Street Eats

Hey all! I wrote this for www.ticartagena.com. Cos I'm exceptionally lazy, I'm just going to use it to provide the promised entry on the food here in Cartagena. Anyway, just explaining the formal-ish tone.

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The streets of Cartagena offer a virtual smorgasbord of sensory treats for the hungry visitor or resident. After devouring the city's colourful architecture, drinking in the postcard-worthy views and smacking your lips at the tasty musical offerings, you'll probably want to eat some actual food.

And the place to do it? Street-side of course.

Whether you are chasing a snack or something more substantial, a healthy start or a sweet denouement, take to the streets to experience food the way Cartagenans do whilst simultaneously gaining an insight into the people and culture of this incredible city.

Here's our pick of the best street eats from breakfast through to midnight snack. These should whet your appetite, but we suggest the real fun is found in discovering your own! Buen provecho! 

Breakfast Fast 

Start your day with the most quintessential of Colombian foodstuffs – the Arepa. Made using ground corn dough, these tasty treats take many forms; white, yellow, fried, grilled and stuffed.

Opt for a substantial, stick-to-your-guts serving of the Arepa de queso that will keep you going til lunch. White corn dough is mixed with cheese, shaped into squoval patties, then grilled until golden. The vendor will then strategically prong your arepa with a knife, to allow melted butter to seep into the crevices. Definitely a heart starter. Try to ignore the greasy transparency of your serviette once you've finished eating.

Equally popular is the arepa de huevo. These yellow, usually round, parcels of joy actually originated on the Colombian coast, but are now popular throughout the country. Made using yellow corn dough, an entire egg is added before frying. Some versions also include meat. Try to buy them fresh out of the fryer for finger-licking flavour.

For those watching their waistlines, a tropical fruit platter might be a better bet. Wave down one of the colourfully-costumed Pelenque women and watch as she transforms your plastic plate into a work of art – Maracuya (passionfruit), Lulo, Carambola (starfruit), Pitaya (dragonfruit), Sandia (watermelon), Nispero and Papaya are arranged decoratively for an antioxidant hit that tastes as good as it looks.

Pick up a tiny cup of black coffee or tinto from one of the thermos-toting vendors, then head to a bench in one of the Plazas to enjoy your breakfast al fresco.

Snack Attack

Either side of lunch you'll be chasing something small to tie you over and Cartagena's streets do not disappoint.

For our money, you can't beat a bag of mango biche. Colombians eat their mango unripe, crunchy and doused in lemon, salt and dried chilli powder. You can also buy green guava served in the same way. You will find carts selling the skinny soldiers of cut up fruit throughout the city. 

 

For an alternative tropical snack, find a coco frio cart – the vendor will pop a straw into the chilled coconut for you to slurp away. The energy-filled coconut water will return the spring to your step, then if you stick around, the vendor will cut open your finished coconut so you can gobble down the other other white meat inside.

If you make your way past the Torre de la Reloj towards Getsemani, you will stumble upon another foodie-find and a perfect afternoon snack: Cheese with guava. Eat the white, spongey cheese with a slab of the tart, ruby-red guava paste and you have something of a taste sensation.

Lunch

For Cartagenans lunch is the most important (read: largest) meal of the day. Locals will usually either paper-bag a meal from home or grab a styro-foam pack filled with fish, pork, beef or chicken grilled with onion and peppers and served with rice and lentils. Strangely, it will also sometimes come with a portion of what seems to be tinned spaghetti. Go figure.

To nab your own, simply ask someone on the street who is already eating, “de donde compraste” and s/he will point to a vendor walking the streets with large plastic bags filled with stacks of the styro-foam lunchboxes. Be warned, there is a limited window for purchasing this lunch option, normally between noon and 1.30pm.

Alternatively, make yourself a very traditional lunch of fritanga food – FRIED! Try some empanadas – semi-circular pastry pillows with assorted fillings (beef, chicken, cheese). Then be sure to load them up with plenty of salsa! We've had a number of favourable reports supporting our claims that the freshest are found on sale parallel to the wall at Calle 38 and Calle Zerrezuala (near the Exito Supermarket).

You'll probably also need something to wash it all down with. Again, the streets provide! You won't need to look far to locate one of the vendors pushing along a giant fishtank filled with icy juice. Perhaps try the sweet and sour tartness of a tamarind juice or a lemon/lime juice, to cut through that lunchtime grease. Also popular is Avena – a white drink made on oats and served both hot and cold. You can identify these vendors because the beverage is kept in giant silver vats.

