Robert's Travel Blog

Of course there are high-end restaurants in Medellín, especially in touristy parts like el Poblado where you will pay $25 (!!!), and get American-style service, by which I mean someone greets you as soon as you arrive, they take you to your table, you're presented with a printed menu, they take your order, and when you're done, will present you with the bill and you pay at your table. American-style. But if you're in el Poblado, you may as well be in Miami Beach.  That's not the real Colombian restaurant experience. Between high-end and lower is the middle tier, take any seat you'd like. You might feel like you're being ignored, but cool your jets.  This is middle ground.  Often the restaurants are very nicely decorated, but the food will be less high-end, and you can either order a la carte from the menu or often there will be a "menú del día" (prix fixe meal, don't confuse that with a menu "carta").  The menú del día always includes a s...

 #1. Avena! I've often wondered what was in these tubs, that you see pretty frequently.  It's a very traditional (the 100% Paisa basically means "local") Colombian drink made from oats, milk, cinnamon and cloves.  Very thick and sweet, and it resembles nothing more than melted ice cream!  It hits my sweetness tolerance but will definitely have this again on a hot day when I'm too lazy to eat. #2.  Most mornings I have a coffee (1/2 "tinto" black and 1/2 "leche" milk) with a buñuelo, a delicious deep-fried ball of sweet/salty/cheesy goodness.  Unique to Colombia, although I did find them in  a Colombian bakery in Buenos Aires. Literally less than 20 m away, on the corner, is the reposteria (fancy bakery), but open to the street.  Open 24h so I can get my morning coffee, a doughnut or empanada at any time! #3:  Mondongo (tripe stew).  Another Colombian favorite.  And reputedly the best version is served at a restaurant named "Mondongo...

 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...

I've seen this a lot, homeless men (never women) who approach a sidewalk cafe/restaurant and, from what I can see, ask for food.  Sometimes they're sent on their way with a styrofoam container of soup, sometimes invited to sit down for a meal. There was a guy sleeping outside, so I left his dinner, just a crispy chicken thigh, but that always comes with a potato, in a bag, and a 250 ml pepsi.  And left him my hoody, he needed it more than me. A few days later I was outside smoking a cigarette, and he walked by, waved and said, "hola!" The hoody looked better on him than it did on me!

A walk round da hood! Most of the restaurants look pretty at night, like this one: Even grocery stores! Typical entryway: Hmmm. Sushi and palm trees.  I will definitely check this place out! Never has barbed wire look prettier: In many intersections there are bar lights in the sidewalk to reinforce the street lights: