Ancestral Colombian Cuisine Makes its Comeback

The resilient South American nation is rebuilding, this time around cuisine

by NANCY HELLMRICH

Courtesy of Açaí Gastronomía “Have you seen James Cameron’s Avatar, the blue guys? The Amazon … it’s just crazy, I mean it’s magical. Like really magical. There are animals so crazy that your mind cannot even grasp them. There is this bird, pitch black. But you kind of turn your head a little bit and the sun hits it in the right way and it turns bright blue and you’re like, WHAT? You move a little. Black. Bright blue. Black. And when it flies, it kind of shifts black blue black

blue.” — Juan Felipe Lozano Sanz, Owner Caffa Colombia

Everywhere I went in Colombia, I found exuberance, a sense of liberation and renewal. My first stop was a Bogotá coffee café where the owner, Juan Felipe, effused about the nation’s biodiversity and insisted I visit a place called Açaí Gastronomía Amazónica—but not before asking me if I was bold.

I assured him I was. I’ve traveled to other destinations that raised eyebrows among my friends. This was my first time in Colombia. While some cautioned me against the trip, others offered a simple “stay safe,” knowing there was little they could say to change my mind. Colombia is embarking on a peaceful new era, direct flights are plentiful, the dollar is strong against the peso, and the culinary scene is garnering international attention. How could I resist?

AÇAÍ Gastronomía Amazónica

After being seated at a table in view of the open kitchen, I was introduced to Sebastian, a confident young man in a chef’s apron with expensive-looking leather accents. Sebastian is the sous chef of Açaí, and was pleased to be my lunch guide.

“The dishes here are about transformation,” he began, with more genuine personal enthusiasm than the usual dining room pomp. “So when you try them, immediately you will have one

strong flavor and then it’s going to slowly develop the rest of the flavors.” So far so good. The atmosphere was welcoming and, at first glance, the menu seemed harmless. Then Sebastian called my bluff. “So are you open to trying the mojojoy?” Right out of the gate. Just like that. Had Juan Felipe called ahead?

“It’s a worm from the Amazon. Basically, when the palm tree has died, bumblebees put their eggs inside. It’s how the tribes get most of their protein. Here, we have an adaptation of that. We treat the skin with smoke, we cure it, we fill it with fish and the fat of the worm. Then we fry it and we serve it with a ferment called tucupi. Would you like to try it?” Tucupi is extracted from wild manioc root. Raw, the root’s juice contains hydrocyanic acid. When cooked properly, it is safe, nutritious, and the acidic nature of the ferment brings out the flavors of a dish. “Sure. Let’s do it,” I said. In for a penny, in for a pound. Next, he asked about drinks.

I had ducked out of work to try this restaurant in Bogotá’s Los Martires (The Martyrs) neighborhood, where butcher shops abound and the “herb” market in Plaza Samper Mendoza attracts growers and sellers from remote regions. Recently inventoried by the Instituto Para la Economía Social (IPES), the market is a gold mine for chefs in search of esoteric ingredients, many purported to have magical properties. After lunch, I had important meetings scheduled but one drink wasn’t going to ruin me.

“The penultimate course was a spoonful of honey, produced by stingless bees that pollinate Amazonian kapok trees. It’s one of their most treasured ingredients.”

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Sebastian returned with two gourd bowls. In the first, a basil extraction had been topped with chia seeds to give it mouth feel, or “bite.” The verdant concoction combined herbs from the Amazon with viche, an Afro-Colombian distillation legalized in late 2021 and now part of the nation’s cultural and ancestral heritage. The second was made with the “blood” of açaí berries and chuchuguaza, an Amazonian spirit. At first, I didn’t notice the lemon ants, which have, according to Sebastian, a “very nice aroma” that comes from citronellal pheromones. In Colombia, ants aren’t a party trick for tourists. “Insect caviar” is part of the nation’s culinary heritage and often cited as the reason for long lives.

“So this is a red-bellied pirañha,” Sebastian was back. “We serve it with the head and the tail because it is very common to cook and eat on the side of the Amazon River.” The cevichestyle fish had been cured in a spicy marinade and plated with mounds of soft cheese, sweet-potato-like manioc puree, hormigas cabezonas (prized big-headed ants), avocado powder, and açaí-smoked salt.