Dinner Winner

If you're harbouring some nostalgia for the gloriously 70s dish that was the prawn cocktail – you're in luck! They never went out of fashion in Cartagena. Just beside the Torre del Reloj you will find a string of stalls selling coctel de camarones (some stalls also call themselves cevicherias although if you are expecting a Peruvian ceviche you will be disappointed). Choose your cup size (the different sized cups are on display and conveniently have the prices written on the outside), then choose your seafood – prawns/shrimp, squid, mussels, octopus or a combination. The vendor will combine your selection with finely diced purple onion and garlic, lime juice and a home-made thousand-island sauce. Eat your prawn cocktail with the water crackers provided and be sure to accept the complimentary mint for your garlic breath!

Something Sweet

Just because you are bypassing restaurants, there is no need to miss out on dessert. In fact, Cartagena has an entire dedicated street of sweets: el Portal de los Dulces. Opposite the Torre del Reloj (Clock Tower) in the Plaza de los Coches you will find stalls stacked high with sweet-filled glass jars. The candies are intensely sweet, so one will usually suffice. Examples include fist-sized mounds of coconut and condensed milk, tiny blocks of caramelized peanuts, slabs of sour guava or tamarind dipped in sugar, bolas de panela (brown sugar and popcorn balls) and muñecas de leche (“milk dolls”). 

 

Midnight munchies

So you've worked up an appetite shaking your stuff at Havana all night? Or perhaps you need something savoury to offset all those Cuba Libres? The man you need to see is DJ Hotdog. With his unique combination of pumping beats and calorific buns, this Costellan character is top dog in Plaza Trinidad.
Grab one laden with every conceivable condiment (give the pineapple or pina a try) and eat while chatting to other appreciative strangers, watching fire-twirlers and wiggling along to DJ Hotdog's musical stylings.

Sea Change

SUPER Chevere! I now live in Cartagena, Bolivar, Colombia.


Why? Hmm.. tough question. I was totally happy in Buenos Aires and had so many wonderful friends there. But I decided it didn't really have enough of the things I am really looking for in a chosen latin american home. It gets cold. It isn't close to water. And apart from meat, there isn't really a heap of cheap, interesting street food. It is also pretty darn expensive. So after an extremely small amount of research ("Hey guys.. where should I move?"), I decided to move to Cartagena.

How? My flight from Buenos Aires left at 6am. Which necessitated arriving at the airport at 3am. Which necessitated leaving home at 2.15am. Which necessitated returning home from a last-minute goodbye dinner at 1am to finish packing.
I flew to Lima, then Bogota, then Cartagena. 14 or so hours later I was at Cartagena Airport being picked up by self-appointed Cartagena ambassador, Willy. I had never met Willy before, but, through CouchSurfing I asked where might be a good area of Cartagena to live and what might be a good site to use to search. Next thing he is volunteering to pick me up from the airport and the next day he is taking myself and a new friend, Shelly, to eat some of the best pizza ever. Here is a photo:

 This is the Manzana (apple) pizza. It has blue cheese, apple, basil and a caramelised balsamic dressing. It also has the crispiest tastiest base. After the pizzas in Buenos Aires (thick base, 2 inches of bland cheese, make-your-hands-shiny greasiness) I felt completely vindicated in my decision to relocate.

But I'm kindof getting ahead of myself. The pizza came after an entire day of walking around Cartagena and feeling vindicated. Again, although I loved Buenos Aires, it was as though, upon arriving in Colombia, I could let out a big huge breath that I didn't realise I'd been holding in.  I'm probably explaining it badly.. but I think maybe it felt like the people (not my friends!! por favor!) of Buenos Aires take themselves really seriously and judge quite harshly so you don't really feel as though you can relax. 

Walking the streets here, mini-dancing along with all the latin music (can't wait to learn to distinguish all the different styles), the patchwork-painted buildings, the HISTORY, the colourful and exotic fruit, the random conversations with local strangers... I just couldn't wipe the smile off my face 

And that's ignoring the fact my arrival coincided exactly with the 52nd International Film Festival. This meant free movies held in centuries-old theatres, visiting dignitaries (GAEL walked past me on his way to the red carpet.. swoon!), after-parties and general city-wide buzz. Here's a photo of the outdoor screen set up in front of the Torre del Reloj (Clock Tower) on opening night:

When not going to movies, I have filled my daytimes with beach visits, old-town exploring, street-food sampling, and (until 2days ago) home-hunting.

