as established record. The yuca is boiled in salted water until it is soft enough to crush but still holds, and the woody core is pulled out of each piece before serving. Cassava is one of the great staples of the Nicaraguan Pacific and of the whole isthmus, and here it is presented as plainly as it is possible to present anything: boiled, salted, and put under something else. The curtido is what makes it work. Raw cabbage, tomato, onion, and chilli are dressed with vinegar and left an hour, and the acid cuts through the pork fat and the starch in a way that nothing cooked would. Nicaraguans put a great deal of it on and the pile is meant to look excessive.

Ingredients

Yuca

1 kg yuca, peeled and in 8cm lengths
2 tsp salt

Chicharrón

800 g pork belly, skin on, in 3cm pieces
1 tbsp salt
1 sour orange or 1 orange and 1 lime, juiced

Curtido

0.5 white cabbage, very finely shredded
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 onion, very thinly sliced
1 chilli, finely sliced
120 ml white vinegar
1 sour orange, juiced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

To serve

4 banana leaves, to serve

Method

Make the curtido first. Toss the shredded cabbage, tomato, onion, and chilli with the vinegar, sour orange juice, salt, and pepper, and leave it for at least an hour.
Shred the cabbage as finely as you can manage. Coarse cabbage will not soften in an hour of vinegar and the salad stays raw and clumsy.
Toss the pork belly with the tablespoon of salt and the sour orange juice and leave it for twenty minutes.
Put the pieces into a heavy pan with a splash of water, cover, and cook over a low heat for thirty-five minutes, until the fat has rendered out and the meat is tender.
Uncover, raise the heat, and fry the pieces in their own fat for ten minutes until the skin blisters and the edges are dark and crackling.
Rendering slowly under a lid and then frying hard is what gives crisp skin over tender meat; a hot pan from the start gives neither.
Drain on paper and salt again while hot.
Boil the yuca in well-salted water for twenty-five to thirty-five minutes, until a knife goes in easily but the pieces have not begun to fall apart.
Drain and pull the woody central fibre out of each piece with your fingers while they are still hot.
Lay a banana leaf on each plate and pile the hot yuca on it.
Put the chicharrón on top and heap the drained curtido over the whole thing.
Serve at once and eat with your fingers, and expect the vinegar to run into the yuca, which is the point.

Notes

Make the curtido an hour ahead and shred the cabbage very fine. Render the pork under a lid before frying it hard. Pull the fibrous core out of the boiled yuca; leaving it in is the usual complaint about home vigorón. Do not overboil the yuca, since it goes to mush quickly once past done. Assemble at the last moment so the chicharrón stays crisp. A banana leaf is traditional and a plate does perfectly well, though Granadinos will notice.

The Gastrographer

Name: Vigorón
Prep time: 1 h 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 10 min
Total time: 2 h 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Granada & Nicaragua
Ingredients: 1 kg yuca, peeled and in 8cm lengths; 2 tsp salt; 800 g pork belly, skin on, in 3cm pieces; 1 tbsp salt; 1 sour orange or 1 orange and 1 lime, juiced; 0.5 white cabbage, very finely shredded; 2 tomatoes, thinly sliced; 1 onion, very thinly sliced; 1 chilli, finely sliced; 120 ml white vinegar; 1 sour orange, juiced; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper; 4 banana leaves, to serve

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control