ECONOMICAL RESTAURANTS BOGOTA STREET FOOD
Food tells us so much about a country – the values, the people’s mindset and of course the history. In Colombia, food lovers will have a feast not only for their palate but also for quenching their thirst.
Nestled high in the Andean mountains there is Bogotá, the dynamic capital city. Despite the sprawling urban landscape, vibrant culture and rich history. Bogotá has thus far maintained a fairly low profile on the international gastronomic scene. However, beneath the surface of its bustling streets lies a vibrant food city waiting to be discovered. Explore Bogotá, a dynamic city that seamlessly blends rich traditions with modern charm.
Bogotá captivates with its contrasts—juxtaposing architecture, diverse population, and cuisine as rich as its culture.
Spanish influence shapes Colombian cuisine, blending over time with native, African, and Arabic culinary traditions. This, in turn, has created truly diverse and unique Colombian flavors.
Colombian cuisine stands out with distinct regional styles: Amazonian, Andean, Caribbean, Orinoco, and Pacific. As the capital, Bogotá blends regional cuisines, offering a vibrant dining scene with delightful dishes and drinks.
Bogotá’s markets, historic neighborhoods, and local restaurants offer a vibrant blend of Colombian life and cuisine. Bogotá’s neighborhoods are arranged interestingly, with zones having their own specialties.
Zona G, Bogotá’s Gourmet Zone, is famed for upscale dining with top-tier restaurants, bistros, and cafés. Here you can experience supreme gourmet dishes ranging from the finest international cuisine to innovative Colombian gastronomy.
Zona T, on the other hand, is the city’s entertainment district. Here are found a mix of trendy restaurants, bars and clubs.
Chapinero Alto, Bogotá’s “Brooklyn,” offers trendy restaurants, stylish cafés, and innovative eateries in a chic setting. From artisanal coffee shops to upscale dining establishments, Chapinero Alto is a wonderful section of the city.
La Candelaria, the historic heart of Bogotá, is the hub for traditional Colombian cuisine. Its cobblestone streets are lined with charming eateries and street food stalls serving local specialties. Here are iconic institutions here, like La Puerta Falsa, as well as the city’s best museums.
Colombia is gaining fame for its food culture, with flavorful seafood, hearty meats, and rich spices. However, the country’s street food is equally popular and loved by both locals and visitors. Colombian street food is a must-try, offering regional flavors that showcase the country’s rich culinary heritage.
Bogotá has tremendous variety, superb quality and low prices for its street food. On bustling street corners, enjoy popular Colombian treats like arepas, chontaduro, obleas, and buñuelos.
Visit a street market, stroll among the fruits and vegetables, and taste the flavors and brilliant colors. Enjoy a scintillating cup of coffee. Do all of this while walking the streets of Bogotá experiencing the city in its true colours.
Inhale the aromas, the sights and the tastes of fresh fruits and vegetables in all their freshest glory. Markets offer unique vegetables like cubio and guatila, banana leaves for tamales, achiote for coloring, and fragrant fruits like pitaya and maracuyá.
There are food stands that sell the entire repertoire of Colombian dishes, including a popular combo of eggs, cheese, bread, hot chocolate and caldo, a delicious beef rib soup. From crispy empanadas to tropical fruit platters, Colombian street food offers a unique gastronomic journey that captivates both locals and visitors.
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Here are some of the many delicious offerings of Bogotá street food that can be enjoyed all over this fascinating city:
Ajiaco
Known as Bogotá’s famous signature dish, ajiaco is as much a part of the Bogotá experience as the city’s cultural sites and towering mountains. Thanks to the city being at an elevation of 8,646 feet/2,620 meters, it can get quite chilly, especially at night. Thus ajiaco is the perfect remedy to warm the body as well as the spirit. This steaming soup is made with chicken, three types of potatoes, herbs, and corn and served with avocado and rice. For additional flavour and texture fresh cream and capers are added on the top.
Lechona
Mainly prepared for weddings, birthdays and special events, but found too in the streets, lechona is a juicy stuffed, roasted pig. To make it, cooks pack a suckling pig with yellow peas, potatoes, green onions, yellow rice, cumin, garlic and fresh herbs. The pig is then roasted for several hours in a brick oven. Originally from the Tomila, a single lechona pig can feed as many as 30 to 100 people and is typically served with arepas.
