colombian food Archives - Bidmead Bites

Arepas & Chicharrón recipe

18th April 2020 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

While there’s much talk of how we should be using our time in isolation, I fully support the school of thought that if we just get through this, it’ll be enough.

So while you are under zero obligation to “be productive” or “try something new”, if you’re curious about Colombian food or share my inclination towards recipes involving any form of fried meat, you could give the below a go.

Today’s recipe is for Arepas con Chicarrón, or corn-cakes and fried pork belly. The arepas require a precooked corn flour called “masa harina”. You can’t sub this out for regular corn flour so I recommend looking in your local cash & carry or international supermarket for this; popular brands are Pan and Goya.

The pork belly recipe is a cracker; the meat pretty much takes care of itself, boiling down in water until the last few minutes when you fry it off in its own fat to get it gloriously golden and crunchy. Give it a bit of attention the night before with some salt and bicarbonate of soda to dry it out for extra crisp.

Arepas

Makes ten

Ingredients

250 grams masa harina
250 ml water
Salt & pepper to taste

Method

Pour out your water into a bowl big enough to allow you to mix in
Shake in your masa harina, salt & pepper
Combine ingredients with your hands, forming a dough
Cover bowl with a tea towel and leave for 10 minutes
The dough is now ready to mould. Separate it into 10 equal sized balls and flatten down to about ½ inch thickness and mould into a round shape, either with hands or use a cup to cut out the shape, like a cookie cutter
Lightly oil up a griddle or non stick pan and cook arepas until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes on each side.

Chicharrón

For four people, served alongside arepas and other nibbles

Ingredients

500 grams pork belly, cut into cubes about 4cm x 4cm
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
1 ½ tbsp salt
Seasonings of your choice (I used sweet paprika, cumin, garlic power)

Method

The night prior to cooking, place pork belly out on a plate and rub skin with the bicarb of soda and half the salt
The next day, when ready to cook, place pork belly in a pan big enough to fit it comfortably and add enough water to cover the meat completely
With the flame on very low, leave meat to simmer, checking on it every half an hour to turn the meat
2-4 hours after you have started to cook the meat, the water will have evaporated off – this is time to turn up then heat and get your meat golden brown and crunchy
With the heat on high, carefully and lovingly fry the belly (no extra oil needed as it’s now cooking in its own fat). This should take 3-5 minutes – careful because the fat spits.
Once nicely golden and crunchy, remove meat from pan and place on top of kitchen roll laid on a plate to absorb extra grease.
Sprinkle spices and remaining salt on top – you can use the suggested sweet paprika, garlic powder and cumin or whatever your preferences are.

These can be served alongside a whole host of toppings, below is what I went for: some pickled onions (left in red wine vinegar and a dash of sugar to take away the acidity), avocado, grated cheese, some chopped tomatoes with coriander and lemon and coriander to garnish.

***Barranquilla in Golders Green, isolation edition***

These are two very simple recipes that can serve as base for a whole Latin-American inspired meal. There’s loads of other Colombian recipes on my blog you could use as well: Colombian-style chicken wings, patacones (fried plantain slices, but this recipe does them in the oven), arroz con pollo (chicken with rice). Choices for pudding include a guava cake you could anglicise with jam instead of guava and a passionfruit and dulce de leche victoria sponge.

https://www.instagram.com/bidmeadbites/ — ***Guava cake pulled from the archives, recipe available here***

So if you’ve finished Tiger King and are at a loss for what to do next, why not give this a go? Let me know how you get on!

Bizcocho con bocadillo, A Colombian guava cake

24th December 2015 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Turtle stew, fried lungs and malted fizzy drinks may sound like acquired tastes. But acquire them I did, during my year in Colombia. Certain food items I was less keen on, and I had particular dairy dilemmas when I realised all yogurt was either watery or contained gelatine and came in a jelly-like block. Total greek, Yeo Valley, Rachels Organic, donde estan, I would ask?

