Penis, balls and a bit of heart for good measure - more culinary exploration in Cali

The last part of my travels sees me return to what could potentially be my favorite place in Colombia...Cali. I first visited with my sister in January, returned for a weekend in May and managed to squeeze in one last visit before I head back to the UK. Why do I love it so much? Well, Cali is the countries (if not worlds) capital of salsa, the weather is hot, the people are friendly and it's just a lot of bloody fun. They also eat a hell of a lot of meat. What more could an offal-loving salsa enthusiast possibly want?

The very impressive, very meaty fritanga caleña

To begin this meat filled post, I present the fritanga caleña. Not a dish for anyone watching their waistlines, this is some seriously heavy stuff. Eaten at the famous J&J in the iconic and picturesque old barrio of San Antonio, a fritanga is a mix of fried meat and fritos (pasty type goodies). J&J know how to do it right, with this epic basket containing fried beef, morcilla (black sausage), pork rind, lung, plantain, new potatoes, empanadas, marranitas (fried plantain balls with pork) and aborrajados (fried plantain balls with cheese). This much-loved local spot features a bar dedicated to condiments and offers guacamole, three different types of tomato salsa, peanut sauce, tartare, sour cream and salsa verde. How will I ever be satisfied with just ketchup again?

Caldo de pajarilla - Spleen soup

It's highly likely I am so drawn to Cali due to it's affinity for offal, a sentiment I very much share. On a friends recommendation, I headed to the Galeria de Alameda, the place to go for a delicious lunch at an incredible price. I had been told I couldn't leave Cali without trying the typical (and extremely potent) caldo de pajarilla. This essentially translates as 'offal soup' and is a stew featuring kidney, heart, liver and...spleen. This soup is pretty robust and makes for a hearty and heavy midday meal. Whether I actually liked it is perhaps up for debate. Even for a gut-lover such as myself, I felt the mix of quite so much offal in one dish created 'a too many organs spoil the broth' situation. Oh, that old chestnut!

Bollocks, willy, heart and feet. That'll put hairs on your chest!

But if you thought spleen soup sounded a bit much, perhaps you'd be interested to know about the 'caldo peligroso' as advertised in the sign above. This translates as 'dangerous broth', but for a keen traveler and adventurous foodie such as myself, I couldn't fathom what the danger might be. Chatting to the chef, turns out that this 'dangerous soup' contains bull penis, testicles, heart and feet. She also alluded to it being some sort of aphrodisiac. While I tried to imagine  how eating genitals might get your own private bits somewhat excited, I personally failed to make the link.

The very delicious dish lechona, whole pig stuffed with rice and vegetables

This rather impressive looking stuffed pigs head is known as lechona, a whole pig stuffed with rice, vegetables and spices, slow cooked in a brick oven. This is a dish I've wanted to try for a while and in all places I found it while passing through a shopping centre! Just another reason to love Cali - pop into a shopping centre in search of a loo and find a whole stuffed pig instead. This dish was a perfect combination of textures and flavors, as you get crispy pork skin along with the soft, richly flavored rice dotted with shreds of slow cooked pork. My lechona lunch certainly beat  any other shopping centre food court meal I'd eaten before!

The typical caleño cholao

But what's this? Something that isn't meat? Sometimes Cali's hot, sticky summer days call for something this isn't a fried dead animal, and that is when the very famous cholao fits the bill perfectly. There are various versions and recipes for this typical caleño sweet treat, but, in essence, it features shaved ice, fruit syrup, fresh fruit and a wafer. From there, the sky (or plastic cup's capacity) is the limit. Popular additions include ice cream, chocolate shavings, sweets, dried coconut - your options are endless. 

Leaving Cali for the third time, I was more enamored with the city than ever before (although perhaps feeling ready to eat some vegetables). However, this is something that can wait until my return to the UK, as in a last minute decision I booked myself a flight to my old home of Buenos Aires! Bring on plenty of steak and red wine, along with all the other cuisines Argentina's capital has to offer. 