In summary - the historic city is way cool. It is surrounded by a giant wall which is topped with sea-pointing cannons. The buildings inside are old and decorative and colourfully painted. They have wooden balconies with flashes of deep magenta bougainvillea (Hmm.. I'd never noticed how that plant has the word "bogan" in it. I might think about how it is and is not bogan-like later on) creeping over the balustrades and stretching out to create a romantic canopy. The sky seems to be incessantly, cloudlessly blue. The impressive wooden doors all have the most ornate and entertaining door-knockers - iguanas, fish, lions, geckos. They remind me of the Labyrinth and that scene where there is one doorknocker with the handle in his ears.. so he is deaf but can talk.. and the other who has the handle in his mouth, so he can't talk, but can hear. Agh! Sorry! Digress digress! Here is a doorknocker:

 I will do an entire, food-related post, but sofar my favourite thing to eat is a bag of mango biche. This is unripe mango that has crunch, cut into soldiers, then doused in freshly squeezed lime juice, chilli-pepper and salt. I could (and do) eat it every day. At least once. 

The other thing I love to do is to buy take-away beer or rum from the corner stores and drink it one of the many plazas or on the city walls overlooking the sea and the oldtown skyline. At one point, in one of his books, Gabriel Garcia Marquez talks of the "amethyst afternoons" here. He said something the night breezes too. Anyway.. while drinking my drink and sunset-gazing I like to put "amethyst afternoons" as the title on the mental photo I take. Either that, or the line from the Corona ad "From where you'd rather be".

The house-hunting was a bit more of a process. Early on, we asked someone what is the best way to find an apartment. They answered with "Walking and talking", and that's exactly what we did. 2 full days of walking the street, asking street-randoms, sniffing down leads, looking at palatial-sized, ocean-view rooms we couldn't afford, then rooms where we'd have to push the cockroaches off our beds to sleep at night. Finally we found a room and have been doing a happy dance ever since. It is a big room with a private bathroom in Getsemani, right around the corner from Plaza Trinidad. The Deuna (owner) is this eccentric old lady named Gladys who keeps cages of birds (lorikeets and cockatiels) in the courtyard. There are green plants everywhere and the sunlight comes into our room through a wooden-posted window in the most spirit-lifting way. The first morning waking up in our new home, Salma and I couldn't stop squealing with utter delight.

Oh! Salma! You won't know who she is. It seems strange because for the last few days we've spent 24hours a day together and it feels like I've known her a lifetime. I guess it's a bit of a story but basically, I learned that she was moving to Cartagena too and we decided we should look for apartments together. So before actually meeting her, I invited her to crash in my bed when she arrived. It sounds strange and random - but that's kindof how my life is these days so it doesn't really occur to me how odd that is anymore. I guess I just keep trusting my instincts and the fact that I am the luckiest person ever (ooh! please hubris - don't strike me down yet!).

So the Trinidad Plaza I referred to is like the heart of Getsemani. Basically it is a church with a large paved circular area in front, surrounded by bench seats and food and drink vendors. Young people will busk for money, backpackers will meet up before their night on the tiles, locals with play music from their boomboxes or swing around on their bikes, children will jump on the trampoline or play tiggy. It just has the best, most vibrant feel about it. People in our neighbourhood treat the pavement in front of their houses like a private balacony or backyard. They set up their chairs, play music, smoke and drink beers and call out to any girls that might happen to be walking past. Salma and I always do a bit of a wiggle-dance as we walk past and they blow us kisses. 

Anyway.. I already feel so at home here. Even by the time Salma arrived (by that stage I had been here 5 days) it seemed as though we were bumping into someone I knew every ten minutes or so, or I was telling her about some other piece of information I had gleaned, usually on the topic of food. We've been to rooftop houseparties overlooking the Cathedral, we've danced salsa in Cuban bars, I've downed rum with Latin America's best new film directors and we're generally living the latin dream.

So! Now I've found a home, I can concentrate on learning Spanish, salsa, windsurfing and find some kind of income. Hmm.. I'm kinda loving my life right now. (Ugh.. hubris.. sorry!!)

I'm sure there's more to write and tell you about, but I am itching to get back out there so I'm off! I also need to add more photos.. but they're mostly on facebook so you should be fairly well apprised on that front.

If any of you have been to Cartagena and have any recs or contacts please send me mail or comment below. Next post will probably be food. Or about yesterday's visit to Pelenque. Or the all-nighter I had filled with salsa dancing, bocagrande balcony rum-drinking and a refreshing morning swim with a bunch of skinny dipping friends accompanied by waiting police officers. Stay tuned etc etc