Despite my yearning for real yogurt, Colombian cooking captured my heart. Colombian food is never going to compare to classic French cuisine, but it comes from a totally different angle. The main dishes serve to feed and fill a crowd – big stews, rice and meat dishes and a lot of carbohydrates dominate.

With so many regional differences within the culture, Colombian food varies hugely: from the creamy potato and chicken soup ajiaco in cold and central Bogotá to more tropical flavours such as coconut and the fruit chontaduro on the warm yet wet pacific coast. Despite its regionally varied dishes and interesting, complex flavours, Colombian cuisine is still relatively unknown to the British palette, but I’m on a personal mission to make Colombian food more popular within the UK.

There’s a huge Latino population within London and some pockets of the city seem almost entirely Spanish speaking. I think it’s brilliant that I can buy empanada flour, the infamous bright pink fizzy drink postobon and achiote chilli powder less than half an hour away from my house and the fact the cashier will speak to me in Spanish without a second thought.

Corn flour for arepas and empanadas and guava jelly, bought at Brixton market.

With Colombian products so readily available, I decided to recreate one of my favourite Colombian cakes – a wonderfully dense and moist vanilla sponge marbled with bocadillo, a sweet paste made of guava pulp and sugar. I bought my bocadillo in Brixton market and I’m certain you can find it in either Elephant & Castle or Seven Sisters too. If you’re not London based, you can find it here, or you could also use membrillo, the Spanish quince jam available in most larger supermarkets near the cheese.

Enough waffle, time to bake cake.

Bizcocho con bocadillo (Vanilla and guava cake)

Ingredients

-200g flour

-200g butter

-160g sugar

-5 eggs

-100g warm milk

-2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

-300g bocadillo (or membrillo)

-Dash of vanilla extract (1 tsp)

-4 tbsp water

Method

Line a grease a large round cake tin – I used a 9 inch x 3 inch springform pan.
Start your sponge mix by mixing the flour, bicadrbonate of soda and sugar together. Melt the butter completely, leave to cool slightly and whisk into the sugar and flour mixture, adding one egg at a time, mixing it all together. As you whisk add in the 100 ml warm milk and the dash of vanilla extract. Your cake batter is now ready.
To make the bocadillo marble, you need to cut your bocadillo into small cubes and place it in a pan over a low heat, with 2 tbsp of water. As the bocadillo starts to melt down, stir it gently and add the rest of the water (and more if required). Take off the heat. You’re aiming for a liquid consistency you’re able to drizzle, but not something that’s overly runny.
Quickly, as you don’t want the bocadillo to re-solidify, pour half the vanilla mix into the tin and then drizzle in half of the bocadillo mixture, swirling it around to create a marble pattern. Top with the rest of the vanilla mix and then repeat the bocadillo swirls on top.
Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, and if top is overly browning, cover with foil. Cake is done when a a knife poked in comes out clean.

Vanilla sponge marbled with bocadillo – A Colombian guava cake, brought all the way to NW London!

A very pretty cake and a bit more exciting than a Victoria Sponge. Give it a go!

Penis, balls and a bit of heart for good measure – more culinary exploration in Cali

23rd July 2015 by Eve Bidmead 1 Comment

The last part of my travels sees me return to what could potentially be my favorite place in Colombia…Cali. I first visited with my sister in January, returned in May and managed to squeeze in one last visit before I head back to the UK. Why do I love it so much? Well, Cali is the country’s (if not world’s) capital of salsa, the weather is hot, the people are friendly and it’s just a lot of bloody fun. They also eat a hell of a lot of meat. What more could an offal-loving salsa enthusiast possibly want?

