Patacon, Ajiaco and Borrachas (Medellin part 2)

So the first day in Medellin I was a little apprehensive - not knowing what everyone was on about, I kept to smiling and nodding quite a bit. This is the interesting part: During my entire stay there, people seemed to assume I spoke Spanish. Maybe it was due to my colleague chatting away in Spanish right next to me with our clients, or maybe I blended in (which surprised me somewhat because I could count on 1 hand how many Chinese people I saw in Medellin during my 10 days there). But the Colombians in Medellin were very friendly and inviting. In no time I felt at ease about the whole place.

This city was a mixture of old and new. It had all the same setup as any metropolitan cities with a very efficient metro system (I could only wished the NY subway was half as nice and on time!). Yet it also retained some characteristics of small towns, such as street merchants selling all kinds of goods on their little shopping cart of carry trays. I don't recall seeing anything like this except maybe in Malaysia's hawker markets or hot-dog sellers at football matches, or the choc-top guy inside Cinema back home. During the week, we spent a lot of time hanging out at the cafe at the Museo de Antioquia during lunch which overlooks a busy open park right at an intersection. It was quite entertaining just watching the interactions of the locals with these street merchants.

And now the food - its all about sauces and sides. Unlike some cuisine where herbs and spices are added into the food during cooking, it seems that the Colombian dishes are cooked with basic seasoning. However, as you actually eat the food, you are expected to add all sorts of wondering sides and sauces to the dish to create very unique flavours and textures. Here are some example:

Ajiaco Bogotano

A chicken and potato soup dish - served with capers and cream. I don't think I have actually ever had capers with anything other thing than salmon. It was actually very interesting when combined with the taste of the chicken soup.

Patacon

Patacon is a plantine flattened out paper thin and deep fried. It is then topped with garlic prawns over a layer of guacamole and served with coconut rice. The best stuff ever.

Typical Paisa

This reminded me of the Vietnamese broken rice dish. Rice is served with a variety of meat and vegetable. This usually consists of chicharron (salted fatty pork with crackling skin), a chorizo sausage, a fried egg, fried plantine, pieces of avacado and frijols (kidney beans).

Borrachas

For drinks, there were plenty of exotic tropical fruits to choose from - guanabana, mora, lulo as well as more commonly available ones like mangoes and guava. And then, there was aquardiente.

One night after work, our Colombian colleague took us to Lleras Park which is a hip and trendy area packed with popular bars and eateries. We went to the Basilica Restaurant for a drink (or two) and a light bite. Well they have been bugging me all week about getting drunk on their "firewater" aquardiente. Well I said bring it on. shots came out and down the hatch it went. What my Colombian colleague forgot to tell me was: it was a double shot that she ordered for us and I was only suppose to drink half of it and not drain it down like I did. Well too late!! I've had taquila before. This was similar in taste and strength. I do miss my piece of lemon and the salt...

So a couple of drinks later, there was a table of borrachas (Spanish for drunken ladies). Well ok, maybe we weren't quite drunk. We were however very merry. :)