Exotic fruits and glorious juice

Fruit here in Colombia is really quite something.  Lulo, nispero, zapote, granadllia, uchuva...ring any bells? These are just some of the new fruits I've discovered during my time here.

Sliced up and eaten as snacks, served as toppings for breakfast or as parts of delicious desserts, the sheer variety of fruit here means there is no excuse not to be filling up on these vitamin-rich, natural sweet treats. Or, why not drink up the wonderful array of fruits at one of the various fruteras around the city?

Just check out the frito selection here at Los Compadres. No fruit or veg to be seen, but that's where the juices come in!

Fruteras here sell not only delicious juices, but also offer up those tasty and much loved fritos. Empandas, carimañolas, deditos, arepas, patacones...essentially just an awful lot of very delicious (and very beige) food. Here is a quick rundown of some of my favourite fruteras so far.

Frutera Los Compadres (Calle 74 entre Carreras 46 y 47)

Los Compadres sauce collection - gucamole, garlic, various chilli sauces : they've got it all. 

Perhaps one of the most famous fruteras in Barranquilla, Los Compadres has a firm fan following, and is visited as much by busy workers in the morning as it is by tired and tipsy party goers at night. The range of fritos is immense, and I'm slowly working my way through them all. I also like that here you can buy portions of flavoured rice, which invariably come with either meat or chicken.

Frutera El Compadre (Calle 79 y Calle 76)

When my sister came to visit, I felt it only right to introduce her to the wonders of fruteras, and so together we headed to El Compadre, another famous spot in the city. I opted for some meat empanadas and she went for the classic dedito (cheese finger) and a little baked spinach pastry. We washed down our snacks with some delicious and exotic juices en leche (with milk). The brown juice is nispero, which has a distinctly nutty flavour, and the pink juice is zapote, which I believe tastes like a mix between carrot and strawberry...but really it's unlike anything else I've tried before!

Zapote juice (left), nispero juice (right), with my sister's veggie goods on the left and my meat-filled goodness on the right.

Frutera Fruticao (Calle 93 Carrera 49c)

And I remember the days when freshly squeezed orange juice seemed like a treat!

A lot of fruteras prepare their juices in advance to have them ready for order, but at Frutticao they make them as you order, meaning you can skip the enthusiastic servings of extra sugar often added. You also have the option of different types of milk (they haven't quite reached the soya option yet, but skimmed is on offer). Serving only a few fritos, this place is really all about the juice, and as you can see from the list below - there's quite the selection to choose from.

Fruteras are the perfect place to stop for a quick juice and bite to eat, at all hours of the day. I continue on the quest to find the best spot in the city, although mixed opinions may have me searching a long time!

Travel BidmeadBites (Part 2)

Picking up where I left off, the Bidmead sisters travels around Colombia continued, as did my culinary adventures - kicking off with chontaduro in Cali. Eaten with honey and salt, the taste of this fruit resembles (as my sister so correctly noted)...baked beans.

Chontaduro - or a can of beans?

I happen to love baked beans, and therefore these went down quite well. However, eating what proclaims to be fruit while visualising beans on toast makes for a slightly odd attack on the senses. Still, the caleños love the stuff and I guess I did too!

In Colombia, carne reigns king. Baring in mind my sister is a veggie, headed to a restaurant serving typical caleño food (which happens to be particularly meat-centric), her options were limited to say the least. She could eat one thing on the whole menu of about 30 options, which was aborrajados (fried plantains with cheese). Did I feel bad?

Don't know about my sister, but I certainly wasn't going hungry! 

Clearly I had other things to preoccupy me, like this chuleta de pollo (breaded marinated chicken breast). I should mention this portion was to share with a friend, alongside another dish of lengua en salsa (tongue in tomato sauce). For those of you who are now squeeming - tongue is a delicious, tender and flavoursome cut of meat, which I urge you to try!

Champús...a no no for me.