A very meaty fritanga

To begin this meat filled post, I present the fritanga caleña. Not a dish for anyone watching their waistlines, this is some seriously heavy stuff. Eaten at the famous J&J in the iconic and picturesque old barrio of San Antonio, a fritanga is a mix of fried meat and fritos (pasty type goodies). J&J know how to do it right, with this epic basket containing fried beef, morcilla (black sausage), pork rind, lung, plantain, new potatoes, empanadas, marranitas (fried plantain balls with pork) and aborrajados (fried plantain balls with cheese). This famous spot features a bar dedicated to condiments and offers guacamole, three different types of tomato salsa, peanut sauce, tartare, sour cream and salsa verde. How will I ever be satisfied with just ketchup again?

It’s highly likely I am so drawn to Cali due to it’s affinity for offal, a sentiment I very much share. On a friends recommendation I headed to the Galeria de Alameda, the place to go for a delicious lunch at an incredible price. I had been told I couldn’t leave Cali without trying the typical (and extremely potent) caldo de pajarilla. This essentially translates as ‘offal soup’ and is a stew featuring kidney, heart, liver and…spleen. This soup is pretty robust and makes for a hearty and heavy midday meal. Whether I actually liked it is perhaps up for debate. Even for an offal lover such as myself, I felt the mix of quite so much offal in one dish created ‘a too many organs spoil the broth’ situation. Oh, that old chestnut!

But if you thought spleen soup sounded a bit much, perhaps you’d be interested to know about the ‘caldo peligroso‘ as advertised in the sign above. This translates as ‘dangerous broth’, but for a keen traveler and adventurous foodie such as myself, I couldn’t fathom what the danger might be. Chatting to the chef, turns out that this ‘dangerous soup’ contains bull penis, testicles, heart and feet. She also alluded to it being some sort of aphrodisiac. While I tried to imagine how eating genitals might get your own private bits somewhat excited, I personally failed to make the link.

This rather impressive looking stuffed pigs head is known as lechona, a whole pig stuffed with rice, vegetables and spices, slow cooked in a brick oven. This is a dish I’ve wanted to try for a while and in all places I found it while passing through a shopping centre! Just another reason to love Cali – pop into a shopping centre in search of a loo and find a whole stuffed pig instead. This dish was a perfect combination of textures and flavors, as you get crispy pork skin along with the soft, richly flavored rice dotted with shreds of slow cooked pork. My lechona lunch certainly beat any other shopping centre food court meal I’d eaten before!

But what’s this? Something that isn’t meat? Sometimes Cali’s hot, sticky summer days call for something this isn’t a fried dead animal and that is when the very famous cholado fits the bill perfectly. There are various versions and recipes for this typical caleño sweet treat, but, in essence, it features shaved ice, fruit syrup, fresh fruit and a wafer. From there, the sky (or plastic cup’s capacity) is the limit. Popular additions include ice cream, chocolate shavings, sweets, dried coconut – your options are endless.

Leaving Cali for the third time, I was more enamored with the city than ever before (although perhaps feeling ready to eat some vegetables). However, this is something that can wait until my return to the UK, as in a last minute decision I booked myself a flight to my old home of Buenos Aires! Bring on plenty of steak and red wine, along with all the other cuisines Argentina’s capital has to offer.

Exotic Fruits and Glorious Juice

24th February 2015 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Fruit here in Colombia is really quite something. Lulo, nispero, zapote. granadllia, uchuva…ring any bells? These are just some of the new fruits I’ve discovered during my time here. Sliced up and eaten as snacks, served as toppings for breakfast or as parts of delicious desserts, the sheer variety of fruit here means there is no excuse not to be filling up on these vitamin-rich, natural sweet treats. Or, why not drink up the wonderful array of fruits at one of the various fruteras around the city?

Fruteras here sell not only delicious juices, but also offer up those tasty and much-loved fritos. Empandas, carimañolas, deditos, arepas, patacones…essentially just an awful lot of very delicious (and very beige) food. Here is a quick rundown of some of my favourite fruteras so far.

Just check out the frito selection here at Los Compadres. No fruit or veg to be seen, but that’s where the juices come in!

