15.03.11
Everyday, I go out. Every time I go out, I come accross food I-d never tried before. So whenever I go out, I just spend my time eating. Here are a few of my latest discoveries.
Ceviche de Camaron. These are shrimps that they mix in a ketchup and vinigar mix. Lots of other things in the sauce. Not easy to make. They make it also with all sorts of fish. The whole idea is that the fish should be fresh and raw. It *cooks* when its mixed in with the vinigar and the lemon juice.
Oxfam organised some sort of a food fair in the center of Bogota, in Front of the presidential palace and the ssenate, Lots of interesting stuff to eat including soops and roasts of all sorts.
This is my favourit. Its called LECHONE. Its a roasted pig stuffed with rice, corn and potato. Yumi. 6000 pesos a portion that comes with a drink and an arepa
I found my favourit place to eat Arepa con queso. Strangely enough,m these are called arepas, but don-t have the shape nor the consistency. The cheese squeeses out of the sides when you bite into it, and it makes long strings when you pull at it. ITs the only proppeer cheese stuffed food Ive found here so far.
The brown cake on the left os BAnana cake., they really know how to cook their bananas here. BEst desert i-ve had here although coconut and milk pudding is good too.
Queso Paipa. This is the only matured cheese that Ive found so far. So this actually looks and tastes like cheese. Others have a line on the package that mentions *queso typo mozzarella*. It makes you guess to start with that its not mozzarella, and since it wouldnt have a name of its own, it even makes you wonder whether its actually cheese at all. Queso PAipa is the only proper one, and the only onem I buy. 9000 pesos for a whole one. People eat it with Boccadillo (Goyaba paste). Combunation is interesting: since the Boccadillo is a sort of sweet fruit gelly paste, its similar to they way they eat cheese in Corsica, except that the cheese it self is not as tasty.
This is the inside of a giant oven we foudn in Villa de Leyva. I could have stood in there and not even touch the top. There was beef cooking in there. It smelt so good we sat at a table for a meal. Excellent piece of meet!
BANDEJA PAISA. The typical country man-s meal in the area of Bogota. Its usually cooked and served on a flat dish amde of clay> something you see less often since they relised that there were hygene problems with the clay dishes. The *bandeja* always consists in rice, beans, and egg, fried platana, an arepa, porc scratchings, a piece of avocado, a sausage and either minst meat or a piece of steak. They-d give you so much in one helping that I got used to going for them with a friend, and we-d split one between the two of us/ Served with a fruit juice and an Ajiaco soop (chicken soup) - 9000 pesos
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Food.
This is probably one of my main interests when I travel. So i had to write a little something to show you all what you get around here. these are just pictures of stuff I'vebeen eating, and a few words of personal opinion about it. The descriptions will probably not be very relevant, so if you want to identify in more familiar terms what it was that I actually eat, you'd beter refer to wiki.
The streets are loaded with corner shops and peopel pushing char riots full of junk food. It's difficult to resist it all, especially since it sall so cheap and tasty.
HEre's quite a good selection of what you can find: most of this is fried or baked with meaty fillings..
These here are Bunelos. They're sort of like bread only they're deep fried. And they're really good though a bit dry if you don't cover it in aji sauce and Salsa Rosa.
This is just me happy to be eating.
Colombian coffee. it all produced here. It wasnt very tasty though. apparently, all the best is exported.
Tamales. The concept is vcery similar to our chinese rice things, coz these are rapped in bana leaves too. They contain rice, porc and egg like what we get, but these have also some potato, beef and chicken in them. Very tastym and one is enough to keep you goign all day. We get them for diner at the hostel every now and again.
Roasted pig. This stuff is sold int he streets, and the skin is particularly appreciated here too. its crispy and has a good thick layer of fat, It costs nearly 30 euro cents for a small portion of the skin. Good stuff.
A bog canteen sinilar to what you get in china. Food is very cheap and you can get all sorts of thing. i go there after school from time to time, to treat my self with a proper meal instead of my usual diet of junk food i find in the streets. I got used to sitting at the same stand, and they usually help me with a traditionnal fish soop or salad, a big plate of chips, rice, vegies and meat. It's very satisfying and costs only 5000COP or approx 2 euros.
This is just a poicture of me messing about in front of a freezer. We were ust thinking how unusual the girl of the picture was. Not that she looks strangem only that she-s not the sort of girl that you-d expect to find on an ice cream freezer. Don-t you think she be more suited for an advert for L-Oreal? Oh. and we also found it funny that they should have named her *Polet*
*Queso con Bocadillo*. Queso is cheese. What they have here, and its actally the only cheese they have / is similar to a bad mozzarella, with even less taste. IT can come salted and more or less fresh. In this case, it is sold in big chunks with a fruit paste called Bocadillo. Its in fact a Guava paste and you et it together with the cheese. Its special, but i quite liked it,. Every body eats cheese with bocadillo here. Its an interesting and subtle combination of sweet and salty. Couldnt eat it every dya though.
This portion cost me 2000cop, or 80 euro cents.
This is what a chinese restaurant looks like in Bogota. YEs it is really! If you look well at the back in the kitchen, there-s a man peeping from the top of the stairs, and he is asian! I was expecting there to be more asians around, in fact, there are some chinese in Bogota, but they-re all working in the kitchens, and just never seem to go out of their restaurants!
The fruit people are a speciy of street vendors. There many sorts of them, bnut hese are my favourite> theyre the cheapest, and definitely the healthiest coz they sell fruit and freshly pressed juices! Here, ;y ;ate buying an orange juice paid 1000 cop. A cup full of mango dices costs the same! you cn also get pineaplple, papaya and peaches! Mosty likely all the best i've ever had.
Arepa de mais con Chorizo. Chorizo here isn-t quite the same than what you get in spain. To start withm, chorizo here isnt spicyma nd it has to be cooked on the barbecue! They-re like any other bis smoked saucage, and you aparently can-t eat it raw. They-re not as tasty as the spanish ones., HEre, it came in a piece of bread clled AREPA. Its made with corn flour and always lacks a bit of salt in my opinion. But its the best sort of bred they have here. All the rest are soft spungy breads, and they add sugar to the dough or something. 1500cop
Several places here sell these dishes. It may look unhealthy, but its in fact a fruit salad. These things are delicious! Strawbery, apple, peaches, pineapple, coconut and a rasberry couli over it. Here in colombia, a salad is not associated to diet. So they add some ice cream to it, and something currious> they sprinkle it with mozzarella cheese!
08.02.11
More food!!!!
In this pic, i was walking past plaza bolivar, and i saw these two strange fellows who were selling what first looked like yoghourt, It ended up being so;e sort of sweet foam that had a similar flavour to mashmellow. couldnt finish it all. too sweet. but was an interesting experience. cost: 1000cop
Yeah this is what the stuff loooks like: they spoon it into a plastic cup, pour sirup over it and then you scoop it out.
A very cheap hotdog. They call them 'perro caliente' which is the litteral translation of what it means in english, there actually is a sausage in there, its covered under tasteless cheese and sauces of all kind. I think i had ketchup, mayo, honey and some sort of apple curd. wasnt very good. They do have better stuff here, but its often much more expensive. this was only 1500cop
OBLEAS> Now from what i underdstandm this is something specific to colombia, its a sort of crispy sweet and thin pancake that they cover with a whole load of interesting thing. First time i saw this, on my very first day, i saw they had cheese in a jar. I went for it. But then the price i was paying included a second ingredient, so i asked what she could advise, and i ended up with a layer of 'Dulce de leche', which is some sort of tophee paste...
