COLOMBIA.

As soon as we got into Colombia we experienced the food and I started our recollection of memories.
$1 USD equivalent to approximately $1,800 Colombian pesos.


Hit Juice.
Simple bottled juice, not too sweet and for $1,200 Colombian pesos this will take your thirst away.

Pizza in Cartagena.
I did not write the name of the place but Ludwig from Stahlratte is well known there. We had dinner with him and his wife, the German couple we met in the hotel where we stayed who are travelling on a motorcycle with a side car around South America and other folks. This place was able to provide us with a delicious pizza “Todas Carnes” (All Meats) for $15,000 Colombian pesos, not bad… the company we had made it worth it!!!

Jota’s fish.
A little bit about Casa Grande before I introduce you to some of Jota’s creations. Casa Grande used to be the main stop out of many vacationing fincas, restaurants and a discotheque around 1983 in Colombia. For a little while the operation of Casa Grande was not the same due to the safety issues Colombia had to go through. Now days, Casa Grande welcomes local and international tourism again at a reasonable price and with wonderful service. This place has eight cabins ($60,000 Colombian pesos/night/cabin for 4 people), camping area ($12,000 Colombian pesos/night/person) or simply the opportunity to spend the day here for $5,000 Colombian pesos/person (access to the beach, showers and toilets). The personnel in the restaurant of Casa Grande is always willing to prepare fresh food made with local ingredients; the most popular and well known dish is “curvinata” fish in a coconut sauce.
Casa Grande is a tranquil and safe place, near a river that flows into the ocean at just few minutes from here. Casa Grande is easy to locate in Mendihuaca at five minutes from Tayrona Park and ten minutes from Guachaca (by vehicle), a place where you can get basic items for cooking or snacks if you prefer to prepare your own meals.
Jota, Jorge Mendoza, the owner of this place is dedicated to his business and to the customers; by looking at his smile you can tell what his forte is, people. Born Colombia and Canadian by destiny, Jota is again in the land that gave him birth in order to support his community and grow with his people.
How do we know Jota? Through Rigoberto, a great friend who we will never forget. Rigoberto is basically hosting us here and ensuring we find out more about Colombian culture; even from Canada he still takes care of us very well… Thanks Rigoberto.
If you are in Colombia do not forget to stop by Casa Grande (www.casagrandesurf.com) anytime of the year except for January (1-20) or Semana Santa (Spring Break) because according to Jota Junior you cannot even walk around here due to the huge increase in tourism, 600 people per day… He says this area becomes a “despelote” (busy busy).
Now I can tell you what we had the first day we arrived here. We had some delicious fish on a coconut sauce with coconut rice, salad and patacones (fried compressed plantains). This would normally cost $15,000 Colombian pesos.

Jota’s empanadas.
Three delicious Colombian empanadas, fried with cheese inside; this makes for a full meal. Cost=$1,500 Colombian pesos/each.

Tuna Creations.
This wonderful well packed tuna can be used in any dish. We just made a sandwich and the best part of it is the light weight of the packaging. It is a product of Ecuador, purchased in Panama and packed by an American company… but we cannot find this anywhere else… weird…
The package costs between $0.9-1.3 USD

Colombian beer.
One of them named Club Colombia, strong enough and tasty. Cost at a restaurant $3,000 Colombian pesos

Jota’s beef.
Another dish at Casa Grande. The same kind of presentation than the fish but with beef. Cost=$15,000 Colombian pesos.

Parasites lentils soup.
An awesome creation, a variation of what I would normally make at home with spinach and potatoes. The only other variation is that it contains a lot of dead parasites that we spotted in the water, it sounds horrible but it is the truth; while taking a closer look of the water of the area where we were we found lots of little animals in the water and even though we tried to get them out we could only hope they die with boiling water. We will have to improve our technique of dealing with water in Colombia because we have met a few sick travellers who have ended up in the hospital. We drink bottled water or filter and boil it before use.

Ingredients:
1 Package of dried lentils
1 Small onion
1/2 Red bell pepper or “Chile dulce”
Garlic
Potatoes
Pepper
Salt

Preparation:
1) Cook the lentils with water for about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes.
2) Watch for the potatoes until they become soft and then add the rest of the ingredients.
3) Once they are all cooked, add salt and pepper to taste. You could also add some Knorr chicken broth if you want to have the extra flavour.
4) Enjoy this delicious meal full of protein for a minimum cost.

Cost=$1.5 USD for about 4 people…

Water.
Yes water. You can find water in Colombia in bags. Take a look.
300 ml=$500 Colombian pesos. 600 ml, take a guess? 1,000 Colombian pesos.

Jota’s Arepas de huevo.
Arepas is almost like a tortilla but ticker. They can be simple arepas, just the tick-non fried tortilla or it can be fried with an egg inside. The simple arepa is probably Brian’s favourite Colombian dish. The prices are:
Simple arepa: $1000 Colombian pesos each.
Arepa de huevo: $3000 Colombian pesos each.

OFI Beach Bread.
What is that? It is an Opportunity For Improvement… yes. Brian, as usual, comes up with great ideas and when possible we try to give a step forward to materialize them.
In this case, while at the beach, not being able to take more sun because we had enough in San Blas Islands and our bodies were cooked, we decided to make a little oven in the beach. It needs to be improved but the bread we got was just fine. Some of my beautician skills came in handy…

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
4 Cups of flour
1 Tbsp. Sugar
¾ Tbsp. Baking soda
1 ½ Cups water
2 Tsp. vinegar (to activate baking soda)

Preparation:
1) Mix all ingredients well together and kneed for two minutes.
2) Let it sit for at least ½ hour.
3) Cut an “X” on top of the bread loaf.
4) Bake at 200oC if possible. In our case we were not able to measure the temperature in our rustic beach oven, but it worked!!!

Cost=$0.50 USD and a bit of muscle… Brian’s muscle.

Palm tree leaves are awesome!!!

Jota’s chicken.
I love chicken and I had a wonderful piece of chicken with boiled potatoes, salad and coconut rice. Price is normally $15,000 Colombian pesos. Simple and tasty…

Jota’s fish soup.
This tasty soup is made out of different types of fish from the area; they don’t waste anything here so the heads of the fish are the main component. Regular price: $4,000 Colombian pesos and as a combo $7,000 Colombian pesos which includes coconut rice, patacones and salad.