The Colombians know how to put on the dog when it comes to feeding scientific visitors. Here’s the lunch we had yesterday (others have been just as good).
Apéritif: a jugo, green mango juice heavily infused with ginger. Spectacular!
Appetizer: Tropical fruit cup
Main course: ajiaco, a traditional chicken/potato soup from Bogotá. It comes with lots of mix-ins: capers, cream, hot sauce, parsley, rice, banana, avocado, and a disk of arepa, the Colombian equivalent of a tortilla.
Before doctoring:
After doctoring; this was one terrific meal:
Finally, postre: ripe sauteed plantains with a caramelly sauce.
There was also wine on offer, but why would anybody want booze when you can drink freshly-squeezed tropical fruit juice?
Many thanks to the organizers of this meeting, particularly Dr. Angela Restrepo, for running a fine symposium and providing terrific amenities. There is sightseeing today, and I’m off to Bogotá tomorrow.
Wow, that sounds like a meal I’d love. I’ve never heard of any Colombian restaurants in my state, though 🙁 Guess I’ll have to check for recipes online.
Are those black beans in there, or something else?
They’re called “alcaparras”, but as Jerry said they are know as capers in english.
Oh, the only capers I’ve seen were smaller and green, not dark brown like that. Maybe they were pickled, whereas these are fresh.
Yes, I was going to ask if those were the capers, since they’re so huge – they look more like plumped-up raisins. New fact: Colombian capers are big.
Ever had a caper berry? About the size of an average olive.
Thanks for the photos, I’m hungry now.
I always find it helps to remember that wine is fruit juice, although the best of it is quite old.
Yum!
DO WANT!
Nice photos of the food! That is something I very often do as well: Photograph my food in restaurants, if it seems specially worth it.
For example:
here
here
here
here
and
here
I just had my daily oatmeal for breakfast. I will try mightily not to permit your foodie pics and details to damage my day.
I read a review in this morning’s NYT of the movie made by Sebastian Junger: Restrepo about a platoon of US soldiers in Afghanistan. The camp was named for Pfc. Juan Restrpo, a medic killed soon after the platoon arrived in Afghanistan.
Then I see the name of Dr. Restrepo and was struck by it.
Oh man… This looks so good, and sadly it’s the kind of thing I’ll almost certainly never have the pleasure of tasting. 🙁