Soup, Meat and Ostriches

I know we said we would like to write about street food but unfortunately we haven´t eaten much of it thus far. So I´ll talk a little about the Colombian food we have had.

Our first night in Bogota we had an authentic Colombian meal. Not realizing how large they are, Matt ordered two tamales. A tamal in Colombia is mushed chickpeas with chicken and potatoes wrapped in a banana leaf. I had the ajiaco, a soup with chicken, three kinds of potatoes (though I couldn´t tell the difference), a stick of corn on the cob in a broth that tasted and looked a lot like egg yolk with a touch of cream on top. The meal was rather bland and although the corn look plump and delicious it was disappointing. We will continue to try more authentic Colombian food but maybe stay away from the ajiaco.

On day 5 in Villa de Leyva we decided to cook our own meal for a change. We met an Austrian guy named Robert who joined in on our plan. So we set out to find some meat and potatoes. The potatoes were easy to find but the meat was more of a quest. Upon entering the first Carniceria, we came across 3 shelves of stinking, discolored meat. When we asked for carne he brought out kidneys that were sitting directly above the tripe. We decided to pass but as we were leaving he said Mañana (tomorrow) letting us know that meat delivery is on Tuesdays. We had 2 more similar experiences before asking a restaurant to give us meat to which he laughed in our faces while shaking his head no. We finally found a shop that we had missed in our 2 hour quest. She showed us a huge cut of meat. There we asked for 1 inch slices and though she looked at us strangly, she did what we asked.

Back at the hostel we cooked the potatoes in the fire and seasoned them with salt and jalepeños. The meat we threw on the grill without seasoning heeding Robert´s advice (He grew up on a farm). Robert and I were the first to bite into our steaks. Mine was much thinner than Robert´s but neither of us could cut, let alone bite through the meat. I instantly gave up and after a few tries the guys did too. There was a pregnant dog hanging out so we fed her one of the tough steaks. At least she seemed to really enjoy it.

The following day we headed out to the ostrich farm. Some facts about ostriches that you may not know:

• 1 ostrich egg is equivalent to 24 chicken eggs
  


• They are generally over 6 ft tall
  


• They can run 60 km per hour for up to 15 minutes



• They will peck at shiny things esp. jewelry



• and they are quite aggressive

There were many other animals on the farm including llamas, water buffalo, ponies and goats. Feeding the ostriches was slightly intimidating given their size, speed and agressive nature. They pecked out at our hands quite forcefully, knocking most of the pellets to the ground and walked right up to your face if they knew you had food.

The ostriches then returned the favor, feeding us at the farm restaurant. We savored delicious ostrich hamburgers with fries. Interestingly ostrich meat is red but lean and lacks much flavor. It was a satisfying day at the ostrich farm.

We are now in San Gil the Colombian capital of adventure sports and fried ants.

And here are some additional pictures...