Canadian World Traveller Spring 2023 Issue

Many in my tour group at La Puerta ordered
the ajiaco, but I went for the bandeja paisa,
another signature Colombian dish that satisfies
big appetites. The platter of chorizo,
fried pork belly (chicharron), pulverized beef,
rice, beans and baked plantain is topped
with a fried egg and comes with an arepa
and a slice of avocado.
Sample This Corn Brew
One day we took a tour called “Bogota Like
a Local,” which exposed our group to more
Colombian food and drink specialties.
During a tasting session at La Candelaria’s
Casa Galeria Cafe, we sampled a fermented
corn drink called chicha and were surprised
to learn that Colombia grows 60 different
types of corn, a grain that for centuries
has been an important part of the heritage of
indigenous people in the Andes. The corn
brew is slightly bubbly, thick and most commonly
yellow.
As our Casa Galeria host told us, chicha has
religious origins. Long ago, it was made by
the local wise man, who would chew the
corn off the cob and then let it ferment in a
pot—in his saliva!—for 15 days. Villagers
who partook of the brew supposedly were
drinking knowledge. Over the years, the
idea behind imbibing chicha evolved into the
secular, and chicha became associated with
drunkenness and stupidity. In fact, after a
political revolution in 1948, in which 70 percent
of Bogota was burned, drinking or producing
chicha was declared forbidden. To
this day, the drink is still on the books as
being illegal, though the law is not enforced.
The chicha we had at Casa Galeria was
from an ancient recipe from the cafe owner’s
family. Following tradition, we drank from a
gourd cup with a string attached. Our brew
(made only with corn, no water) was fermented
for only two or three days and had
an alcohol content of 2 percent, but vendors
up and down the street, a colorful stretch
filled with artistic graffiti, sell bottles of chicha
with 4 or 5 percent alcohol (though it can go
up to 12 percent). And it comes in many different
flavors in a rainbow of colors. At night,
students flock to the chicha bars surrounding
Plaza de Chorro de Quevedo, the lively hub
of the graffiti district.
Other Drinks to Try
Our Casa Galeria session featured other
drinks, including Club Colombia amber beer
(paired with orange slices, strawberries and
caramel brownies), the premium brand
made by Bavaria, the country’s only industrial-scale
brewery. We also sipped Chela, a
locally made, small-batch coffee beer that
has chocolate in it.
At a sidewalk cafe near my hotel, I tried
another local drink—refajo. A strange combination
of cola and beer, it helped wash
down my empanadas bogotanas, pockets of
fried corn dough filled with potatoes and
stewed beef. Empanadas are found in every
South American country, but the ones in
Colombia, crisp and golden with a nice
crunch, are on the small side (so you can
order more and try different fillings).
For a souvenir, I brought home a small bottle
of aguardiente, Colombia’s heavy-hitting
spirit. Translated “fiery water,” the clear,
anise-flavored liquor is made from sugarcane.
You can’t discuss Colombian beverages without
mentioning its famed coffee. Locals enjoy
un tinto (black coffee) any time of day.
Walking around La Candelaria, I spotted a
Juan Valdez cafe, one in a chain of
Starbucks-like coffee shops named after the
fictional character that many North
Americans remember from TV commercials
way back when. Whereas Colombia once
exported almost all of its best coffee beans
and few Colombians drank coffee at cafes,
the local coffee scene has improved immeasurably
in the last 15 years, with trained
baristas staffing some 50 coffee shops in
Bogota alone.
Festival of Fruits
I’m not big on vegetables but do love fruits,
and in Colombia you can have a different
fruit every day of the year. Many of them are
not found in other parts of the world. You’ll
find common tropical fruits like mangoes,
pineapples, papayas, passion fruit, bananas
and guava, but also unfamiliar ones with
names like feijoa, curuba and granadilla.
The latter is an orange-yellow fruit with slimy
gray contents. Guanabana (or soursop) is a
large, spiky, rather intimidating “dinosaur
egg” filled with sweet, milky white flesh. The
green higo (prickly pear) comes from a cactus
variety and has a sweet, orange-colored
meat. The bittersweet lulo, orange on the
outside and bright green on the inside, is
often consumed in the form of a water- or
milk-based juice, as are many of the other
fruits.
Our “Bogota Like a Local” group had a
chance to sample the fruits of Colombia at a
sit-down session at La Perseverancia Market
Square, a famous produce market dating
back to 1940. The photo-worthy, 80-stall
market is a common stop on gastronomy
(and general) tours of Bogota. Its restaurant
serves up traditional Colombian fare, including
ajiaco santafereno, bandeja paisa,
steaks, soups, and various seafood and fish
dishes.
Just walking down the street in Bogota triggers
hunger pangs. You’ll see pushcart vendors
cooking hamburgers, slicing mangoes,
grinding sugarcane into juice, or grilling
corn on the cob (mazorca) and skewers of
meat.
In La Candelaria, I couldn’t resist the ladies
selling obleas, which are big flat wafers filled
with arequipe (milk caramel), berries or
whipped cream. Many years ago when the
Rolling Stones were in town, lead singer Mick
Jagger bought an oblea, and even now
many of the carts bear his caricature (complete
with flabby lips), a sort of celebrity
endorsement.
www.procolombia.co/en
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World Traveler Spring 2023