A vast Colombian platter of beans, rice, pork crackling, sausage, egg, plantain, avocado and arepa — the food of the Antioquia region, scaled for a day of labour.
A working platter
The bandeja paisa comes from the Antioquia region around Medellín, whose inhabitants are called paisas. It grew out of the eating habits of agricultural workers and muleteers who needed a very large, calorie-dense meal to sustain long days of physical work in mountainous country.
The name simply means paisa tray, and the tray is literal: the components are too numerous for an ordinary plate. It is served at midday rather than in the evening, consistent with its origins as the main meal of a working day.
It is a relatively modern assembly in its standardised restaurant form, and while it has been informally proposed as a national dish, its identity remains strongly regional.
What is on it
The base is red beans cooked with pork, white rice, and ground or shredded beef. Around those go chicharrón — a thick piece of fried pork belly with the crackling attached — and chorizo with a wedge of lime.
A fried egg sits on top, and the tray also carries fried sweet plantain, half an avocado, a small arepa, and often a slice of black pudding. Hogao, a cooked sauce of tomato and spring onion, is served alongside.
The beans are the element most closely judged. They are cooked long and slow, traditionally with a piece of pork skin, until the broth is thick and glossy rather than watery.
Eating it
The portion is genuinely enormous and finishing one is regarded as an achievement rather than an expectation. Sharing is common and unremarkable.
There is no fixed order. Most diners work across the tray, combining beans and rice with a piece of chicharrón, using the arepa to gather what remains.
It is offered in restaurants across Colombia and has become one of the country's most recognisable dishes abroad, though paisas will note that versions served outside Antioquia are rarely as generous.
