Fiesta Colombiana!

I've had an absolutely great time being back in the UK. I've been catching up with friends and family, soaking up all things British and enjoying what feels like a million cups of tea (and many a mince pie too!). As happy as I am to be reunited with these British delights, I also wanted to share a bit of Colombian cuisine with my friends here in London too.

Before leaving Barranquilla I hit up the supermarket to stock up on certain Colombian goodies. With a night out in London on the cards, I thought it was the perfect excuse to host a Colombian themed pre-party at mine.

I assessed what ingredients I had to hand (along with what would be available in the UK), and set out making my menu. To drink I chose typical aguardiente (think sambucca but smoother), agua panela cocktails (brown sugar water...in my opinion made to be mixed with rum), and juice from a fruit called borojo, as I had brought over the pulp.

To eat, chicken wings and traditional arepas were on the menu, made with corn flour which I bought from Colombia. These were topped with guacamole and tomato salsa, which also went nicely with the patacones al horno I served (recipe found here). On my local high street I even managed to find yucca, a root vegetable popular in Colombia. The yucca was boiled and served with fromage frais, which I hoped would be some kind of equivalent to the delicious costeño dip suero, which is a bit like sour cream.

When one of your desserts comes from a package, you know you're in for a classy dinner.

And of course - dessert was compulsory. The cake from my previous post featured, as did natilla - a traditional Colombian flan, made from panela, served with cream and strawberries. This came freshly from the packet, and I felt very retro chic serving flan with whipped cream.

To list all the recipes here would be far too lengthy, but really a lot of them were quite basic. The tomato salsa was simple but classic, from none other than the goddess that is Delia Smith (check out her recipe here). 

The chicken wings (seen above in the glass bowl) were marinated in a last minute concoction of what I deemed to be a 'Colombian-inspired' sauce, and they turned out to be really tasty.

To give them a go, you need:

'Colombian style' marinated chicken wings

-2 tbsp cumin seeds, ground
-2 garlic cloves
-Generous drizzling of olive oil
-A spoonful of chilli sauce (depending on how hot you like it)
-A tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter
-A large handful of coriander leaves
-Plenty of salt and pepper
-3 tbsp of thick greek yogurt.

All whizzed in a blender, this made a lovely thick marinade for the wings. Coat wings in marinade from anything up to 24 hours before serving (the longer the better really), and then cook at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Soon enough, the food was ready and the feast was served!

My retro flan and passion fruit sponge were accompanied by the very welcome addition of Celebrations - and now I really feel like it's Christmas. Overall it was a lovely evening spent with wonderful people, catching up and sharing a great variety of food (and drink...). 

Here's to Colombian food reaching London, and catching up with old friends. I intend on bringing back a few British treats to Barranquilla too, but fear the delights of Heinz baked beans may be lost on the Barranquilleros. Still, a girl can always try!

Offally Good Stuff

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 is Get 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 from El 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!