Tamales
Enjoyed across all of South America and the Caribbean, tamales are an incredibly popular fixture of Bogotá street food and indeed all of Colombia. Tamales are comprised of rice, corn flour and chicken. The ingredients are wrapped in plantain or banana leaves and steam-cooked accordingly. They are often served for breakfast with a cup of hot chocolate and cheese.
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Empanada
A filling street food or satisfying side dish, Colombian empanadas distinguish themselves from those of other Latin American countries by their fillings. Stewed beef, pork, or chicken seasoned with hogao, a creole sauce made from sauteing tomatoes and onions with coriander, cumin and garlic. Crescent-shaped and deep-fried, the corn flour base is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Other fillings can include cheese, ground beef with mashed potatoes and pumpkin.
Arepa
The aroma of arepas pervades the air all over the city, which tells you all you need to know about the popularity of these tortilla-like maize treats. Arepas are a quintessential Colombian street food, serving as a canvas for a variety of toppings and fillings. These round, flat corn cakes are griddled to perfection, creating a slightly crispy exterior that gives way to a soft and doughy interior.
Arepas can be enjoyed throughout the day, whether stuffed with cheese, meat, eggs or simply served with butter and salt. Each region in Colombia has its own twist on the classic arepa, reflecting the local ingredients and culinary traditions. Arepas are available everywhere and make for a super snack, especially when you are on the go. Interestingly, clay slabs dating well into the pre-Columbian era have been found in Colombia suggesting that arepas could be a tradition that is thousands of years old.
Aromática
This herbal fruit tea utilizes herbs, fresh fruit and sugar cane to create a deliciously toasty beverage. Vendors will provide you with various fruits that you can put into your hot water to infuse it with the fruity taste that you so desire.
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Caldo
This breakfast or supper broth served hot has two primary permutations: caldo de costilla (simmered beef ribs) and caldo de carne (boiled with sliced beef). The soup itself features potatoes, cilantro, garlic, onion and of course beef. It is so popular and universally found not just in Bogotá, but the entire country.
Hot Chocolate and Cheese
Before you judge the combination of these ingredients, ask yourself if you like hot chocolate and also cheese. If you answered yes to both, then you are well placed to enjoy this much-loved Colombian drink. Hot chocolate, which is an absolute necessity in the lives of the locals, is served accompanied by some farm cheese that can then be dipped into the beverage, causing it to melt. Totally delicious.
Obleas
This is the sweetest of street snacks and is a firm favorite with locals and visitors to Bogotá. The dessert consists of two large, round wafers that can sandwich a filling of your choice. Arequipe (caramel), raspberry sauce, coconut, cheese or a combination are most common.
Sancocho
A hot soup that blurs the line between a soup and a stew, sancocho is made by boiling a whole chicken in broth with plantains, yucca, corn and potatoes. Oftentimes it takes a whole day to cook, it is topped with fresh cilantro, onions and lime.
Rice and avocado are served alongside fresh goodness. Variations of it can be made with pork, beef or fish and each region of Colombia will have its own distinctive way of seasoning it.
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Chicharrón
Perhaps one of the most popular ways to eat pork (try to pronounce chicharrón!) in Colombia are these fried pork rinds, readily available everywhere and very inexpensive. Deep fat fried until crispy, they are then cut into small pieces and served with an arepa, plantain or potato. Enjoy from street vendors throughout the day.
Fruit salad
In Colombia, you will see fruit and fruit juices being sold in almost every street. The variety of exotic fruits and different combinations is almost infinite. The names are tantalizing and unusual – lulo, maracuyá, granadilla, pitaya, nispero and others.
Tart mango biche is green mango that is cut into thin long strips that have a spaghetti-like appearance. You can have it sprinkled with lime, pepper, salt or even doused with sweetened condensed milk.
Salpicon is a large serving of amazing tropical fruits mixed together to form delicious a fruit salad, with or without ice cream.
Buñuelos
Colombians love buñuelos – fried cheesy, doughy balls. They use a special type of cheese called queso costeño which is only found in Colombia and gives them a special and unique flavour. They are served all year and any time of day and you can find a bakery or street stand selling buñuelos virtually anywhere.
Bocadillo
No visit to Colombia would be complete without trying the famous Bocadillo, a sweet made from guava pulp and panela (sugar cane) that is condensed into a bitesize snack wrapped in a banana leaf. It is one hundred percent natural, and does not have any chemicals, preservatives or additional flavorings, resulting in one of the healthiest snacks of all time. It is used as a natural energy source for the body.