As I feasted, locals began to stream in, filling the place with laughter and conversation. At the table next to mine, a couple was joined by a man who looked like a jiu-jitsu master in a chef’s jacket. This was Andrews Arrieta, the restaurant’s chef and owner. “He’s not from the Amazon but he went there to study the culture,” Juan Felipe had said with the same blue-black-bird enthusiasm. Sebastian beamed when I asked him about working with Arrieta. “I go to the Amazon with Chef at least twice per year. When I was a kid, I traveled with my dad down the river many times.”

Next, Sebastian brought me his favorite dish, my favorite as well if I had to choose, curadito de pirarucu. “Basically what we do is we hang a full piece of the pirarucu. We smoke it, we cure it with salt and a bit of sugar, and then we hang it like a ham. Through this process it develops flavors.” After a time, they slice the dried fish thinly, roll it in dates and queso paipa – the only cheese granted origin status by the Colombian government – and serve it with smoked plantain. Absolutely delicious.

Pirarucu are native to the Amazon River basin and can grow to 15 feet in length. In Colombia, they were once endangered and have recovered nicely thanks to successful management. In nearby Bolivia, the carnivorous paiche are considered invasive, which has given rise to invasivorism wherein humans try to re-balance the ecosystem by eating intruders. As an omnivore, I was happy to help.

For the main course, I had pirarucu fillet on a pureed cauliflower base with powdered coca leaf residue, another of Colombia’s ancestral ingredients. On the side was salvaje, Spanish for wild, because “it’s an aggressive type of plate” with the bright flavors of tiny, juicy tomatoes, plantain, and balls of smoked fish and manioc.

The penultimate course was a spoonful of honey, produced by stingless bees that pollinate Amazonian kapok trees. “Compared to other types of honey, this one is super runny. It’s super acidic, super floral.” And super rare. “It’s one of my most treasured ingredients.”

“Now I’m going to bring you one of my special desserts. It’s called Victoria Regia, in honor of a plant.” That plant, also known as Victoria Amazónica, is the second largest water lily in the world, a marvel I beheld at the Jardin Botanico de Bogotá the following day. Sebastian’s was made with delicate white chocolate petals and so elegantly assembled I was torn between insulting the chef and destroying its beauty.

At LEO, even the dishes are supplied by producers in remote communities Restaurante LEO

Andrews and Sebastian aren’t the only chefs bringing ancestral Colombian cuisine to the world’s attention. The undisputed queen is awardwinning Chef-Restaurateur Leonor Espinosa who operates Restaurante LEO, in Bogotá’s mod Chapinero Alto neighborhood. Leo’s daughter,

Courtesy of Restaurante Leo

Sommelier Laura Hernández-Espinosa, runs her own kitchen and beverage salon in the same location. While the menu at Açaí Restaurante informs diners about the gastronomy of the Amazon, Leonor and Laura’s ciclo-biome menu brings attention to all six of Colombia’s natural regions – Caribbean, Pacific, Orinoco, Amazon, Andean, Insular.

In Sala de Leo, I took part in the eight-course tasting menu, which is a divine dining experience with expertly choreographed table service, synchronized plate drops, and edifying explanations for each dish. “We do not work with mass quantities,” says Leonor through a translator. By serving a multitude of dishes in perfectly small portions, she manages to satiate her guests while providing a livelihood for a breathtaking range of producers. LEO is not only a restaurant, it’s also an engine of social and economic development.

A culinary artist-slash-anthropologist, Leonor says, “I do not use a single ingredient without having lived in its territory, because I would not know then about its greatest potential. The potential I give to the ingredient arises from the experience.” Bringing a new ingredient on board can take up to a year. Before that, standards are put in place and tests are done to understand how the ingredient grows, whether it’s possible to use without exhausting the species, etc. Only after this research and experimentation does Leonor begin to consider its uses in the kitchen.

For sommelier Laura, the challenge is twofold. Finding beverage pairings that are true to the philosophy of supporting Afro and indigenous communities and biodiversity. And ensuring those drinks have “a dialog” with Leonor’s distinctive dishes. Laura’s solution is the in-house distillation of plants and herbs she and her mother encounter on their expeditions, which results in a range of distinctive tinctures and spirits not found anywhere else in the world.

