Street Meat & Ants..

The first few pieces of delictable street meet have been consumed!  In San Gil, Colombia (a mini Queenstown, New Zealand for fellow adrenaline junkines), we found 2 foods blog worthy.  The first is the local delicacy, ants.  They are not your typical, microscopic ants.  The ants are about the size of a soybean (pod and all) and have huge wings.  To cook, they take off the wings and throw them on the grill.  The ants then blacken up and get nice and crispy.  You get a pretty sizable bottle for about 20,000 Pesos (10 US Dollars) -- which is actually quite expensive for food down here.  The taste is unique, to say the least.  Chomping down is good as they are really crispy and have a nice crunch to them.  The flavor is that of burnt popcorn kernels. The down side is, like popcorn, the legs and various body parts get wedged in your teeth and you are left with a decidely ant-y aftertaste.  The experience is much improved with a cold cerveza. 

The ants! Each pod is half an ant, either the head or butt.

Street meat.  You can find it anywhere in the world and everyone has their own take on it.  In San Francisco, it is bacon wrapped hot dogs in the Mission.  In San Gil, Colombia, it is skewers of beef  (i think) with a potato on top!  While the meat is good, the real experience is in the atmosphere surrounding the meat.  One lady, with a 8 inch by 8 inch charcol grill, pumps out a minimum of 300 skeweres of meat a night, along with countless pieces of grilled corn and skewered chorizo.  Fan in one hand (to keep the coals red hot), constantly flipping meat in the other, she is the master of the grill.  She operates in the town square where, every night, the town of San Gil gathers and has a beer or eleven in the beautiful, 75 degree nights.  The only place to get a bite to eat for the revelers is the street meat queen and her 8x8 grill.  While the meat was good, the experience of jostling with the locals for your piece-o-meat is unforgetable.  I wasn´t able to snap a picture last night but if I see anyone who has one I will update it here! 

(Apologies for typos, operating with a far different keyboard and no spellcheck!)