Frutera Los Compadres (Calle 74 entre Carreras 46 y 47)

Condiment heaven at Los Compadres

Perhaps one of the most famous fruteras in Barranquilla, Los Compadres has a firm fan following and is visited as much by busy workers in the morning as it is by tired and tipsy party goers at night. The range of fritos is immense – I’m slowly working my way through them all. I also like that here you can buy portions of flavoured rice, which invariably come with either meat or chicken.

Frutera El Compadre (Calle 79 y Calle 76)

When my sister came to visit, I felt it only right to introduce her to the wonders of fruteras, and so together we headed to El Compadre, another famous spot in the city. I opted for some meat empanadas and she went for the classic dedito (cheese finger) and a little baked spinach pastry. We washed down our snacks with some delicious and exotic juices en leche (with milk).

The brown juice is nispero, which has a distinctly nutty flavour, and the pink juice is zapote, which I believe tastes like a mix between carrot and strawberry…but really it’s unlike anything else I’ve tried before!

Zapote juice (left), Nispero juice (right), with my sisters veggie goods on the left and my meat filled goodness on the right.

Frutera Fruticao (Calle 93 Carrera 49c)

A lot of fruteras prepare their juices in advance to have them ready for order, but at Frutticao they make them as you order, meaning you can skip the enthusiastic servings of extra sugar often added. You also have the option of different types of milk (they haven’t quite reached the soya option yet, but skimmed is on offer). Serving only a few fritos, this place is really all about the juice, and as you can see from the list below – there’s quite the selection to choose from.

Fruteras are the perfect place to stop for a quick juice and bite to eat, at all hours of the day. I continue on the quest to find the best spot in the city, although mixed opinions may have me searching a long time!

Munching in Medellin

29th October 2014 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

After three months of living here on the Caribbean coast, I felt it was time to take a break from the relaxed pace and eternal sunshine of Barranquilla and head for the big city. Not quite ready for the cold climate and 8 million strong population of the capital Bogotá, I opted for a 5 day trip to Medellín.

Medellín is a city which has seen phenomenal changes in the past 10 years. Once the home and headquarters of the infamous drug baron Pablo Escobar, it has transformed itself from what was at one point the world’s most dangerous city into a thoroughly modern, innovative and prosperous metropolis. The teleferic cable cars seen in the picture above are just one example of how the city has made huge changes in order to help its citizens, allowing people from poorer neighborhoods in the hills to access the city with ease.

All fantastic news, and it gets even better, as this wonderful city is also home to some absolutely cracking comida. On my first day of my trip I met up with my very own paisa tour-guide, Ana Maria, who I met when travelling in Peru. She took me to a place called Hacienda in the city centre, which was decorated like a traditional Colombian ranch estate. Being in a restaurant that served nothing but paisa food, with what was supposedly the best bandeja paisa in the city, my order was a no-brainer.

Avocado, fried pork, ground beef, rice, black sausage, chorizo, an arepa, fried plantain , kidney beans and a fried egg make up this much loved and absolutely mammoth dish, the bandeja paisa. It originated from when farmers in the Antioquean hills where looking for a filling, high-calorie meal to give them energy for the whole day. Now recognized as the countries national dish, the bandeja paisa is a Colombian classic and completely delicious…even if after half-way through it gets a bit nauseating!

Rolling out of lunch, I felt full, but very excited at what other meals Medellín was about to offer up. And turns out, it wasn’t all deep fried pork rind either. In fact, quite the opposite.

Saludpan is a health-lovers paradise. Located in the trendy neighbourhood of Laureles, it serves fresh, healthy dishes, with many raw specialties, gluten-free and vegan options. A far cry from the fried empanadas and cheesy arepas we had been munching on, it was a nice opportunity to nourish our slightly over-partied and under rested bodies. And believe it or not, bandeja paisa was even on the menu here too!

