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.
Read any guide book that refers to Barranquilla, and you probably won't be stopping by. Often referred to as 'just a stop on the way to the far more agreeable Cartagena or Santa Marta' (Lonely Planet direct quote), Barranquilla is not one of the coast's touristic hot spots.
Oh so many beautiful...apartment blocks?
But for that, I love it. Barranquilla is a real coastal Colombian town, where the local phrase is 'cogerla suave', meaning take it easy (unless you're from a Spanish-speaking country where coger has quite a different, naughtier meaning, but we'll ignore that for now). Life is relaxed, and people like to dance, spend time with friends and generally enjoy themselves. And what better way to enjoy yourself then a night out on the town, dancing away to the sound of salsa.
La Troja - a Barranquilla Landmark.
La Troja is a Barranquilla institution and was described perfectly by a friend here as 'an attack on the senses'. It's loud, bright and crowded - and an incredible amount of fun. Playing purely salsa, if you're looking for an authentic barranquillero night out, this is the place to come. The crowd is mixed, and you're just as likely to find a group of young ex-pats here as you are a solitary salsa-dancing senior. It's the kind of 'anything goes' type of place, which makes me love where I live.
A few beers down...
Perhaps another one of my main draws to La Troja is the atmosphere around it. If you can't grab a table inside, head out to the off-licence in front, where there is always a massive crowd chatting, dancing, and generally soaking up the salsa. Also surrounding it are an array of street food stands. While the majority might head for a simple chuzo en palo (meat skewer with potato), the more adventurous of us head elsewhere.
Think of it as a Colombian late-night Maccy D's.
You'll find me at El Piqueteadero, where my love of all things meat has found its match. Forget your typical Friday night drunken kebab, because here the party-goers late night food of choice comes in the form of pigs ear, lung, intestine, tongue...if it's a piece of meat you'd never consider eating, you're likely to find it here, deep fried and served alongside tiny boiled potatoes.
Cutting up some tongue,with a bit of intensine to the side and lung infront.
These often neglected parts of meat are known as offal (or 'variety meats') in English and visceras in Spanish. The term offal refers to just organ meats, but can also be used to describe cuts such as ear and tongue. There are two different types of offal, labelled either 'red' or 'white'. Offal such as liver, heart, tongue, lungs, kidney and spleen are labelled as red, due to the fact these parts are more 'meat' like. Cuts such as intestines, stomach, brains, and sweetbreads come under the white category, due to their appearance and slightly more foreign taste and texture.
No donner kebab here I'm afraid.
However, be it red or white, the idea of eating an animal's insides seems to creep a few people out. But listen up meat eaters. If you're perfectly happy to buy a pre-packaged, pumped up chicken breast in the supermarket yet squirm at the idea of getting down to the butchers and buying some blood sausage, I'd have a second think. In this day and age we don't need to eat meat. We can find all the necessary protein and vitamins we need through other sources, and the process of feeding animals reared for meat creates an enormous amount of pollution. There's also of course the ethics behind it all, but I don't feel this post quite warrants discussion on that. If we choose to continually kill animals for food, I think it is important to make full use of the meat available. A great documentary on the meat industry isGet Vegucated, and if you want to know more on the topic I really recommend it.
If you'd eat a sirloin or rump steak, you're eating a cow's arse. I ask...how far is that from eating its kidney or liver? Or, if your like me and want to try it all, opt for some black pudding (morcilla), pig ear, sheep lung (bofe), cow tongue, a sausage called longaniza and intenstine. Well...at least that´s what my bowl fromEl Piqueteadero consisted of.
My picada, a little bit of everything.
While it was good to try it all, I established a few things. This was not the finest black pudding I had eaten, pig's ear is surprisingly delicious, lung isn't my favourite, and tongue is almost too much like a normal cut of meat to even earn it's offal status. I´ve now visited La Troja on numerous occasions, and even if not to eat there I will always pass by and have a chat at El Piqueteadero. Perhaps it's odd that I'm now a recognised face at the fried offal stand, but otherwise how would I check out the variety of odd things on offer, and know what is still left to try? As it stands, testicles and cow udder is my next nibble of choice. Stay tuned for that!
Bollocks in a bowl. Well, not quite, but on the list for the next time!
