Amazonas, Isla Barú & street food
Hello and welcome back! I should also probably say Buen provecho since we are going to talk about food. Not just any food but Colombian food. And not only typical Colombian food but everything we managed to eat while there. If you need some context on our adventure, feel free to check out previous posts - the one about Amazonas or the one about Isla Barú or maybe the mother of all posts - the intro?
If you've read the other posts, you know that our itinerary was quite complex, and the same goes for food. Hand in hand with changing locations went changing the "food source". In other words, while we only ate home-made food in Amazonas, we lived off the hotel food combined with some street food in Medellín and Cartagena and then, again, there was some home-made food on Barú.
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| Albondigas de pescado (fishballs) - thumbs up for the beetroot flower |
Home-made Amazonas food
As I already mentioned, in Amazonas, we stayed in the Mocagua community, in a tree-house which was part of the family-run hostel. That meant very home-made, very local and absolutely fresh food. In general, we had two meat options for lunch and dinner - chicken or catfish (no preference there, we left it up to our hosts). Usually, the meat came with the sides of veggies, rice or yucca fries. It might seem bland but mind you, our hosts were very imaginative when it came to meat preparation so we had meatballs, filets, meat rolls and so on. I really don't think we had the same thing twice.
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| Catfish cooked in banana leaf with yucca chips (yeah, they really look like plaster) |
We basically took a photo of every single meal (except maybe for breakfast) because it looked so delicious and so different that we had no other choice. The highlights of this part of the trip were:
- cocoa for breakfast served in a typical steel jug which you stirred with kind of a rolling pin. It was so good that it did not matter that sometimes we were having savoury breakfast, we had several cups of cocoa anyway. I have no idea what they made it from (of course, Telchac knows - freshly made cocoa paste), but it was better than any cocoa-based drink you can buy elsewhere.
- kumache or termite sauce for dinner was probably the strangest thing we had while in Colombia. It tasted great, it was the perfect sauce to combine with meat. I have to admit, as I'm a bit of a coward when it comes to trying out new food, I tried to avoid eating the termites and just focused on the sauce. (Btw we had the same sauce in the restaurant in Bogota and it came in a more refined termite-free version. However, despite avoiding the termites, I still think the Amazonas version is better.)
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| Fancy some termites? |
- all yucca everything was the subtheme of all the meals there. We had fries, we had soup, we had so-called yuca plaster (not its official name) and some yucca dough rolls as a starter. Again working with what they had available and making it taste and look different each time was their greatest skill.
- and overall diet which was just perfect. Honestly, compared to the rest of Colombia (where we've been) this was by far the healthiest food you can get there. Lots of vegetables, everything fresh, more grilled stuff than deep-fried choices. Just amazing. We also had a dessert every day - the best one? Definitely, the maracuya mousse which they put back into the maracuya shell. I would ask for the recipe on more than one occasion but I knew that it'd be hopeless to get the ingredients they use anywhere else.
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| THE maracuya dessert |
Home-made Caribbean food
We were lucky enough that despite being in the remotest of all the areas where one could hardly spot a face, we had a local cook who prepared two meals a day for us. With my pickiness and my narrow-mindedness, I was glad that we could be the one who created the "menu". Of course, she was ready to cook her way if we let her but that wasn't our plan at all. So, with the help of our Airbnb host, who provided a list of recipes and ingredients, we chose the best options and came prepared (ingredients and Spanish-wise). Every day, we explained what we wanted for lunch and for dinner and every day we got an excellent meal! Sometimes when we didn't know, she suggested something or other which at the end made perfect sense! Again, let's have a look at the highlights:
- fresh seafood. It does not matter if we're talking shrimps or fish or lobster (oh, the lobster), everything was unbelievable! It seems so easy to just throw it on the grill and add some garlic but I have the feeling it just SEEMS so. :D
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| Can it get any better? I don't think so! |
- fried coconut rice. The best rice preparation I've ever had. Simple and absolutely delicious. I really have to look into this one and maybe try to re-create it using some European replacements. However, I have a feeling (again) that it might not be that easy.
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| Telchac got the head :D |
- arepas. The typical Colombian meal and snack and breakfast. You can make them with meat, cheese, veggies, whatever you crave. They are deep-fried and delicious. Served with a side of hogao (tomatoes and onions and coriander) that only one of us ate (guess who).
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| Finger-licking good ;) arepas with egg and beef |
- patacones, maybe not typically Colombian but we really love them since we stayed in Costa Rica so we had no other choice but to include them in the menu as often as we could.
As for breakfast, we usually went for fruits or yoghurt or something light because, in general, we are not used to eating two cooked meals a day (when lying on a beach and doing nothing all day) so we preferred to start slow. Therefore, we could only dream about the Amazonian cocoa.
Colombian must-haves
It really isn't that simple with Colombia. The fact that it is quite large and has many regions with different climates makes it difficult to grasp all its national must-eat meals. However, we had some of those so I feel we should let you know:
Palitos de queso - simply put, cheese sticks. You can get the deep-fried version in the streets of Medellín and the baked version everywhere else. Imagine our disappointment when we asked for the hot and greasy palitos and were given dry sticks with almost no cheese (in Guatapé). After that, we became cautious and tried to find the deep-fried version but we had no luck.
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| Palitos de queso - so greasy but so good |
Guaro - or aguardiente or fiery water. This is what they drink in Colombia. It leaves you with a pleasant anise flavour in your mouth and no hangover at all because it's not that strong (by European alcohol standards). However, it's a little sweet so if you drink more than enough, your head might complain a bit.
Useful tip: If you decide to take some Guaro back with you, check the back label carefully, some bottles are not to be exported out of Colombia. I am not sure if this applies to the bottles for personal use, just beware, you wouldn't want them to confiscate it at the airport.
Bandeja paisa - ordered as room service, not knowing that it is one of the most traditional meals in the area. Compared to the typical restaurant version, we could say it was more of a tasting than the meal itself. However, considering you get quite a lot of types of meat (sausage, cooked meat, ground meat) with some sides which are pretty filling, I can't imagine eating the whole dish (even if there are two of us). So the version we chose (unknowingly) was probably the best version we could choose.
Useful tip: If you enjoy or a beer (or two :)) in the park or elsewhere in the city, remember that the rules might be different in every Colombian region. The easiest way is to ask the seller if it's fine to drink in the street, the most reliable one is to ask at your hotel.
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| Our Mexican flashback - Tacos at Dos Chingones in Bogota |
Now, the inevitable happened - I am craving all of those amazing meals that I know I can't make anywhere outside Latin America and most definitely not in Europe. Well, I think I need to "settle" for some home-made pasta, which is not so bad, is it? So I'm off to make the pasta and you should check our IG and then be back in two weeks for a new post. C U then!