Moving on to something a bit lighter, champús is a sweet drink prepared with the Colombian fruit lulo, orange, pineapple, dark sugar and...corn. It sounded good until the corn bit right? Despite its popularity in Cali, this drink was just not for me. Next time, I'll be keeping the corn on the cob and the fruit for the juice.

As our time in Cali came to a close we headed to Palomino, a small beach town on the Carribean coast, two hours from Santa Marta. Being back by the beach meant it was time for some fish. The great thing about fish in Colombia is the variety, and the option of lots of fish not found in England. This fish below is corvina, found mainly on the Pacific coast, and other tasty Colombian fishes include mojarra and lebranche, found more commonly on the Atlantic coast.

Corvina, rice, beans, yucca and salad

Leaving Palomino we skipped along the coast to my new-found home Barranquilla, and I was determined to show my sister the best of my city. It couldn't get more barranquillero than dinner in Cucayo. From the bright colours, old-fashioned signs and various adornments on the walls, it screams Barranquilla from the inside out.

Soaking up the colours and cuisine in Cucayo

The food itself is also a tribute to all things costeño: traditional snacks such as matrimono, butifarra and various fritos feature, as well as typical sancochos (soups) and picadas (mixed plates). Me and my sister opted for sancochos (soups), mine of gallina (hen) while hers was a cazuela de mariscos (creamy seafood soup).

Cazuela de Mariscos, with coconut rice and avocado

Overall it was a great dining experience and a perfect place for my sister to get a feel of what Barranquilla is all about.

Some of the gorgeous cupcakes in Nancy Cabrera

Cucayo is owned by Nancy Cabrera, who is perhaps most famous for her cakes here in Barranquilla - queue a visit to her namesake cafe. Nancy Cabrera's reknowned trufa de chocolate is the crown jewel of many delicious sweet treats, so naturally me and my sister felt obliged to see what the all the fuss was about.

The famous trufa de chocolate (chocolate cake)

It was really quite the cake. Rich but not overly so, moist but not soggy, this chocolate cake has earnt its reputation. Me and my sister were big fans, and I will definitely be returning to sample the very beautiful looking cupcakes (nutella sounded particularly good).

Who knows what came over me, but even I ordered a veggie meal!

From savoury to sweet, and onto a sad but inevitable end to the holiday. For our last night, we headed to Arabe Gourmet, a highly recommended arabic restaurant. The menu was excellent, and despite tempting carnivorous options such as marmaón (israeli cous-cous with shredded meat or chicken) and arroz de almendras (rice with almonds, mince meat, chicken and spices), we ordered two vegetarian platters, which were a feast of falafel, hummus, tabuleh, babaganous, fattoush salad and stuffed aubergine.

Just like the aubergines we had consumed, we left stuffed, and very satisfied. I bid farewell to my sister the next day as I headed back to work, feeling rested and ready to get back to my life here on the coast. 6 months in and I've got plenty more eating (and cooking) to do here, so stayed tuned for the next post from Bidmead Bites!

In the Kitchen with Juanmi

It's safe to say since arriving here in Colombia, I've tried my fair share of comida colombiana. However, my interest in food isn't limited to just the eating part - I absolutely love cooking it too! After trying so many new and delicious things, I felt inspired to start cooking up some Colombian food of my own.

But could I, a newcomer to Colombian cuisine, do it any justice? What chance did any arepa or empanada of mine have against that of an abuelita, who has spent many a year perfecting her secret recipe? Fear not, because help is at hand. Todays blog post is a special one, as it features a very important guest. Les presento a Juanmi.

Since I arrived in Barranquilla, I have been living with two very wonderful people. Sara, originally from Canada, has been living in Colombia for the past 13 years. She is married to Juan Miguel (Juanmi), who is from Cartagena, and believe it or not his Spanish is even harder to understand than that of the Barranquilleros! As hungry for the end of their words as I am for Colombian food, Cartageneros eat up pretty much every last syllable of each word, making tough work for my extranjero ears. Still..it's all good practise.

