Eating Caribbean - Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

If you read this blog regularly you know that I occasionally drift off subject to report on vacation food. This time it’s for the cuisine of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, where we spent a week this March.     

Cartagena de Indias, so named to avoid confusion with its Spanish namesake, is on the Caribbean coast of Colombia where its tropical climate, Afro-Latino population and cuisine are similar to those of other Caribbean societies—but with some distinct local touches.  

 Where to begin?  With the characteristic dish of Cartagena, of course: fried fish, coconut rice, patacones and salad.  Every Cartagena Creole restaurant serves it, sometimes under the name Plato Costeño (Coastal Plate) or Bandeja Tipica Caribeña (Typical Caribbean Tray), and at lunch time throughout the old city street vendors are eating the same dish out of Styrofoam boxes.

Pargo (red snapper) with Creole sauce, coconut rice and patacone

 Trentis Restaurante, Calle Sargento Mayor

The fish, usually plate size or smaller, is slashed on each side, then deep fried with no breading or batter. Preferred fish are pargo (red snapper), robalo (snook) and mojarra, but any small white-flesh fish or filet of a larger fish seems acceptable. We even had one (forgettable) Bandeja Tipica on a tour where the fish was frozen merluza, hake.  

Mojarra frita, D’Alex Restaurante,

 Plaza Fernando de Madrid

And its a great spot for an evening beer.

Coconut rice, arroz con coco, is rice cooked in coconut milk; not the liquid from inside green coconuts, but the “milk” made by adding hot water to grated coconut meat and squeezing out the creamy liquid. Canned unsweetened coconut milk can also be used.

Recipes from The Cuisine of Cartagena de Indias[1]

And patacones?  Fried rounds of green plantains, called tostones in other parts of the Caribbean.

Shrimp, locally called langostinos or camarones, are also a favorite menu item.  At left are fried langostinos over a mound of mashed plantain (similar to Puerto Rican mofongo) with a sauce of sweet corzo, a palm fruit.

Left Langostinos from Cafe Krioyo

Sweet sauces are also prominent in Cartagena’s meat cuisine.  Posta Negra Cartagenera (Cartagena pot roast) is a classic:  rump roast braised in a dark sweet sauce which may (or may not) include tomatoes, red wine, Seville orange juice, red soda pop and/or soy sauce.

Posta Negra Cartagenera, Café Krioyo

A Google search finds a dozen or so recipes, all in colloquial Colombian Spanish… and all different.  I’ve translated a simple one below from Colombia en la mesa. (Note that tropical beef needs the moist intense heat of a pressure cooker, but you can also braise it for 3 ½ hours or so, or use a slow cooker.) 

Pork is also served with sweet fruit based sauces.  One evening I had pork ribs braised in beer and tamarind sauce, the headline dish on the menu of La Cocina de Carmela, a neighborhood one-waitress-one-cook, chalkboard-menu restaurant with an interesting blend of Caribbean and international dishes.   It’s not self service, in spite of the sign, and the food makes up for the décor.

  

La Cocina de Carmela, Calle de Badillo

And, of course, Cartegana fruit is always available from street vendors, with tomatoes, peppers, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, plums, passion fruit and even marañón or cashew apple, the yellow fruit at left with the cashew on the end.

But for the real Cartagena fruit experience, have a fruit salad from one of the handsome Palenqueras, among the most photographed women in the world.

  

Doña Angeilna

For more about Cartagena, see my travel blog.

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[1] Román de Zurek, Teresita and Estella Arango de Morales Angel De M. 2001 The Cuisine of Cartagena de Indias: Legacy of the Spanish Cooking in Colombia. p.100 & 130. Ediciones Gama, S.A.  on line at http://books.google.com

Eating Iberian

Once in a while Eating Chilean goes off subject to write about vacation food, and this is one of those occasions, so here are some highlights from a month in Spain and Portugal.