Photos Courtesy of Restaurante Leo

"By serving a multitude of dishes in perfectly small portions, she manages to satiate her guests while providing a livelihood for a breathtaking range of producers."

Ask your travel advisor about pairing dinner in Bogotá with an excursion to one of Colombia’s growing regions.

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A Taste of Curaçao’s Jewish Food Legacy by ELYSE GLICKMAN

“Being an effective tour guide is like being a good singer,” says Curaçao-born tour guide Emlyn Pietersz. “You can sing anywhere in the world if you have a good song people can relate to.” He was raised Catholic but emphatically embraces his Jewish ancestry to the point where he’s become the go-to guy for Jewish heritage tours. I could spend hours listening to his colorful stories about how he traced his mother’s family line back to 1651, when the Dutch granted sanctuary to Sephardic Jewish merchant families on the Caribbean island after they were expelled from Portugal and Spain during the Inquisition.

Papiamento, Curaçao’s mother tongue, is Emlyn’s starting point for interpreting almost 500 years of Jewish impact on local culture. He details how it began as a trade language between Africans and Europeans and later evolved into a melting pot of different African and European languages. Through generations, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Hebrew influences and words entered the language. Without missing a beat, he draws my attention to how spices, herbs, and produce grown on Curaçao and brought in by European Jews made their way into one-pot stews, flavorful grilled chicken and fish, and sides at every restaurant and market we visit.

We’re walking through capital city Willemstad’s Plasa Bieu, where family-operated stalls serve up foods that sustained their ancestors and continue to delight locals and visitors. “We think of it as the Caribbean’s first food court,” Emlyn tells me with a wry smile. “Jewish families helped build Curaçao’s economy and created jobs in agriculture, trade, construction, and boat building. Their house staff learned the Portuguese-Jewish techniques of stewing meats and vegetables, and served it to their families. Although some things changed with the invention of the electric and gas stoves, there are still restaurants serving chicken, fish, goat, and vegetarian dishes based on recipes passed down through the generations.”

During my week-long stay, I find that many of those dishes can be found everywhere from street food kiosks to white tablecloth restaurants. Examples include pasteche, an

empanada made for the Purim holiday; arrepa de pumpkin (pumpkin pancakes); stoba de cabrito (goat stew); morros (rice and beans); and tostones (banana fritters). Keshi yená, a skillet-baked stuffed gouda cheese and chicken casserole, is regarded as one of Curacao’s national dishes.

One rainy afternoon during a visit to Landhuis Rooi Catootje, an 18th Century heritage house, Emlyn tells the story behind “Black Cake,” also known as “Eternal Cake,” a rich, earthy sweet that began as Curaçao’s answer to matzo. “It was inspired by the biblical Exodus and formulated as something that could last in the desert for 40 days,” he says. He then connects it to his family history. “Often filled with dried and fermented fruits, it takes six months to make and is an integral part of many special occasions among Jews and Catholics in Curaçao. My mom still has a small piece of it dating to her wedding in 1955.”

Emlyn’s meaningful associations between Curaçao’s Jewish legacy and the dishes that have emerged promise that interest in the cuisine will be just as enduring.

Contact your travel advisor to find out more about edifying tours on the island of Curaçao.

Keshi Yená

Serves 4 • Prep time: 10 minutes • Cook time: 25 minutes

3 Tbsp vegetable oil 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 red bell pepper, chopped 1 medium chopped onion 2 Tbsp raisins ½ cups pimiento-stuffed green olives, chopped 3 cups shredded or ground cooked chicken 3 Tbsp chopped dill pickle 2 tsp tomato paste ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp coarsely ground black peppercorns 16 slices thinly sliced deli-style Gouda or Edam cheese (about 10 oz)

Heat oil in a large skillet, add peppers and onions, and sauté for five minutes.

Add raisins, olives, chicken, pickles, tomato paste, and salt, cook five minutes, then set aside to cool. Grease four 8-oz ramekins and line them with 12 slices of cheese.

Fill the lined ramekins with the chicken mixture.

Top with remaining slices of cheese, and tuck in anything that is hanging over the edge. Place ramekins in a large pan and add hot water until it is halfway up the sides. Cover the pan tightly with foil or a lid and place over medium-high heat. Bake 15 minutes and serve immediately.