Juan Miguel loves to cook. When coming in after a long day, I am almost always greeted with a new and delicious dinner, and living with them has been a great insight into Colombian cuisine. Did you know that the burnt rice at the bottom of the pan (cucayo) is actually a delicacy here? Or that if you cook up pineapple skin with pasta, it makes a delicious thick and creamy drink (chica)? These are just some of the things Juanmi has taught me, as well as the recipe I'm about to share with you today.

The kind of thing I get greeted to daily. Yum!

As mentioned in my first post from Barranquilla, Ajiaco is a soup traditional to the capital, Bogotá. Less commonly seen in Barranquilla, Ajiaco was still on my 'to try' list. And what better way to try it than homemade, with the help of the very knowledgeable Juanmi? Not difficult to make once you know what you need, this dish is a wonderful mixture of flavours. A comforting garlic, coriander and chicken broth is thickened by a mix of 3 different potatoes types. Topped with a dash of cream and the very tangy flavours of capers, the final addition of avocado adds to the creamy comfort of this dish. With those cold winter months approaching in the UK, warm yourself up by bringing some Colombian flavour into your home.This should make enough for about 6-8 people, so invite your friends round and get cooking!

Ingredients

-3 Chicken breasts, skin removed
-250ml water
-3 fresh corn on the cob, each cob cut in half
-Salt and pepper to taste
-2 chicken stock cubes
-1 onion, finely chopped.
-1 green pepper, finely chopped

-4 garlic cloves, minced
-A large handful of coriander, stalks included
-250g new baby potatoes (papas criollas here)
-2 large 'normal potatoes' (imagine jacket potatoes)
-2 large red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/6ths
-2 tbsp dried guasca (a key ingredient for the soup, this Colombian herb might be hard to find in your local Sainsbury's. Fear not: after extensive research, it seems that a mixture of crushed bay leaves and parsley will substitute. Hurray!)
-Drizzle of double cream for each serving
-1 tsp capers for each serving
-1 Avocado, cut into quarters lengthways (one slice per serving, or more because it's just delicious).

Method

1) Firstly, get your water on the boil and add the chicken stock, salt and pepper. Then, add in your chopped vegetables, coriander and chicken breasts. Cook this all on a gentle simmer for a little more than half an hour, and when chicken breast is cooked through, remove from stock and keep aside.

2) Strain out all the onion, pepper and coriander, and bring stock back to heat. Now add your chopped potatoes, guasca (or bayleaf/parsley substitute) and corn.

3) Shred your chicken with a fork, and return to heat.

4) Your delicious soup is now ready! Serve each portion in a deep bowl, making sure each serving has a portion of corn. Top with some thick heavy cream, and a teaspoon of capers per bowl. Add in a slice of avocado, and more coriander to garnish if you desire.



This is actually meant to be served with rice as well, but I found it amazingly filling as it was! Should you feel extra hungersome, by all means serve it up on the side.

This soup is like a big warm hug in a bowl. The mixture of flavours works so well, and serves a crowd perfectly. Give it a go and let me know how it turns out, and keep on reading to stay up to date with my culinary conquests here in Colombia.  

Bidmead in Barranquilla

I write this current post to you from Barranquilla, Colombia, otherwise know as my new home while I work over here as an English language teacher. Situated on the Caribbean coast, Barranquilla is known for its roaring carnival in February, which is Latin America´s second largest after Rio. Other than that, despite it being Colombia's fourth busiest city, Barranquilla isn´t that highly rated as a must-see attraction in the country as a whole. While it might lack the metropolitan vibe that Medellín has become renowned for, or the sheer size of Bogotá, its kinda got its own thing going on. People from the coast, aptly named costeños, are happy, smiley, friendly people, and since I arrived just over three weeks ago I've received nothing but kindness from these great Barranquilleros. And it´s not just kindness I've received, because oh boy...do these people know how to eat!

Flag of Barranquilla

Before coming to Colombia, I´d heard mixed reviews in regards to the cuisine. While some people told me it was wonderful, I´d also received a fair few lukewarm to negative reviews of the food. What could I expect? As someone who wholeheartedly embraces all new cuisines, intestines and all (quite literally), I felt ready to sample the comida of Colombia!