El menú del día - Cáceres

Cáceres was our first stop after leaving Madrid, where we found the food in Madrid’s touristic center unremarkable, and unfortunately the smoky bars made an evening of tapas unappealing.  Cáceres, a city of under 100,000, has a beautifully reconstructed walled old town, but it was not overrun with tourists and its restaurants serve local food to mostly local people.  As in Chile and most of Latin America the main meal is eaten in the early afternoon, and many restaurants serve a menú del día, usually a three course fixed price meal with several choices for each course, bread, wine and coffee for 8 to 16€.  

Here, at the Meson los Portales, first courses included mixed Iberian cold cuts, salad, paella, eggs with fried bread, octopus in the Galicia style, gazpacho, and melon with serrano ham.  Main courses were Iberian secret (a tender cut of pork), cuttlefish brochettes, braised pork cheeks, monkfish in green sauce, salt cod, and pork (?) filet in pastry. 

I had the octopus…. al dente chunks  with paprika and olive oil over sliced potatoes.  

And then the bacalao rebosado, the battered and fried salt cod.   

The wine, a light local red, was served chilled, accompanied by a bottle of sweetened mineral water, which local residents mixed half-and-half with the wine.  Chilled, I accept.  It was refreshing on a hot September day, and appears to be the custom throughout much of Spain. Mixed with sweetened mineral water?  No thank you.

Grilled sardines – Lisbon 

Leaving Cáceres, we took the train to Lisbon, and again found mostly unremarkable tourist food… except for the grilled sardines which were great.  Why don’t other countries (like Chile) eat fresh sardines?

Serrano ham with melon and duck confit – Ronda

This was one of the most memorable meals of the trip, a menú on a cold rainy day at Restaurante Doña Pepa on the plaza in Ronda. It included two dishes I knew about but had never eaten.  The Serrano ham, sliced very thin, was served over a piel de sapo (toad skin) melon, a melon that was also new to me.  The contrast between the salty ham and the cool succulent melon is what makes this dish a classic.

My second course was duck confit.  Confit is a method for cooking and preserving duck, goose, or turkey (usually of legs, the breasts are served in other styles) or of pork in which the meat is completely covered in its own rendered fat and cooked over low heat.  It is then allowed to cool and solidify, sealing the meat in and preserving it.  I had always wanted to try it, but never having had a gallon or so of rendered duck fat to work with, I had to wait until it appeared on a restaurant menu.  The meat was very tender, moist and flavorful; and less greasy than duck often is.  If I ever raise ducks, I’ll know what to do with the surplus.

(And as an aside, confit of chicken or duck gizzards, sliced and sautéed served over salad greens and a light vinaigrette makes a salade aux gesiers, a common and delicious first course in France.)

Berenjena con miel – Granada

A first course in a menú del día, this one at the Mesón Casa Blás (photo right) in a small square, the Placeta de San Miguel Bajo, north east of the Alhambra.  First course menu choices included fava beans sautéed with Serrano ham, which my wife ordered (very good, by the way) and a ratatouille with sea food, which I ordered.  But what came was the dish above, a purée of eggplant with tomato sauce and a sweet syrup; a surprising combination of bland rich eggplant, tart tomato sauce and sweet syrup.   As it turns out berenjena con miel is common enough that Google provided a dozen or more recipes, (one in English) all very much alike:  sliced eggplant is salted and left to drain for an hour or so, then battered and fried in olive oil and served hot with cane syrup or occasionally honey.  As you see the dish I had was a bit different, although cut from a similar mold.  I think the tart tomato sauce is a great addition…. though I haven’t tried the standard recipe yet.

And here are the fava beans (habas) with Serrano ham.  Sautéed vegetables with ham were a common first course on menus.  One of the best was tender artichoke hearts sautéed with crisp bits of ham.

Tapas del Mar – Tarragona

One evening in Tarragona we set out to find a bite to eat, and ended up (after an interminable walk) in the fisherman’s mall, at L' Àncora II, where the specialty is seafood tapas. 

