Eating is easily one of the best things about traveling. Exploring restaurants, unusual street food, and ordering something that you don’t know what the hell it is are always some of my favorite undertakings while abroad. With Colombia being a huge country filled with many different regions, there has been no shortage of culinary adventures. We have eaten a lot of food here so I am going to try and hit the broad strokes of some of our favorites we have sampled.

 

This is your basic lunch in Colombia, called Corrientazo, which is a set lunch that consists of 2 or three courses and a juice. They always consist of a soup (in this case chicken with vegetables), juice, and a huge platter of food. This main dish consists of a meat (chicken or beef), rice, a small salad, a fried plantain, yucca, and either beans or lentils. It is cheap, fast, and delicious. This meal for the two of us cost about $6.00 USD.

 

One cannot talk about Colombian food without mentioning the gut busting Bandeja Paisa. This dish is no joke. I mean come on, look at this fucking gigantic heap of food. Ground beef, chorizo, pork belly, rice, beans, plantains, salad, and fries. Did I mention this particular version is a little on the small side? Sometimes they throw a whole avocado and blood sausage on this beast too. This costs about $6-8 USD and is found everywhere and is considered the national dish, but it is something to try in Medellin. Legend has it this dish was invented for farmers who would only eat one calorie bomb meal a day before heading out into the fields for the day.

 

In Medellin we sampled two of the more famous soups the country offers. This one is called Ajiaco and is famous in mountain towns like Bogota. It is a chicken soup with potatoes, corn, cream, capers, and the herb guascas. It was refreshing and delicious. This version was consumed at a famous soup place and was a little on the expensive side coming in around $8.00 USD.

 

The next soup was called Cazuela de Frijoles. It had bacon, beans, corn, plantains, and avocado. It reminded me of a chili in America. They also topped it with processed potato sticks, which leads us to our next food….

 

THE HOTDOG. It seems every Latin America country puts their own weird twist on this American classic. Colombia did not disappoint. This monster consisted of a large boiled dog and was topped with coleslaw, mayonnaise, a sweet pineapple sauce, ketchup, and those crunchy potato sticks. The pineapple sauce was different but surprisingly complimented the rest of the savory toppings. It was around $2.00 USD (including a large side of fries) and could be found on the street and in tiny, fast food style restaurants.

 

Walking around and exploring street food is probably my favorite way to eat while traveling. The sights, the smells, and the interactions are always high sensory experiences. There is a lot of street meat in Colombia. It mostly consists of chorizo and various meat skewers. The chorizo in the north of the country seemed to be a little mealier than the chorizo of the south though the flavors are very similar. You can get a large sausage for about $1.00 USD. The skewers usually feature either beef or chicken and then maybe a potato or a random vegetable. Also about $1.00 USD.

 

Some of the larger street festivals and markets go rather huge on their platters of food. This Christmas market in Medellin had skewers with three saucer sized hunks of pork, a salad, potatoes, and an arepa. All of this for about $5.00 USD. It is as glorious as it looks.

 

One cannot mention the food of Colombia without that ubiquitous fried pocket of stuffed deliciousness, the empanada. These are everywhere and about $.50 USD. Basically a fried turnover stuffed with beef, potatoes, egg, etc. Here are some tips to find the best ones though. #1. There should be people huddled around the food stand. If the locals are munching on these things than they are making good ones. #2. They need to be fresh. They are best hot and crisp right out of the fryer. Sometimes these things have been under heat laps for hours and are soggy messes. #3 Sauces and toppings are a must. Different types of salsa and sauces take these things to the next level. The best stands usually have a sweet and hot salsa and 2 or 3 different sauces like avocado or pineapple.

 

You might notice a lack of sweet treats in this blog. I do not have much of a sweet tooth and find the sweets here kind of disappointing. There are bakeries full of delicious looking cakes and pastries but they are always dry and not very flavorful. The most delicious dessert we have found was the deceptively basic but delicious oblea. This basically consist of two large wavers with a sweet sauce in the middle. The best part is you can choose what goes in them! Chocolate sauce, caramel, jam like fruit sauces, and sprinkles were some of the topics we were able to decipher.

Eating in Colombia has been a lot of fun, and since we are on a backpackers budget, cheap. Although nothing is seasoned heavily, the freshness and portions cannot be beat.