And you know what? I am beyond thrilled. Colombia is particularly interesting in its cuisine, as what is available depends so much on the region you find yourself in.

Bandeja Pisa

Land into Medellín, located in the Antioquia region, and you'll find Bandeja Pisa on the menu. Not a dish to be taken lightly, it consists of (prepare yourself) - beans, rice, shredded beef, pork belly, chorizo, fried egg, plantain, tomato sauce...not something to be approached with anything less than a roaring hambre. 

Caught up in Columbia's chilly capital, Bogotá, you're likely to find many places selling Ajiaco, a warming chicken soup with no less than 3 types of potato, capers and cream.

Ajiaco a la Bogatano

But what's everyone comiendo aqui en la costa? An obvious start is fish. Fresh and plentiful here by the sea, it is served fried, accompanied with arroz de coco (coconut rice) and patacones, which are fried plantain rounds. The saltyness of the fish, accompanied by the sweetness of the rice and plantain is an absolute delight - a must-try dish for anyone around this part of the country. I was lucky enough to experience it home-cooked by a woman living in Puerto Colombia, a port town just north of Barranquilla, and it is something I will be having again very soon!

Gracias a la Señora Elizabeth por este plato tan rico!

Breakfast here in Colombia is fairly different to UK standards. Again it depends massively on whereabouts in the country you are, but so far fried chicken, pork belly, rice, plantain and soup (to name just a few things) have all managed to make their way onto my breakfast plate. I was lucky enough to have been provided with buffet breakfasts during work training in Bogotá and Barranquilla when I first arrived, which gave me a great chance to sample many of Colombia´s desayuno delights.

Hayaca, fajita, arepa con huevo, empanada y bollo. 

Hallaca, the banana-leaf covered item above, is a yucca based dough which inside has chicken, onions and raisins. Just above that is a chicken fajita, and the large circular beige item is an arepa con huevo - a cornmeal based patty, filled with an egg inside. Below the arepa is the half moon shaped empanada, a treat found across south-america but different wherever you go. Think of a pasty, Latin American style, and you're half way there.The circular thing to the right of that is bollo, which can be made from yucca, cornmeal or fresh corn (mazorca).

Will I ever be able to eat just porridge again?

While this plate above might look like a filling lunch or dinner to most readers, I'll let you know this was a yet another breakfast, with the classic caldito (soup) on the side - apparently it helps a hangover better than any painkiller! Again we have empanadas and bollo, a skewer of chorizo, some ham, pan de bono (cheese rolls), and calentado, which is a fantastic mixture of rice, beans, shredded meat and plantain. All accompanied by fresh watermelon juice and cafe con leche. If you thought an full English breakfast was good, think again, because the Colombians here seem to have done one better!

Moving onto dinner, there are some great restaurants here in Barranquilla. Given that it is a port town, Barranquilla has received a wide array of immigrants into the city over the past 200 years, which has resulted in many foreign foods merging with the traditional Colombian fare. A particularly middle-eastern influx into the city can be noted in the large amount of Arabic parillas (grills) that you can find dotted around. For a girl who lived in the bountiful land of beef that is Argentina, this is obviously music to my ears.

Parillada Completa at Zahle´s

Eating at Zahle, a highly recommended and well priced middle-eastern restaurant in the north of the city, I shared a parrillada completa. It came with various cuts of beef, chicken and chorizo, accompanied by yucca fries and a baked potato and suero (sour cream). Behind is a mixed mezze, with stuffed aubergines and cabbage leaves, chicken rice and a tabbouleh salad. 

This is but a mere peek into my first tastes of Colombian food, and every day I am trying new food, asking almost everyone I encounter what there is still to try, what they recommend, and if I can come and cook with their grandmas (really. I've had two invites so far!). So please stay tuned, and join me as I journey around this beautiful country, filled with wonderful people, and absolutely delicious food. 

Hasta la Proxima!