10 Things To Eat in Bogota
Just for fun, I also included 3 Things You Don’t Have To Eat in Bogota.
Bandeja Paisa
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You’ll eat Colombia’s national dish and my favorite, bandeja paisa, throughout the country. Rice, beans, ground beef or steak, chorizo, chicharrón, arepa, avocado, platano, fried egg, and sometimes morcilla. Any paisa in Bogota costing 15,000 pesos or more should be solid. An economic but good choice is La Cucharita de mi Abuela (pictured) at Calle 63 & Carrera 13. Grande for 13,300. Be like me and mix it all together with a cup or two of ají for spicy, sloppy goodness. See my earlier post on bandeja paisa.
Ajiaco
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Bogota’s regional plate. Chicken, potato, and corn soup served with a plate of rice, avocado, and pollo sudado (stewed chicken). Add everything on the plate into the soup. Be like me and ask for extra capers (alcaparras) for the contrast. I didn’t see what the big deal about ajiaco was for a few months because I only had it at cheap and mid-priced restaurants. Make sure you have it at a decent place – it should cost at least 10,000 pesos ($5) and come with a thigh and leg of chicken (pierna y pernil).
Black Folks’ Fish
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People don’t know there are black folks in Colombia. There are. Most live on the coasts (Caribbean and Pacific) so fish is a big part of their culture. They run the best fish fry houses in the city (not trying to perpetuate stereotypes, I couldn’t make this up). Latino cities tend to cluster their industries, so there will be a black folks’ fish street or district in any given neighborhood. I go to a place at Calle 57 and Carrera 8. If you’re staying in La Candelaria, there’s a district at Calle 20 on Carrera 4. Any place where you see black folks and fish should suffice. Buy an avocado on the street before you go in.
Note: it’s important to know how to eat fish. When I first moved down here, I’d attack it with a knife and fork. This is wrong. Eat it with your hands and eat everything. Unless it’s a bone, put it in your mouth and disintegrate that shit. Fins and the tail go down like potato chips. There’s only a tiny little skull bone in its head so you can digest everything else: its weak-ass face skin, eyeballs, the soft gunk, the hard gunk, everything. Omega-3 goodness.
Examples:
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Chiguiro
In this shot, chiguiro is served on a mixed plate with pork ribs, steak, potatoes, platano, arepa boyacense, and avocado.
I’d been eating chiguiro for about six months before learning what it was. At my asadero (barbecue spot), I was told it’s baby pig. I figured Colombians had a different word for baby pigs, kinda like ‘veal’ for baby cows in English. It tastes like lean pork, but better.
One day I was talking about chiguiro with a Colombian who explicitly told me it wasn’t pork, but a rodent. He didn’t know the word in English. He tried “hamster” and “guinea pig.” A hamster on steroids with gene therapy wouldn’t yield the big chiguiro filets. And I lived in Peru for a year, so I know guinea pig (cuy). That filthy stank wouldn’t yield the meat either (and it tastes like filthy stank).
So I did a Google Image search right then and there. This is what I saw! It’s a beaver! I couldn’t believe it. I’d been eating beaver for months and loving it! Some research later, I learned they’re actually called ‘capybara’ in English. Capybaras are native to South America so most wouldn’t know the word in English. My original theory was that beavers down here evolved past what they did in North America due to the combination of Andes Mountains and heavy rainfall, which must make for some killer dams. Some of them stand as tall as a human’s knees. I’m not a scientist or expert in evolution, but look at that thing! It’s a beaver!
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You’ll have to ask around for an asadero that serves chiguiro. I go to one on Calle 61 at Carrera 13. Here are some closeups of the meat:
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Arequipe
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Known as dulce de leche outside Colombia, arequipe is my favorite dessert. Get it served with chocolate, in a croissant, in a wafer with cheese and blackberry sauce, or in herpos. If it’s got arequipe, it’s good.
Coffee
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No shit, sherlock, it’s the best in the world. However, I’ve learned the best beans are exported to Italy, France, and Argentina where they fetch more money in absolute terms. Still, the everyday stuff is excellent. If you want a straight coffee, order a tinto. It comes standard with sugar, so you have to mention “sin azucar” if you want it black. You can get cafe con leche, cappucino, titero (coffee, milk, and panela), or chocolate-covered coffee beans. All excellent.
