Refajo

Refajo is a mix of the two beverages above: Colombiana, a type of soda, and beer like Poker or Aguila...it's really good.

Something tastes fishy

These chips come in a variety pack that we buy. So I enjoyed them several times without really thining about what they actually tasted like. The taste was familiar, but weird in a good kind of way.

Finally, after several weeks, it dawned on me - tocineta is bacon. Ha, yeah, I guess that was the familiar taste.

'Chicken in a Biscuit' anyone?

Jugo de Piña

Fresh juice is hugely popular in Colombia. They drink it at every meal - the most popular kinds are mora (raspberry), mango, naranja (orange), and Colombia specific fruits like lulo and guabana. Mango was my favorite until I tasted piña the other day. I was so good I had to learnhow to make it at home, entonces...

My recipe for delicious fresh pineapple juice...requires only pineapple and water.


First cut the top and the sides off of the pineapple. Then cut into cubes.


If you use half of the pineapple. you should add 1 liter of water - this will yield 3/4 liter of juice. If you use the entire pineapple, add 2 liters of water - and this will yield 1.5 liters of juice,

Add the cubed pineapple and the water to the blender. And blend on the first setting for about a minute.


Then, holding the strainer over the pitcher, pour the juice from the blender. You will probably need to stop halfway through and press the juice through the strainer.

I reserved the pulp, but haven't decided what I will do with it yet...

Once you've poured all of the juice into the pitcher, wash the strainer out and strain again.

...and that's it. Delicious fresh pineapple juice.

Almuerzo Corriente

This is a picture of a typical Colombian lunch. They call it Almuerzo Corriente, which means fast lunch. however it's really not that fast...it's used to denote a restaurant that makes a different "plate of the day" every day - really cheap.

When you sit down at your table, the waiter will give you a choice of chicken or steak. Sometimes you get a choice of sides, but usually you just get whatever the cook has prepared that day: beans, peas, pasta, potato, beet salad, sweet potatoes, platano, tomato salad, etc. etc. -

All of this plus soup and fresh juice for 5,000 pesos or about $2.50!

The meal above came from the restaurant about 2 blocks from our house - we eat there a couple of times a week. It's always really good.

Juan Valdez Lives!

I came upon this article today about the re-emergence of the "Juan Valdez" brand through Starbucks like coffee shops.

I used to walk by the Times Square location often - that may or may not have been the one that closed...and I've been to the one in the Newark airport a couple of times for the coffee.

They sell typical Colombian pastries (sweet and savory), but they probably need to do a better job of educating their customer on what each pastry actually is - from what I can remember they are all fried and look pretty much the same.

They are also all over Bogota, which is nice because there are ZERO Starbucks here- though I have yet to go to one here, they are ways pretty busy when I pass by. I hope they continue to do well.

Packaging

This type of packaging is VERY popular here. As you can see everything from jelly to creme to mayonaise comes in this...well, I don't even know what you would call it - squeeze bag??

I haven't figured out the reason, but I know it's not for ease of use, because these are much more difficult to actually get the product out. Packaging costs? Recycling? I don't know. But if I do find out I'll be sure to let you know.

First pic of apartment!

This is our kitchen. All decked out in our silver appliances :) (yes, that is a washing machine in the kitchen - to the far right - and we only have a washer, we dry our clothes on a rack out on the balcony.)

It's very long and narrow, but I don't find it too difficult to move around. It's actually laid out pretty well and in a day or two I'll post a picture of the greatest creation ever invented.

Also, if you look closely at the stove you might see that there are 3 gas burners and 1 electric burner. It took me a few days to realize why the stove is designed this way. I've found this electric burner to be profoundly useful. It's great for keeping things like soup warm and I like it to boil water and such...

You never know what you might get..

Yesterday I finally got up the courage to visit the local carniceria to buy some chicken. I asked for Pechuga de Pollo and what I got was the largest chicken breast I had ever seen!!

I the breasts were on the bone with the skin on...so for the first time ever, I de-skinned and de-boned my first chicken breast. It started out as an experiment, but it actually turned out really good!!

I'll save you the pictures, but I do have some.

Ensalada de Fruta

This is a typical fruit salad. chopped fruit topped with ice cream, shredded cheese and sliced fruit. yum!