5 street food dishes to try in Colombia that are so tasty London should adopt them
It’s not just Pablo Escobar, Comuna 13 and pretty beaches. Colombia has amazing local street food that is well worth making the trip for.
There are hearty stews, interesting meats and lavish desserts. Here are some of the best street food we tried when we visited the South American country for you to try when you touch down. So good we reckon London should get on board with some of this…
Frijoles Antioqueños soup
Costing around £8 pounds, or 40 thousand Pesos, we had this rich, salty dish in Comuna 13 in Medellín, It also has beans and corn mixed in, and is served with rice, but the main attraction is the bacon, which comes in huge chewy chunks with hard and softer pieces, and plenty of it. The idea is to dip your rice into the hearty broth and then eat everything together in one mouthful.
Colombian Empanadas
These small, flaky pastries are sold on the street for under £1, or about 5 thousand Colombian Pesos. They are quickly warmed up to eat as you wander. The pastries contain finely ground meat and are extremely succulent and flavourful. Sometimes they contain just vegetables, like this tomato and cheese variety. These are great for a little pick-me-up in the mid afternoon, between lunch and dinner. Locals eat them with fizzy drinks like Coke but I went for a coffee.
Colombian Aji Picante
This sauce is ubiquitous across the casual cafes, restaurants and street food stalls of Bogota and Medellin. It is homemade by the shop owners and has a intense picante spice punch. It’s great to put onto an empanada once you’ve bitten into it as a way of bringing more flavour but also cooling down the steaming-hot innards with something spicy but cooler temperature-wise. It also goes great with plain bread, too, as well as spread on meat dishes.
Chicharron
This fried pork skin ends up looking like a vegetarian snack, but taste it and there’s all the intensity of pork just without the typical appearance. These can be eaten informally as a snack, or for a larger meal when there is the added pork meat attached to the crispy skin.
Salpicón de Frutas
Served in a plastic cup, this dessert-cum-drink is a popular welcome greeting and kindness gesture in Colombia. Pieces of fresh fruit, like melon, guava, mango and grapes are cut up and served with ice and a fruit syrup and sometimes with ice cream. Everything melts together to create a sugary fruity mash up. Great for the end of a long day in the sun.
Mexican inspired tacos
Colombia’s food scene is influenced by Mexico which isn’t too far north. It means the tacos here are almost as good as the tacos there. I had some killer pork tacos at the Click-Clack hotel in Medellin on their swanky rooftop. They cost just shy of ten pounds, which is a lot in Colombia for dinner, but they were incredibly fresh, with free types of different dips at different spice levels, and were the type of dish you’d pay at least £15 for in London.
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