The selection is remarkable. Translated  from top to bottom: seafood paella, black rice (with squid ink), rice with lobster, green salad, monkfish salad, octopus salad, salmon carpaccio, cod carpaccio, stuffed mussels, steamed mussels, mussels marinara, fried small squid, small squid a la Romana, fried small prawns, clams marinara, grilled clams, grilled razor clams, grilled large prawns,  grilled cuttlefish, octopus with onions, spicy potatoes, salt codfish fritters, monkfish and hake croquettes,  grouper trunk (?), salt cod salad (escaixada), anchovies, eggplant, onion, peppers, and tomato on toast,  prawn cocktail, and anchovies in vinegar. 

And more…   I’m guessing about what the pictures include: croquets, mussels marinara,

small prawns, octopus, 

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large prawns, seafood salad, anchovies, peppers and etc. on toast, anchovies in vinegar….

seafood salads (octopus, imitation crab meat, mussels, and ?)

…and sardines in marinara sauce ?

We had salt cod fritters, grilled peppers, fried eggplant and a bottle of local wine.  And wanted more, but a large mid day meal and good judgment restrained my wife… and she restrained me.

Boquerones -  Barcelona

These crisp tender fingerlings were one of the choices for a first course on the menú del día at the Restaurante Barkeno near the Plaza de Catalunya in Barcelona.  I was surprised to discover that boquerones are anchovies, for the fish were very mild with little fishy anchovy flavor.  Simply rolled lightly in flour and fried, we ate them whole, tender bones and all.  Delicious.

Breakfast - Everywhere

Café con leche, buttered toast and jam was our usual breakfast, but these sandwiches, were a great change. Hotel breakfast buffets, at 4.50 to 9.00 €, ranged from OK to good, but local cafes always had better coffee and fresh toast for half the price or less.






Pan con tomate - Everywhere

From the first day in Madrid to Barcelona, a month later, pan con tomate (bread with tomato) was everywhere, including breakfast; alone, with other tapas, or as a base for a sandwich. The recipe couldn’t be simpler: lightly toasted or grilled bread is rubbed with garlic and ripe tomato, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. (For a heaver coating of tomato, grate the tomato and spread on the bread.) In a Dunkin’ Donut in Granada, we even found the factory-food version: the oil and tomato each came sealed in little cups like artificial cream for coffee—and equally far from the original.

Fast food paella – Everywhere (Unfortunately)

We first experienced fast food paella in a Lisbon mall… the menu pictures looked tempting, but better judgment prevailed and we soon discovered that this was McPaella, factory made, frozen and microwave ready, and not cheap.  Is it good?  I don’t know, but I do know that it’s not what I went to Spain to eat.

The distributor is Paellador,  the 352^nd largest franchise in Europe with 2000 outlets internationally.[1] They also make frozen pizza, sandwiches, tapas, and Italian food.  And they have outlets the US, Mexico, Venezuela and Chile, in Las Condes.  You can try it for yourself. Yum.

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[1] Paellador introduce su franquicia en México.  Tormo.com.  On line at

htttormo.com/noticias/3153/Paellador_introduce_su_franquicia_en_Mexico and Franchise Europe Top 500: Paellador. On line at http://www.franchisedirect.co.uk/top500/paellador/38/321/

Comiendo Illinoisiano

Siempre escribo mi blog en ingles[1], y sobre comida chilena, pero esto es para mi familia y amigos Chilenos.  Trata de una cocina exótica que dudo que conocen:  comida de la Feria Estatal de Illinois (Illinois State Fair) en Springfield,  hogar de Abraham Lincoln, los Simpsons, y (una vez) mio—y donde estuvimos la semana pasada.  [I always write my blog in English and focus on Chilean food, but this is for my Chilean family and friends. It is about an exotic cuisine that I don’t think they know:  food at Illinois State Fare in Springfield, home of Abraham Lincoln, the Simpsons and, at one time, me—and where we were last week.]

