09 Oct Colombian food

Colombian food

Colombia is a big country, and so each region has its own traditional Colombian dish. I’ve made a compilation of the foods that you come across daily in Bogotá.

There are tons of places in Bogotá offering breakfast, I’d say even more than in European cities. The “empanada”, a.k.a. stuffed pastry usually has chicken or beef in it and is very delicious; you can get it at any time of the day, even for breakfast. A lot of street vendors offer a variety of “empanadas”. Similar to the empanada, “arepa”  (corn-dodger) is also a food that Colombians enjoy all day. Scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes can be found on almost all of the menus, of course served with arepa or “pan de queso”/”pandebono” (tasty cheese bread). Pan de queso or pandebono is basically a roll with cheese melted on top. Breakfast menus are always offered with coffee, cocoa and fresh fruit juice. It’s a great way to start off your day. A breakfast menu in Bogotá costs around 7000 – 10 000 COP, this includes eggs with arepa or pan de queso, fresh fruit juice and coffee/cocoa.

Main dishes

One of my favorites is “bandeja paisa”, which originates from Medellín (paisa meaning people living in and around Medellín), but today it is one of the national dishes of the entire country. It’s a real calorie bomb: rice, beans, sausage, minced beef, fried eggs, bacon, fried banana, fresh avocado and arepa – all on one plate. If you eat it at the right place, it’s heavenly!

A very popular dish is “lechona” – pork and beef baked in pork skin with rice. There are restaurants that specialize in this dish but you can get “lechona” on almost every corner.

Trout (trucha) is also popular in the inner parts of the country.

Their soups are the “sancocho” and the “ajiaco” –  meat with potatoes, other vegetables (like corn) and spices. Its fish version is “sancocho de pescado”.

The meat of cattle farmed in the Andes tastes very good, that’s why they eat a lot of beef in Colombia. The price is also better than in Europe. Those who love steak will not be disappointed in Colombia.

Patacón: fried banana, which they eat as a side dish instead of potatoes or rice (or all three together :).

Yuca: manioc or cassava – they eat it baked, it tastes similar to potatoes.