Colombia is not a country where you are at risk of going hungry. Happily for two permanently ravenous cyclists, food is everywhere you look and we’ve found it to be one of the best value countries to fill up in. Great for our budget, not so great for our waistlines or coronary health…
Every street corner is occupied by open sided bakeries selling cheap-as-chips bread, cakes and coffee from early morning until late at night. Plazas fill with carts selling snacks and tinto, and you’re never far from a deep fat fryer churning out heart attack inducing goodies.
Yes, Colombia does impressively tasteless beige food better than anywhere in the world. It makes Gregs look Michelin star worthy in comparison, but what the food lacks in taste (and any semblance of nutritional value…), is compensated for by the great culture that comes with it. Grab a juice and a 10p pastry for in a bakery and watch the world go by, or join the old men at sunset on the plaza’s sipping tinto out of plastic cups and putting the world to rights. Stand on street corners with business men, construction workers, and school kids and practice the art of eating empanadas one-handed without getting sizzling fat all over you.
Here is a little tour of Colombia via it’s food – the highs, the lows and the guiltily delicious.
The good…
Menu Del Dias
Lunch is the big meal in Colombia, and come midday every restaurant will be serving up a set menu which without fail will include a big plate of rice, beans, fried plantain, a tiny bit of salad and a usually generous slap of meat. All started with a bowl of soup and washed down with a glass of juice, and usually for less that £3. Bargain.
A typical menu del dia, perfect fuel for powering up hills.
Fresh, ripe and tasty tropical fruits
All that greenery we’ve been riding through means there is no shortage of delicious, perfectly ripe fruit, always changing as we go through different areas. Buy whatever grows locally and it will be dirt cheap and delicious. Mangos, bananas, avocados, watermelon, oranges, chiramoya, guanabana, and our favourite – Maracuya. A huge, tangy passion fruit delicious in juices.
Tasty fruit juices
Freshly made fruite juices are everywhere, and you are never far from the whizzing of an electric blender making use of all the tropical fruits on hand. Usually loaded with extra sugar and blitzed in a blender with water or milk, they manage to end up being wonderfully unhealthy, but served in a jug with a straw for less than a quid, they are the perfect respite on a hot day of cycling.
Beer!
The national beer is actually good! Our favourite is the Club Colombia’s Roja (their red ale – they also have a black and a lager), which has been responsible for the recent spike in our alcohol consumption
Beer with a view
Cracking coffee
Colombia is famous for its wonderful coffee, and whilst most of the good stuff is exported for our Flat Whites at home, the big cities have great coffee shops.
Arepas (about 10% of the time)
Corn or flour patties, grilled on a hot plate and ubiquitous everywhere in Colombia. Always a gamble, but get them fresh and stuffed with cheese and meat from a street corner hot plate, and they are finger-licking good.
If you are lucky enough to find a street side Arepa that looks like this – eat it!!
The “so bad it’s good”…..
Cheese, glorious cheese
Cheese and caramel donut anyone? How about a stick of cheese to dip in your Hot Chocolate? Spinkled on your fruite salad?? Colombian’s love cheese and sugar together on just about everything. We’ve lost count of the number of times we have bitten into an innocent looking cake to be surprised with a chunk of tasteless cheese in the middle, or a cheese bread with sprinkling of sugar on top.
Cheese and arequipe (caramel) donuts, 15p a pop
Evening street food
Just before dusk, the evening shift takes over with the carts selling buñuelos (fried cheese flavoured dough balls) are replaced by carts grilling up chuzos (sticks of meat), hot dogs and burgers. Best visited once a few beers have lowered your standards a little, the most popular stall will likely be for a $1 burger or hot dog loaded with sauce and a generous helping of crisps in the mix. As a Northerner who often loads my ham sandwich up with a generous helping of Walkers salt and vinegar, I obviously appreciate the addition of crisps to any sandwhich.
Tinto Coffee
This is the coffee that the majority of Colombians drink. Imagine reusing the soggy grains in your coffee maker 5 or 6 times, pouring out a shot of the resulting brown liquid and adding 3 teaspoons of sugar. It tastes terrible, but I love the tinto culture. Carts ply the streets dishing out thermos flasks full of the stuff, and it’s drunken by everyone regardless of class, job, age. You can happily sit in a bar or cafe sipping 20p tinto for hours.
Bandeja Paisa
A traditional meal from the Antioqua region, exact contents vary but expect a gut busting plate of meat, beans, fried pork rinds, eggs, plantain, avocado and a token bit of salad. Best devoured with a hangover and plenty of chilli sauce.
Bandeja Paisa. The Colombian equivalent of a Full English, with a tropical twist
Empanadas
Deep fried corn pockets stuffed with rice, potato and meat. Often left sitting out for hours and impressively tasteless, but just occasionally, a fresh-from-the-frier empanada is the perfect beer snack.
Lurid yellow Empanadas, potentially delicious, probably cold and tasteless. Who knows!
The downright terrible…..
The other 90%
Yes there are rare times when an empanada or arepa bought hot and fresh on the street are delicious. But let’s not get too nostalgic….90% of the time they are terrible! Luke warm at best, greasy, and only edible by smothering in a pink sauce which we are assuming is a worryingly tangy mix of tomato sauce and mayonnaise.
Don’t be fooled by the bakeries!
When we first arrived in Colombia, we were giddy at the sight of panaderias packed with all kinds of colourful and oodles of choice of bread. Sadly, 2 months in I can conclude our thorough research (we’ve worked our way through everything…) and confirm that THEY ALL TASTE THE SAME!! But we still love the bakeries. Dirt cheap places to sit, stuff your face and people watch.
Don’t be fooled by the almost Parisian look of some of those pastries…
If in doubt, fry, fry and fry again.
A friend once ordered a side of broccoli in a restaurant, Guess what?
Grrrls On Tour 