Note to self - do not eat endangered animals

Despite travelling extensively throughout Colombia, there are a few spots that always pull me back. Cartagena, just an hour and a half away from Barranquilla, is certainly one of the places. A top tourist destination, its old city is a UNESCO world heritage site and its nearby islands are home to some of the countries most pristine beaches. A friend recently visited from Buenos Aires and when I asked what he wanted to do, the response was clear. "Beach, beach and lots of sun". Coming to visit me on the Caribbean coast, he was in luck! We headed to Cartagena for a few days to soak up some rays and naturally, food held an important part in the holiday. 

Isla Grande, one of the Rosario islands off the coast of Cartagena

We began our trip by setting off for a nights stay on a group of islands known as the Islas del Rosario, about 45 minutes away from Cartagena by boat. Made up of various small islands, we stayed on Isla Grande and were treated to two days of gorgeous sun and completely unspoiled beaches.

Lobster lunching on Isla Grande

The hotel we were staying at had delicious food, however it was rather on the fancy side. We decided to venture away from the hotel and explore the island, home to around 800 permanent residents. We got chatting to a local fisherman who showed us some very impressive freshly caught lobsters, which soon became our lunch! They came cooked al ajillo, in a garlic marinade and grilled, served with patacones (fried plantain slices). The lobster was flavorsome beyond belief - completely fresh and cooked to perfection. 

(Property of the Travel Chanel)

Like many other food-lovers, I hold the chef Anthony Bourdain is extremely high esteem. The author of the Kitchen Confidential, a fascinating insight into the world of restaurants and well worth a read for any foodies, he is also the star of his own show No Reservations, where he travels the world trying typical (and sometimes not so typical) foods in many different countries. The clip above is a section from the No Reservations Colombia episode and if you skip to 4 minutes in you can see Bourdain at Cartagena's very own Bazurto Market. 

The famous Cecilia's, with a glimpse of the woman herself

Be warned - Bazurto is no trendy pop-up style food market. It's a chaotic, dirty, loud and rather smelly place, but if you want to see the real Cartagena, this is where to come. I previously visited with my sister and enjoyed it so much I decided to head back with my friend. While he seemed slightly overwhelmed by it all (seeing a chicken being boiled while a van full of soldiers with machine guns rocked up was perhaps slightly unsettling), we headed off in search of the famous Cecilia's, as featured in Bourdain's No Reservations episode. 

Stewed turtle, served with coconut rice, yucca, sweet plantains and salad

When I had visited previously, Cecilia's famous turtle wasn't an option, but returning I was spoiled for choice - fried, stewed or grilled, turtle seemed to be the top meal of the day. In his No Reservations episode, Bourdain himself states that turtle is endangered, but that its consumption has been part of the indigenous culture for hundreds of years. Upon reflection, although this was completely delicious, with a dark, rich flesh and a perfectly seasoned coconut vegetable sauce, eating an endangered species should never be condoned. Even if locals around me were choosing it, as a foreigner I shouldn't be encouraging this practice. As a unique experience, it was definitely interesting to try this local dish, even if I will not be doing so again (I promise!).

Relaxing on Playa Blanca, Baru island

After the sights and smells of Bazurto market, it was back to the beach for another day of relaxation before we headed across the coast to Santa Marta, another one of my regular haunts. It's a tough job all this travelling and gastronomical exploration, but I guess someone has to do it. Stay tuned for another travel post which sees me return to perhaps my favorite spot in all of Colombia, its salsa capital Cali.

Travel BidmeadBites (Part 1)

After a wonderful trip back home for Christmas, I hit the road and headed back to Colombia with my sister in-tow. Currently writing this post from the salsa capital that is Cali, here is a brief rundown of some of our culinary conquests so far.

We started off in Bogota, the countries capital, and the home of wonderful dishes such as ajiaco. As I've already eaten ajiaco several times, and even having made it myself, I was tempted by the more unusual bogotano foods, such as milk soup with a poached egg in it, known as changua.

My bowl of changua, and mixed emotions on it.

Traditionally eaten for breakfast, I have to say it was an odd morning mealtime experience for me. The bowl of milk made me feel I was about to eat cereal, but the poached egg evoked desires of toast and bacon. Next time, I might stick to porridge.

My love of meat and all things offal is well documented, and may even verge on excessive. However, my wonderful sister Anna avoids eating our furry friends altogether. While this may raise doubts about whether we really are even related, luckily she eats fish, which meant our stay in the Caribbean island of San Andrés was stress free, as we found ourselves in seafood heaven.

Lobster, chips, patacones and salad. And two very, very happy Bidmeads. 

Bring on this enormous lobster to share, cooked al ajillo (with garlic), on the idyllic island of Johnny Key, a 20-minute boat ride from San Andrés.

For comedy value, I'll include our New Year's Eve dinner in here. After having searched in vain for a fancy joint to enjoy our last meal of the year at (reservations, it turns out, may have been needed), we warmed up for the fiesta in no place other than the island's answer to KFC - KikiRiki, the local chicken shop.

.And there is my gorgeous pescetarian of a sister, wondering which is her fried fish, and which is my fried chicken. Bless her soul.

After much drinking, dancing, and general merriment on New Year's Eve, it's fair the say we weren't feeling our freshest the following day. Not to worry, as fresh ceviche from the seafood shack on the beach was there to nurse us back to normality - beats an English fry-up any day.

Accompanied by the countries best loved crackers, saltines.

Much like with the changua in Bogota, often there will be dishes I am told are traditional to a place, and no matter how weird they may be, my constant desire to sample new cuisines pushes me to try them.

Did I like it? Let me get back to you on that.