This veggie version of the normally meat-filled national dish included brown rice, soya beef and sausages, with vegetables instead of kidney beans and it was sin the fried egg. My verdict? If you eat meat, I’d stick to the original, but for a veggie this is a great way to sample a slight variation on one of the countries best-loved dishes. And even for a carnivore like myself, it’s probably best to keep the consumption of fried pork rind down to just once or twice week.

After all that healthy vegetarian fare, it was back in search of some typical Colombian comida. On a whim, a friend and I decided to head out of the city and into Sabaneta, a smaller town located in the north of the city, a metro and bus ride away from the town centre.

El Pelegrino in Sabaneta

A very humble and local neighbourhood, Sabaneta was a lovely change from the hussle and bussle of the city centre and the fun yet over-priced and gringo-fied fancier barrios in the south.We headed to El pelegrino for a quick snack, but soon realised it was probably rude not to opt for a proper meal of some sorts. Not the full out bandeja paisa, we went for what I consider the best parts – meat, meat, and more meat.

Blood sausage, chorzio, fried pork rind, arepa and potato

After this quick bite, which consisted of some of the best blood sausage I’ve had, some room was left for dessert.

Buñuelo making

Buñuelos are round balls of a simple dough with the addition of costeño cheese, deep fried and sometimes topped with sugar. Freshly cooked, these balls actually weight a ton! Torn apart and dipped into hot chocolate or coffee, these are often eaten for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.

The finished product

Leaving Sabaneta, it was back into Medellin. But not for long, as being the eager tourists we were, we wanted to get the most of our brief time in the city. Our next trip was to Guatapé, a picturesque village 2 hours outside of Medellin. Guatapé is famous for its Piedra del Peñol, an enormous rock can be scaled by any tourist who dares. The piedra actually has stone steps, making the ascent far more climber friendly…however there are 571 of them. It goes without saying that the reward for such a steep climb is a wonderful lunch. We searched around town for any place that smelled good, looked full, and would refuel our worn out selves after our climb.

La Fogata was the place. Translating as ‘The bonfire’ in English, La Fogota serves up basic, no-frills food at its best, in a scenic location alongside service with a smile. Guatapé is located right next to the river, meaning almost all the restaurants in the town offer up fresh fish. Sat down at La Fogota, I found myself torn between what would inevitably be a wonderful bandeja paisa and some tasty fresh fish. Not to worry, as my ordering anxieties were soothed by the compromise in the form of a bandeja trucha.

In this dish the three meats that normally come in a bandeja paisa were replaced by a wonderful barbecued trout. The fish had been marinated in a tomato-paprika sauce and really was delicious and everything else that came with it was spot on too. Of course, some people opted for the classic bandeja paisa and I must say it did look good.

Yet more Bandeja Paisa…

Overall, Medellín was an absolutely great trip. The city itself is fun, modern, and having changed so much in the past 10 years it is a fascinating place to visit. The friendliness of the people and character of the city give it a brilliant vibe and definitely left me wanting to return. And the food? Any town that can claim a dish consisting of three different meats as their own gets a thumbs up from me!

In the Kitchen with Juanmi – making Ajiaco

15th September 2014 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

It’s safe to say since arriving here in Colombia, I’ve tried my fair share of comida colombiana. However, my interest in food isn’t limited to just the eating part – I absolutely love cooking it too! After trying so many new and delicious things, I felt inspired to start cooking up some Colombian food of my own.

But could I, a newcomer to Colombian cuisine, do it any justice? What chance did any arepa or empanada of mine have against that of an abuelita who has spent many years perfecting her secret recipes? Fear not, because help is at hand. Today’s blog post is a special one, as it features a very important guest…les presento a Juanmi.

10464288_10153963117966515_7589068856794676691_n

The famous Juan Miguel, chef and eater extraordinaire

Since I arrived in Barranquilla, I have been living with two very wonderful people. Sara, originally from Canada, has been living in Colombia for the past 13 years. She is married to Juan Miguel (Juanmi), who is from Cartagena, just an hour and a half away from Barranquilla.

