| Colombia Food |
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| Written by Matt Landau |
| Saturday, 22 May 2010 19:14 |
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Colombia food is a relatively simple and straightforward fare derived from the land and sea. For breakfast food, Colombians enjoy fruit, juice, bread, and one of any million fried foods that exists in that particular house/restaurant’s arsenal: empanadas (fried pockets of flour or corn), carimanolas (fried yucca stuffed with meat or cheese), chorizo. For lunch and dinner food, you’ll find soup, rice/beans, salad, and some sort of protein (chicken, beef, pork, fish). Almost all imported foods are accessible in Colombia’s big cities, while rural destinations are more limited. Try the local plantains, chilies, cilantro, and fresh fruit (pineapple, papaya, mango, watermelon, cantaloupe). Before my first experience with Colombia food, I began hearing from friends I hadn’t seen in years: like someone had passed away or I’d won the lottery. A rumor had made it around that I’d be traveling south and, in an effort to cash in, a number of people contacted me, starting with some insincere salutation followed by the heart of the matter – a request for something as a gift. This has always bothered me, the need for people to request gifts when you travel: as if your good fortune is somehow to blame for their tedium. It’s as if some sort of compensation is necessary to put things on a level playing field when you return. I generally oblige and pick up whatever is requested. Victoria Secret underwear from the States, packs of world-renowned coffee from Panama. “Oh, and by the way,” they were saying, “if you happen to stop in a grocery store, could you pick me up some Colombia food? A few packs of Colombia hot chocolate?” “If you happen to stop in a grocery store.” It was made out to sound heartfelt and unobtrusive, but as I’d soon find out, bringing back hot chocolate from Colombia isn’t as simple as just happening in on a grocery store. The brick-like packages are deceptively heavy and nearly impossible to pack into your luggage without eliciting some sort of suspicious pat down from airport personnel. Is there a reason you are transporting what appear to be twenty blocks of cement? Colombia hot chocolate was the most requested item followed closely in second by drugs. There was one friend who asked if I could order a meal at a traditional fonda, wrap it up, and bring it back to her in Panama. “I’ll understand if it’s cold by then,” she said. “But that coconut rice. I need to have it in my body.” It was an interesting way of explaining her desire. And it worked. The Colombia food requested is decidedly Latin with what some call European (and I call boring) accents. There are afro-Caribbean flavors that are noticeable in lots of dishes as well as customary Latin flare. It’s not the most cutting-edge culinary background ever: nothing as inimitable as Mexican moles or gaucho-style Argentinean meat. Colombian food is a bit more bland and while the nation is emerging in cosmopolitan parts as a culinary breeding ground, more of the iconic plates tend to be pretty straightforward. There’s sancocho, Colombia food’s version of your Jewish mother’s chicken soup. It’s eaten mainly for lunch and served alongside rice and a wedge of lime. Consider also the arepa: fried dough stuffed with wonderful things. In Colombia, they’re everywhere and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t eat at least eight hundred. The first arepa I ever had was in Panama. A woman was selling them at 4 AM outside of a local brothel and I remember it vividly not because the meat was succulent or the corn was crispy. It was because I shared a bottle of hot sauce with a real live hooker. Colombia food isn’t particularly healthy, nor has the world health craze fully grasped the country’s general public. When there is any doubt as to how to prepare something in Colombia, it’s safest fried in oil. The full on Colombian fried fest (including fried chorizo, pork rinds, and tortillas) reminds me of a newsreel I once saw about America’s unhealthiest food. It was a cheeseburger sold at a baseball game, which used Krispy Kreme donuts instead of bread. The burger was estimated to run around 1500 calories, something my Colombian friends just might like to try. |
