🥘 Cuisine
Colombian food is regional to a degree that frustrates anyone looking for a single national cuisine. The unifying elements are corn, in the form of the arepa; the plantain, fried green as patacón or sweet and ripe as maduro; and an astonishing range of tropical fruit that most visitors have never encountered.
Bandeja paisa is the closest thing to a national dish and comes from Antioquia: red beans, white rice, ground beef, chicharrón, chorizo, a fried egg, black pudding, plantain, avocado and an arepa, on one platter, historically a farmworker's daily ration. Ajiaco is Bogotá's soup — chicken with three distinct potato varieties, one of which dissolves to thicken it, corn on the cob, cream, capers, and the herb guascas, for which there is genuinely no substitute. On the coast, expect coconut rice, fried whole fish, ceviche and arroz de lisa; in Santander, the celebrated and divisive hormigas culonas, roasted big-bottomed ants eaten in season since pre-Hispanic times.
Arepa
Griddled corn cake, eaten at any meal. Antioquia's are plain and thin; coastal arepa de huevo is deep-fried with an egg inside.
Lechona
Whole pig stuffed with rice, peas and its own meat, roasted for ten hours. Tolima's festival dish.
Sancocho
Big-bones-and-tubers soup, made differently in every region and eaten on Sundays everywhere.
Empanadas
Deep-fried corn pastries with beef and potato, sold from every street cart, always with ají.
Changua
Bogotá's breakfast soup of milk, water, spring onion and a poached egg. Divisive.
Obleas & arequipe
Thin wafers sandwiching caramel; the national sweet snack.
The fruit is the real revelation: lulo, guanábana (soursop), maracuyá, curuba, zapote, feijoa, uchuva (physalis, a major export), borojó, corozo, níspero, mangostino and the granadilla, the passionfruit's sweeter cousin. Order any of them as jugo en agua or en leche. A juice bar is a better introduction to Colombian biodiversity than any museum.
Two recipes worth cooking at home
Ajiaco santafereño (serves 6)
Ingredients: 1 kg chicken breasts on the bone · 500 g papa criolla (small yellow potatoes) · 500 g papa pastusa (floury) · 500 g papa sabanera (waxy red; substitute a waxy potato) · 3 corn cobs, halved · 1 bunch spring onions · 3 garlic cloves · 2 tbsp dried guascas · 2.5 l water · salt. To serve: double cream, capers, sliced avocado, white rice.
Preparation: 1. Simmer the chicken with the spring onions, garlic and salt in the water for 30 minutes; lift out the chicken, shred it and discard bones and onion. 2. Add the floury potatoes and corn to the broth and cook 20 minutes, then the waxy potatoes for 15 more; the floury ones should start to collapse and thicken the soup. 3. Add the criollas whole and the guascas and simmer 10–15 minutes until the criollas are tender but intact. 4. Return the chicken, check the salt, and serve with cream, capers and avocado passed at the table, rice on the side. Guascas cannot be replaced; Colombian shops and online sellers stock it dried.
Arepas de queso (makes 8)
Ingredients: 2 cups pre-cooked white cornmeal (masarepa, P.A.N. or Goya brand) · 2½ cups warm water · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp butter, melted · 1 cup grated mozzarella or queso costeño · butter for the pan.
Preparation: 1. Dissolve the salt in the warm water, stir in the cornmeal and melted butter and knead for 3 minutes into a soft dough that does not crack; rest 5 minutes. 2. Work in the cheese. 3. Divide into 8 balls and flatten to discs about 10 cm across and 1 cm thick, smoothing the edges with wet fingers. 4. Cook on a buttered griddle or heavy pan over medium heat, 5–6 minutes a side, until golden and crisp outside and steaming inside. Split and butter them, or top with more cheese, hogao (tomato-and-onion sauce) or a fried egg for a Bogotá breakfast.