Introducing Stew Crab with breadfruit. It may look like pulled pork, but this here is pretty much every part of the crab meat, stewed up. While I didn't dislike it, it wasn't quite what I had in mind, and it's slightly gritty texture was slightly off-putting. Still, glad to have tried some local cuisine before we left the island, we said goodbye to San Andrés and headed down to Cartagena.

I've already done a blog post on Cartagena, and what was now my third-trip to this wonderful colonial city provided even more great food to try.

If it were any fresher I'd have to have caught it myself.

This mixed seafood platter was perhaps my favourite meal of the whole trip so far. Eaten in the sun, with an ice-cold beer, on a boat we were sharing with friends, I took a moment to reflect. This seafood came directly from the sea onto our plate, and with food this fresh, nothing else is needed. A touch of garlic and sprinkle of salt was enough. Sometimes, it´s the simple things that are best. And that is a thought that could be applied to many things, inside and out of the kitchen.

On that note I leave you, as the salsa clubs of Cali wait for no women, not even the Bidmead sisters. Stay tuned for Part Two of this post, where I will write up what comida Cali has had to offer, along with my beloved Barranquilla, and one last trip down the coast.

Check out my Instagram @bidmeadbites for daily updates on what local treats I'm trying, all under the hashtag #travelbidmeadbites.

Eve and Anna climb a church somewhere in San Andrés...until next time!

Comiendo en Cartagena

A month has now passed since I touched down in Colombia, and one of the real beauties of living here in Barranquilla is its location. An hour or so out of the city you can find small hillside villages, the glitz and glamour of exclusive beachside resorts, world-renowned national parks and some of the best diving to be found on the continent. Last weekend saw me headed to Cartagena. Declared part of the UNESCO World Heritage in 1984, Cartagena is a gorgeous city with beautiful Spanish colonial buildings, a nugget of the Caribbean coast seemingly frozen in time.

A mere two nights was not sufficient time to fully explore the beautiful old city, and I feel sure I will return again many times to fully explore what the city has to offer. My first trip did however offer up something very special - a trip to one of the islands off the main city, the Isla de Rosario. Once we reached the island, of course the question on everybody's lips (perhaps mine the most), was - "What's for lunch?". 

To be brief, this fellow below:

Now some people might think it weird, or cruel to hold a live creature in their hands (or fingertips) just before they proceed to chow down on it. But hear me out. I think with all the convenience of supermarkets today, where you can buy cleanly wrapped, pre-packaged portions of meat and fish, it's easy to lose sight of where the produce initially comes from. So when presented with the opportunity, I took the chance to get cosy with my lunch. An hour later I found my new friend served along with the traditional sides here on la costa, coconut rice and patacones (double fried plantain chips). 

A traditional Colombian costeño lunch was followed by a trip to the less traditional, but no less loved chain restaurant of Crepes and Waffles. Absolutely huge over here, Crepes and Waffles serve...you guessed it. There is a huge variety of savoury crepes to choose from, as well as great salads and filled pittas. After such a huge lunch, I opted for the lighter salad bar option, which permits you the freedom to fill your own plate with delicious and nutritious nibbles such as vegetable quinoa, roasted aubergine, many nuts and seeds, eggs, all the vegetables you can think of. And then obviously there's room for waffles for dessert, which I ate with such enthusiasm I forgot to take a photo (apologies!). But let me reassure you - nutella, hazelnut ice cream and waffles make a damn fine combination.

What is also particularly great about this chain restaurant is their employment ethos, where they hire a solely female workforce, providing work opportunities to single mothers who would have perhaps otherwise struggled to find work. So, you can eat your waffle and feel good about it. Excellent news.

(Read more about their employment ethos here : it's in Spanish, so test your language skills...or use google translate).

Sunday was the last day of our brief trip, and allowed me to retry some of the dishes I briefly mentioned in my last post, starting with a traditional costeño breakfast of arepas con huevos. Perfect for those of us who want a bit of protein with our carb, this is a normal corn arepa, opened and fried with an egg cracked inside. And why not double the dose of that morning protein with some ground beef in there too? Although I'd already tried this coastal speciality, I hadn't had it made by this woman:

Frying her arepas in 35-degree heat on the beach, I felt like she was a woman who knew her stuff. While everyone else seemed to be able to sit in the blazing sun with their breakfast snacks, I waited to get inside to enjoy the blissful fried ball of egg and meat in peace and cool. 

Before we hit the road, we thought it only right to get some lunch on the way home. Lunch in Colombia is a large affair, often consisting of a soup, rice, beans or plantain, and meat - meaning dinner is often a lighter snack rather than another huge meal. Although not what I'm used to, it is more a nutritionally sound form of eating, giving your body time to digest your biggest meal of the day, rather than just snoozing straight after it. And I would need a lot of time to digest what El Pibe was about to provide!

A typical cheap eatery over here, nothing on the menu exceeded COP 20,000 (about £7), and although the owner himself is Argentine, El Pibe serves up nothing but good, hearty Colombian fare.What better place to try what is arguably the dish of the country, Bandeja Pisa? Known to be notoriously large, I felt this dish might defeat me somewhat, so opted for the 'Bandejita Paisa', the supposedly 'half-sized' portion.

Half size? Come off it! Kidney beans, rice, arepa, chorizo, ground beef, plantain, fried pork rind and a fried egg make up this beautiful dish. And yes, I ate it all. A full-size portion though? Give me a few more months practise and then let's see how I go.

Back in Barranquilla, I'm continuing to eat new things daily. Strange animal parts, exotic fruits I've never seen before, a variety of deep fried, delicious snacks...and I've got so much left to try. Who knows what's next?!