A typical Juanmi made lunch – carne desmechada (slow-cooked shredded beef), rice with noodles and fried plantain. Mmm!

Juan Miguel loves to cook. When coming in after a long day, I am almost always greeted with a new and delicious dinner, and living with them has been a great insight into Colombian cuisine. Did you know that the burnt rice at the bottom of the pan (cucayo) is actually a delicacy here? Or that if you cook up pineapple skin with pasta, it makes a delicious thick and creamy drink (chicha)? These are just some of the things Juanmi has taught me, as well as the recipe I’m about to share with you today.

As mentioned in my first post from Barranquilla, ajiaco is a traditional soup originating from the capital, Bogotá. It also turned out to be one of Juanmi’s specialties, which he was more than willing to share with me. A comforting garlic, coriander and chicken broth is thickened by a mix of 3 different potatoes types. Topped with a dash of cream and the very tangy flavors of capers, the final addition of avocado adds to the creamy comfort of this dish. With those cold winter months approaching in the UK, warm yourself up by bringing some Colombian flavor into your home. This should make enough for about 6-8 people, so invite your friends round and get cooking!

Ingredients
– 3 Chicken breasts, skin removed
– 250ml water
– 3 fresh corn on the cob, each cob cut in half
– Salt and pepper to taste
– 2 chicken stock cubes
– 1 onion, finely chopped.
– 1 green pepper, finely chopped
– 4 garlic cloves, minced
– A large handful of coriander, stalks included
– 250g new baby potatoes (papas criollas here)
– 2 large ‘normal potatoes’ (imagine jacket potatoes)
– 2 large red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/6ths
– 2 tbsp dried guasca (a key ingredient for the soup, this Colombian herb might be hard to find in your local Sainsbury’s. Fear not: after extensive research, it seems that a mixture of crushed bay leaves and parsley will substitute. Hurray!)
– Drizzle of double cream for each serving
– 1 tsp capers for each serving
– 1 avocado, cut into quarters lengthways (one slice per serving, or more because it’s just delicious).

Method
1) Firstly, get your water on the boil and add the chicken stock, salt and pepper. Then, add in your chopped vegetables, coriander and chicken breasts. Cook this all on a gentle simmer for a little more than half an hour, and when chicken breast is cooked through, remove from stock and keep aside.
2) Strain out all the onion, pepper and coriander, and bring stock back to heat. Now add your chopped potatoes, guasca (or bayleaf/parsley substitute) and corn.
3) Shred your chicken with a fork, and return to heat.
4) Your delicious soup is now ready! Serve each portion in a deep bowl, making sure each serving has a portion of corn. Top with some thick heavy cream, and a teaspoon of capers per bowl. Add in a slice of avocado, and more coriander to garnish if you desire.

This is actually meant to be served with rice as well, but I found it amazingly filling as it was! Should you feel extra hungersome, by all means serve it up on the side.

This soup is like a big warm hug in a bowl. The mixture of flavours works so well and serves a crowd perfectly. Give it a go and let me know how it turns out, and keep on reading to stay up to date with my culinary conquests here in Colombia.

Bidmead in Barranquilla

5th September 2014 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

I write this post to you from Barranquilla, Colombia, otherwise know as my new home while I work over here as an English language teacher. Situated on the Caribbean coast, Barranquilla is known for its roaring carnival in February, which is Latin America’s second largest after Rio. Other than that, despite it being Colombia’s fourth busiest city, Barranquilla isn’t that highly rated as a must-see attraction in the country as a whole. While it might lack the metropolitan vibe that Medellín has become renowned for, or the sheer size of Bogotá, its kinda got its own thing going on. People from the coast, aptly named costeños, are happy, smiley, friendly people, and since I arrived just over three weeks ago I’ve received nothing but kindness from these great Barranquilleros. And it’s not just kindness I’ve received, because oh boy…do these people know how to eat!