Changua
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This isn’t that great, but I needed some filler crap because Colombian food ain’t as good as Kool-Aid drinking expats would have you think. Changua is good for a cheap, fast, high-protein breakfast. Hot milk soup with eggs, onion, cilantro, and bread crumbs. I’ve actually found this to be seen as a lower-class breakfast. See my earlier changua post.
Ensalada de Frutas
Colombians make the best fruit salads ever. Each bowl will have about a dozen different kinds of chopped fruit, cream, ice cream, and cheese. You can get these at various fruterías and cafes throughout the city, but the best (and cheapest) are at informal produce markets. These markets also have excellent morcilla and lechona, two plates that barely didn’t make this list. I go to 7 de Agosto (be careful!). See my previous post on fruit salads in Colombia.
Andres Carne de Res
This is the most talked-about restaurant in the city. It’s great steaks with a packed, party atmosphere. I won’t have any first-hand feedback or pictures until I can afford it. I was going to link to their website but it’s so tacky and annoying I can’t bring myself to do it.
Tramonti
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This fine restaurant features one of the best views of Bogota, a city of 8 million whose skyline doesn’t suck. It’s actually located on Via La Calera, a country highway that climbs the mountain range to the east to La Calera. The restaurant overlooks downtown from less than halfway up the mountain. Open lunch and dinner for day or night viewing. That picture isn’t from the restaurant but a Google Image search for Bogota skyline. I haven’t been there yet either but this last one comes recommended by The Mick, who’s pounded beer, aguardiente, and cocaine everywhere in Bogota. See Tramonti’s website.
3 Things You Don’t Have To Eat in Bogota
Yuca
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Yuca is a major staple in countries throughout the Americas. It can be OK if it’s slow boiled in chicken broth, and anything’s OK if deep-fried. But yuca is generally hard and flavorless. What’s the difference between yuca and wood? Yuca grows below ground.
Panela
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Aside from coffee and cocaine, Colombia is also the world’s leading producer of panela. Panela is a brick of evaporated sugar cane juice. I didn’t use the word ‘brick’ only because it’s sold in the shape of a brick, but also because it’s as hard and heavy as a brick. You can’t cut it with a knife; you have to break it in half by banging it with a metal rod. Pure sugar. That’s all it is. You can melt it into desserts but many people eat it in small brick form, letting it dissolve in their mouths. About once a week, The Mick regularly insists I tell the world in this blog that Colombian boys aren’t as strong or athletic because their parents feed them so much panela and in over 20 years, he “never lost a tackle!” OK, Mick. Done.
Arepas
You’ll have a hard time coming to Colombia and not eating arepas, a national staple. They’re basically a cornmeal biscuit. They taste like biscuits but with less moisture. The Mick calls them “carpet underlay.” I attribute much of my early depression in Colombia to arepas. You see, I suffered serious cognitive dissonance during my first month or two here, mostly due to the crime and bad food (bad compared to Peruvian). The arepa was central to my disliking the food. Although after a few months eating them, you start to like them a little. There are several different kinds. For more on arepas and lots of pictures, see my Arepas in Colombia post.
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3 Responses to “10 Things To Eat in Bogota”
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Hey boy!!! u makes me hungry with the pics of the food. I’m here still eating the same simpe things of every day. But I have something to day about the yuca, the panela and arepas…
1. Yuca, u are right, it’s very hard and flavourless, but the trick is in the way like u cook it , I mean salsa or “guiso that” u add to give flavour. Also the time on stove. Anpther thing, it’s to know well how to select the yuca in the supermarket. Personally Im very stupid for that…
2. Panela, I love it! coz i can use it for different purposes: drink, eat, make syrups, as ingredients for deserts, sweetener instead of sugar. Even when I was child, I used eat it as a candy…
3. Arepa, the base of the Colombian food… I love it coz I can combine with every thing, even I can replace rice or potatoe in my lunch with an arepa. Fortunately, here in AU I can get the flour to make them, the only terrible is the local cheese. Anything can replace the “queso campesino” and the “cuajada”
Ok .. its official (for me anyways).. your entries are getting BORING! What happened to the good old stuff? Sex, Booze, women…? For some reason when I read this entry..you reminded me of Martha Stewart. Not good!
Not complaining about your writing, but your choice of material.
the is no love more sincere than the love of food – George Bernard Shaw