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La entrada principal (The main entrance)

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La Feria, como el 18 de Septiembre Chileno, es el evento anual más emblemático de Illinois al sur de Chicago.  Es dedicado a al agricultura de Illinois, y  granjeros, y especialmente sus hijos, traen sus mejores vacas, chanchos, cabras, caballos y hasta gallos y conejos  para mostrarlos y competir para premios. [The fair, like Chile’s 18th of September independence celebration, is downstate Illinois’ most emblematic annual event. It is dedicated to Illinois agriculture, and Illinois farmers, and especially their children, bring their best cows, pigs, goats, horses and even chickens and rabbits to show and to compete for prizes.]
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La feria es para divertirse, ver los animales, montar en los juegos mecánicos….
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Mapes    

              La reina de las vacas (The queen of cows)

                                                          

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….y mirar la famosa vaca de mantequilla. [And see the famous butter cow.]

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 …y más que todo, vamos a la feria para comer las comidas ricas y poco saludables que son especialidades de la feria. [… and above all, eat the deliciously unhealthy fair foods.]
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Aquí tenemos algunos de los antojitos principales: “hotdogs y dogs de choclos,”  hamburguesa, cebollas floreándoos, lomos empanizados, filetes de pollo, macarrones con queso fritos, porotos verdes fritas, picles de eneldo fritos, sándwiches de costillos sin huesos, espirales y papas fritas, churrascos de lomo vetado, y filetes de bagre estilo cajun.
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También limonadas agitadas, queques del embudo, te helado, longanizas polacos y italianos, gyros (sándwiches en pan árabe)   Tal vez has notado que en la feria, comida frita es el rey.  [Here we have some of the major delicacies: (translation of sign).  Also ( … more translations.)  You may have noticed that at the fair, fried food is king.]

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Hay que empezar con el corn dog, la comida mas famosa de la feria.  Es una salchicha pinchada con un palito y empanizado con masa de harina de maíz y trigo y, por su puesto, frito.  Se come con mostaza y/o catsup. ¡Comes un par! [We have to begin with the corn dog, the most famous fair food: a hotdog on a stick with a fried coating of corn meal and flour.  It is eaten with mustard and/ or catsup. Have a couple!)]

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Una llegada reciente, pero ahora esencial, es el blooming onion, la cebolla floreando: una cebolla cortado con un aparato especial, rebosado y frito. Sabrosisimo. [A recent arrival, but now essential, is the blooming onion, an onion cut with a special device, battered and fried. Yummy.]

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Pork tenderloin sanwich

Y para el sandwichchote tenemos que eligir entre el ribeye sandwich, que es como un churrasco, o el pork tenderloin, lomo de puerco aplastado, empanizado y (por su puesto) frito. Te recomiendo el tenderloin; es crocante y delicioso.  Pero no digas a tu cardiólogo.  [And for a major sandwich, we have to choose between the ribeye (like a Chilean steak sandwich) and the pork tenderloin, flattened, breaded and (of course) fried.  I recommend the tenderloin; it’s crisp and delicious.  But don’t tell your cardiologist.]

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Y para agregado, macarrones con queso fritos, o… (And to go with it, fried mac & cheese, or….)

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Pickles de eneldo fritos, o….  (fried dill pickles, or…)

  

Porotos verdes fritos. (fried green beans.)

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Y para tu postre, una buena oreja de elefante con harto azúcar flor…[And for dessert, a good elephant ear with plenty of powdered sugar….]

 .O tal vez, una queque de embudo, y para beber, una limonada agitado.

[Or perhaps a funnel cake and a lemon shake-up.]

Espero que en poco tiempo todas estas bombas de colesterol estén en el parque Hurtado para el dieciocho,  pero para ahora, te doy una recita si me dejas un comentario. [I bet that soon all these cholesterol bombs will be in the Padre Hurtado park for the eighteenth (of September independence day celebration), but for now, I’ll give you a recipe if you leave me a comment.]  

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! Buen provecho!  
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[1]Creo que es obvio porque escribo en ingles: tus correcciones de me español serán bienvenidos.