Colombia –The Food…Not What I was Expecting.
My father-in-law has the same reaction after every meal we eat out: “It wasn’t what I was expecting.” This response always begs me to ask the question when he orders, “Ed, what are you expecting this time?” But this is a different topic for a different entry. However, I had this same reaction to the food in Colombia – It wasn’t what I was expecting.
Well, what was I expecting then? No, it wasn’t Mexican style food which so many gringos stereotype all Latin American cuisines. I am a little more versed as a traveler to think that. What I was expecting was something similar to what I ate in Ecuador but with more seafood. Colombia is an Andean nation after all. And I did find some food along these lines, but not as much as I expected. Instead, I found the food to be much richer with heavy sauces of creams and cheeses like at Crepes and Waffles where we ordered shrimp two different ways. My wife ordered hers in a cheese sauce which we expected to be heavy, while I ordered mine in a garlic sauce which came out in a bowl of cream. In both, a homemade crepe sat at the bottom of the bowl sopping up the rich goodness of the dishes. The heaviness of the food seemed odd to me and most other travelers given the extreme heat and humidity. This isn’t to say I didn’t like the food. I did. I just found it surprising. Even our fine dining at La Vitrolo came drizzled with heavy sauces. I had grouper with a thick tamarind sauce that was both sweet and spicy and accompanied the grilled fish perfectly.
The restaurant selections were much more cosmopolitan and international than I thought they would be – from Argentinean steak at Quebracho’s to open-air dining of authentic Peruvian ceviche at La Cevicheria to pizza at nearly any sidewalk café. Normally when I travel abroad I try to only eat the local cousine, but this proved difficult in Cartagena given the international appeal of the city. I did manage to get my feel though of Colombian comida tipica which for the most part included fresh seafood. There was the comida tipica at El Bistro (run by a German fellow) complete with the starter soup I am used to from Ecuador. We also dined on several off-the-boat fresh fish dinners at many random storefronts like Porton San Sebastion where I enjoyed grilled snapper which, not surprisingly, was accompanied by another heavy garlic sauce. (My wife enjoyed steak with grilled tomatoes, onions, and an egg to add to the richness factor.) Then there was my personal favorite – whole fried fish on the excursion to the Rosario Islands. I truly believe that Americans do not eat enough whole fish. We’re too squeamish when our food is staring back at us. There’s just something about a fish cooking in its own juices. We wanted to eat at Socorro where friends told us you found the best seafood and worst service in all of Cartagena. We found it closed from a narcotics invasion. Not surprisingly, my tile dealing friend recommended it.