This sweet snack is such an intrinsic part of Colombian life that it was declared a cultural symbol of Colombia in 2006 in a national survey.
Cocadas
Cocadas are delicious treats and a traditional popular dessert in Colombia. There are so many types of Cocadas, the main ingredient is always grated coconut, which is an important part of Caribbean cuisine, while other ingredients depend on the region. It has a sweet and crunchy flavor that makes it an enjoyable sweet after a meal.
Carimañolas
They do not look like anything special, but they sure are! Torpedo-shaped yuca fritters, stuffed with either cheese and/or meat are a traditional Colombian street food. Yuca is a root vegetable with a high starch content, similar to a potato and presented this way are totally delicious.
Kebabs
Follow the heavenly aroma of grilled meat, potatoes, peppers and onions to a vendor on any lively street. The wooden skewers of meat are marinated in a mixture of cumin, cilantro, garlic, onions, salt, pepper and olive oil, and then roasted on a grill. Enjoy alone or with an arepa and a splash of fresh lime.
Deditos
Deditos, little fingers in Spanish, are a delightful cheesy treat that adds an extra layer of flavor to Bogotá’s street food scene. These fried cheese sticks are crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, making them an irresistible snack for lovers of cheese. Oftentimes served with a tangy dipping sauce, deditos offer a satisfying balance of textures and flavors that will keep you going back for more.
Pandebono
The legend behind pandebono is that an Italian baker living in Cali created the bread. When he sold it, he used to walk the streets shouting ‘pane del buono’ (good bread). The name has since become synonymous and the bread has become one of the most popular in the country. It is made with melted cheese, yuca flour and eggs, shaped into bagel or ball shapes. Pandebono is best eaten when it is warm right out of the oven.
Morcilla
This is a blood sausage made with ground pork and pork blood. Morcillas are easily identified by their dark, deep reddish-brown color. They are a very traditional dish across Colombia and you should have no problem finding some in Bogotá.
Morcillas are prepared from scratch and the process involves squeezing the mixture into sausage casings. The ground meat is mixed with pork blood, onions and rice before being put into casings. Colombian recipes tend to add cilantro and occasionally green peas as well. The sausages are then usually boiled to cook. Delicious.
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Fritanga
A platter dish widely sold amongst street food vendors consisting of a combination of ingredients heaped onto a large plate usually barbecued on the street. Comprising chorizo, sausage, plantain and an assortment of vegetables, it is extremely tasty.
Fritanga originally a Nicaraguan dish, has now been adopted into Colombian cuisine. The story behind its origin is a tragic one as it was first created after the 1931 earthquake, which hit Nicaragua. The people were forced to cook their food in the street with barbecues. Now, fritanga is cooked over much of Latin America and in particular in Bogotá.
Aborrajados
A specialty that is not easily found in Bogotá as it originates in the Valley de Cauca and is a regional favorite. However, should you see it, be sure to try this delicacy. Aborrajados consists of deep-fried plantains stuffed with cheese to create a crispy, healthy bite.
Papas Rellenas
A delectable potato delicacy found in many parts of Latin America and very much so in Colombia, it is a true delight for the taste buds. Papas Rellenas, or stuffed potatoes, are divine treats consisting of mashed potatoes that are wrapped around a savory filling, typically made with ground beef, onions, garlic and a blend of spices.
The potato mixture is then shaped into a ball, coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried until golden and crispy. Whether it is served as a street food snack or as part of a traditional meal, Papas Rellenas holds a special place in the hearts of many.
One of the best things about Papas Rellenas is their versatility. These delightful potato balls can be enjoyed in a variety of ways:
- Savoury snack on the go
- Delicious appetizer
- Main course, paired with a fresh salad or other side dishes
Papas Rellenas are sure to satisfy your cravings for something unique and flavourful.
Exploring Bogotá’s street food offers a genuine insight into the country’s culinary landscape and cultural heritage. From the traditional arepa to modern twists on classic street food, the experience presents a flavourful journey that is both delicious and enlightening.
Stroll through Colombia’s vibrating streets and markets, allowing yourself to be guided by tantalizing aromas and vibrant colors. Venture on a culinary expedition that will leave you yearning for more of Bogotá’s mouth-watering street foods.
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