Flag of Barranquilla

Before coming to Colombia, I’d heard mixed reviews in regards to the cuisine. While some people told me it was wonderful, I’d also received a fair few lukewarm to negative opinions of the food. What could I expect? As someone who wholeheartedly embraces all new cuisines, intestines and all (quite literally), I felt ready to sample the comida of Colombia!

Colombia is particularly interesting in its cuisine, as what is available depends so much on the region you find yourself in. Caught up in Columbia’s chilly capital Bogotá, you’re likely to find many places selling ajiaco, a warming chicken soup with no less than 3 types of potato, capers and cream. Land into Medellín, located in the Antioquia region, and you’ll find bandeja pisa on the menu. Not a dish to be taken lightly, it consists of (prepare yourself) – beans, rice, shredded beef, pork belly, chorizo, fried egg, plantain, avocado…not something to be approached with anything less than a roaring hambre.

But what’s everyone comiendo aqui en la costa? An obvious start is fish. Fresh and plentiful here by the sea, it is served fried, accompanied with arroz de coco (coconut rice) and patacones, which are fried plantain rounds. The saltiness of the fish, accompanied by the sweetness of the rice and plantain is an absolute delight – a must-try dish for anyone around this part of the country. I was lucky enough to experience it home-cooked by a woman living in Puerto Colombia, a port town just north of Barranquilla, and it is something I will be having again very soon!

Traditional fired fish, plantain and coconut rice

Breakfast here in Colombia is fairly different to in the UK. Again it depends massively on whereabouts in the country you are, but so far fried chicken, pork belly, rice, plantain and soup (to name just a few things) have all managed to make their way onto my breakfast plate. I was lucky enough to have been provided with buffet breakfasts during work training in Bogotá and Barranquilla when I first arrived, which gave me a great chance to sample many of Colombia’s desayuno delights.

From the top clockwise: fajita, arepa con huevo, bollo, empanada and hallaca

This plate above contains some very typical breakfast items. Wrapped in a banana leaf, a hallaca is a yucca based dough mixed chicken or pork, onions and raisins. The big round crispy item is an arepa con huevo – a cornmeal based patty, filled with an egg inside. Below the arepa is the half moon shaped empanada, a snack found across South America. Think of a pasty, Latin American style. The circular thing to the right of that is bollo, which can be made from yucca, cornmeal or fresh corn (mazorca).

While this second plate above might look like a filling lunch or dinner to most readers, I’ll let you know this was a yet another breakfast, with the classic caldito (soup) on the side – apparently it helps a hangover better than any painkiller! Again we have empanadas and bollo, a skewer of chorizo, some ham, pan de bono (cheese rolls), and calentado, which is a fantastic mixture of rice, beans, shredded meat and plantain. All accompanied by fresh watermelon juice and cafe con leche. If you thought a full English breakfast was good, think again, because the Colombians here seem to have done one better!

Moving onto dinner, there are some great restaurants here in Barranquilla. Given that it is a port town, Barranquilla has received a wide array of immigrants into the city over the past 200 years, which has resulted in many foreign foods merging with the traditional Colombian fare. A particularly middle-eastern influx into the city can be noted in the large amount of Arabic parillas (grills). For a girl who lived in the bountiful land of beef that is Argentina, this is obviously music to my ears.

Mixed meat grill and a mixed mezze at Zahle

Eating at Zahle, a highly recommended and great-value middle-eastern restaurant in the north of the city, I shared a parrillada completa. It came with various cuts of beef, chicken and chorizo, accompanied by yucca fries, a baked potato and suero (sour cream). Behind it is a mixed mezze, with stuffed aubergines and cabbage leaves, chicken rice and a tabbouleh salad.

This is but a mere peek into my first tastes of Colombian food, and every day I am trying new things, asking almost everyone I encounter what there is still to try, what they recommend, and if I can come and cook with their grandmas (really. I’ve had two invites so far!). So please stay tuned, and join me as I journey around this beautiful country, filled with wonderful people and absolutely delicious food.

Hasta la Proxima!