Culinary excursions are becoming a regular feature of our trips abroad which, apart from the obvious sustenance, are proving to be a good way of finding out about an area, a country, and its people.
This morning we headed to Bogotá’s Paloquemao market to see an array of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and flowers.
For the very best supplies 3am is the time to visit when produce is in abundance and the prices cheapest. Later in the day the prices go up. For an even better deal those in the know go straight to the vans arriving at that early hour, thus cutting out the middleman – the stall holder. The market supplies the locals, but the bulk of its trade is the restaurant business.
Some stalls offer just one product, such as avocado, while others have the usual array we would expect from markets in the UK. What is different here, however, is the range on offer. Colombia has 29 varieties of potato for example, and we saw five different types of avocado on display. The country keeps the most creamy and large avocados for its own markets sending, what we were told was, a poor quality small version to Europe. You’ve guessed it, those that we see on our own supermarket shelves. Our first tasting was a large avocado which was very creamy. Prices are less than £2 a kilo.
Having started with the familiar we moved on to the unfamiliar, with a variety of taste experiences from umm, to ugh. These included guanabana, a large green spiked outer with white interior and a few black pips. The taste was rather nondescript and however much I chewed it did not seem to disappear.
Lulo is an orange fruit which, when cut open, looks like a kiwi placed within an orange. It is rather sour and has an antiseptic (acquired) taste, although is popular when combined with sugar and water as a drink.
Curuba, rather like a small stumpy courgette on the outside, but similar to passion fruit with its large seeds on the inside, was sour, but did not compete with feijoa on taste which was on a par with cleaning fluid.
We walked throughout the market admiring an array of unfamiliar produce, including enormous spring onions, up to a metre in length. The country is self sufficient in fruit and vegetables, and has a diverse range but surprisingly it does not have yellow lemons. Flowers (particularly roses and chrysanthemums) are a big export market for Colombia, which is second only to Holland.
We then had a brief visit to Bogotá’s Gold Museum set up in 1934 to protect and interpret its findings of pre-Colombian artefacts. Today it houses more than 55,000 pieces.
Continuing with the arts we visited the Botero Museum housing works by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, together with his collection of paintings by Picasso, Renoir and Monet. Botero’s images of, predominantly, overweight people (all with similar faces) reminded me of British artist Beryl Cook. It was rather an acquired taste.
A trip to Bogotá would not be complete without a ride in the cable car to Montserrat Hill (elevation 3,152m above sea level) for a panoramic view over the city. Tomorrow we fly north to continue our journey.
Copyright: Words and photos Sue Barnard 2019