Colombian Food (updated again)

 I was a bit unkind about Colombian food in previous posts, but that's partially because I didn't make much of an effort.  This time around, I'll pay better attention to the best of Colombian cuisine.

#1. My first oblea!

It's pretty simple, two crispy wafers spread with the fillings of your choice.  I had mora (blackberry), very traditional, plus cream and cheese. This was very good, the cheese balancing the sweetness of the blackberry, and the crispy wafers a nice contrast to the (very) oozy fillings. $1.50.

#2. An "arepa" is just a fried round of cornmeal dough, often treated as a sandwich, so the fillings make it good or bad.

The place is named "Areppology," which should be short for "Arepa apology," but read on . . .

I ordered chicharrón (deep-fried pork) and salsa.

Oh dear.  The pork meat was nice, but the (thick) skin was completely undercooked, like rubber and completely inedible, so I ended up spitting out half of the filling.  Also, the arepa should have at least a bit of crispiness, and the desultory five seconds that the off-putting teenage girl left it on the grill for wasn't enough.

$4.50 FAIL.  

I got a much better arepa at a Colombian place in BA, so I haven't given up hope!

#3.  Papa rellena (stuffed potato), except that it's a 3-4" corn crust that's stuffed with a mixture of ground meat, potato and herbs.  Another delicious more-than snack!

#4.  Arepa redemption!  From "Famosa Arepa de Chócolo," I got the arepa with hogao sauce (tomatoes, onions, garlic, cumin) and chicken.   Yum!   No cutlery was provided, so I hope I was correct in eating it like a pizza! $4 with a coke.

. . . and just two days in Santa Marta had the filled kind again.  The arepa cornbread was the best (grilled) and this was almost as good as the previous one.

#5.  Menú del dia.  Okay, you've seen this one before, and it's far from being specifically Colombian.  But it's just another example of the good, solid food you can get for under $5.00.

I finally learned that "bandeja" isn't a type of food -- it just means "platter," i.e. with rice, beans, and salad.  So "bandeja de puerco" is the pork platter, which I ordered.

My starter was fish soup, yummy but multiple bones per bite.

The pork was just slightly overdone but yummy.  $4.50!

Fish, 23,000 COP:

#6.  Deep-fried Dinner!  There is one thing specifically Colombian here; namely, the empanada (on the left) has a corn crust and is deepfried; whereas in every other country I've been to they have flour crusts and are baked.  Sorry, other countries, deep-fried wins every time!

The one in the middle is an "arepa con huevo." I can't tell what makes this an arepa rather than an empanada, but it has ground beef and a fried egg on the bottom.

The only thing lacking is a salad 😕 To the right is a "dono," yum!

#7. Salchipapa.  The name is a combination of "salchicha" (sausage) and "papa" (potato) so yup, it's french fries topped with sliced sausage, shredded cheese and what I think are potato sticks.  That may not sound terribly appealing, but the oil from the sausage drips down on the fries and turns,them into little greasy sausagy flavor bombs.  Yum!

#8. Pollo a la parilla, grilled chicken.  This stand is just a few blocks away, open from 6 pm rain or shine, and since the grill isn't 100% covered, rain can be interesting . . . but I digress, your choice of meats.  I wouldn't recommend the beef, which is chewy, but the chicken is perfect, tender yet a bit crispy.

It's a big (12"?) skewer on top of an arepa (corn pancake) with some slices of fresh cheese inbetween.  Delicious, for $3.20.