What do people eat in Colombia?
Colombians eat an arepa or bread with eggs for breakfast, a big lunch of soup, rice, beans, meat and plantain between 12:00 and 14:00, and a lighter dinner. An arepa with cheese is about 330 kcal.
Typical dishes and their calories
Breakfast
Breakfast is huevos pericos, eggs scrambled with tomato and spring onion, with an arepa, a flat corn cake, and coffee or hot chocolate. In Bogotá and the cold Andean towns there is changua, a soup of milk with poached eggs, spring onion and coriander. Pandebono, a chewy cheese roll made with cassava starch, is the quick version, about 160 kcal each with a tinto.
Lunch
Lunch is the main meal, eaten between 12:00 and 14:00. The almuerzo corriente, also called corrientazo, is a set lunch: a soup, then a plate of rice, beans, a piece of meat or fish, salad and fried plantain, a glass of fresh juice and sometimes a small dessert. In Bogotá the soup is often ajiaco, chicken with three kinds of potato and corn on the cob, served with cream and capers, about 450 kcal a bowl.
Dinner
Dinner comes after 18:00 and is smaller than lunch. At home it can be an arepa with cheese, the soup left over from lunch, or some fruit. Eating out, it is meat or fish with rice and plantain. In Antioquia the big plate is bandeja paisa: beans, rice, ground beef, chorizo, crisp pork belly, a fried egg, plantain, avocado and an arepa, about 1,200 kcal.
Starters
There is no real starter course, because the soup does that job at lunch. Patacones, green plantain squashed and fried twice, come with a meal or on their own with hogao, a tomato and onion sauce. Small fried empanadas with a potato and meat filling are dipped in ají, a vinegar and chilli sauce. One empanada is about 190 kcal.
Desserts
The sweet base of Colombia is arequipe, a milk caramel like dulce de leche. An oblea is two thin wafers with arequipe in between, sometimes with jam, cheese or cream, about 160 kcal. Bocadillo, a firm guava paste, is eaten with a slice of white cheese. At lunch the dessert is often small: a piece of panela, a sweet or fruit.
Drinks
Tinto is not red wine here. It is a small cup of black coffee, usually sweetened, drunk in the morning and after lunch, about 40 kcal. Aguapanela, unrefined cane sugar dissolved in water, is drunk hot or cold, about 100 kcal a glass. Fresh juice from lulo, passion fruit, blackberry or soursop comes with every set lunch. Aguardiente, an anise spirit, is the party drink.
Street food
Street food is arepas everywhere. In Bogotá it is the arepa de choclo, a sweet corn arepa with cheese, and on the Caribbean coast the arepa de huevo, fried with an egg inside. Carts sell empanadas, pandebono, buñuelos, round fried cheese dough balls, and cups of cut fruit. Obleas are made to order on the pavement.
Normal there, odd elsewhere
Hot chocolate in Bogotá comes with a slice of fresh cheese that you drop into the cup until it melts. In Santander people roast and eat hormigas culonas, big leafcutter ants, as a snack. Colombians drink a lot of juice, on average more than three quarters of a serving a day. And the arepa is eaten at breakfast, lunch and dinner.