Taganga, Colombia. Cooking on the road.

I have to admit to being a bit lazy so far on this trip, we've eaten out a lot during our time on the road either due to lack of a kitchen or abundance of good, cheap places to eat.

Now we have arrived in Taganga neither if these things is true. There are not really any great places to get food here and we have a small kitchen in our room, well a gas ring, fridge and a sink, but you get the idea.

To be honest I fancied the challenge of sorting out a meal in this environment, there is no hot water, the cold water from the tap is not drinkable. There is no sharp knife, only a small frying pan and a larger lidded saucepan, a 4 litre measuring jug, no bowls (but we do have a large cup) and a chopping board that is so old and stained it would give my mother nightmares for months. Oh and there is only a single ring gas stove to cook on.

In the back of my mind i thought that a risotto may be the answer so I headed to the supermarket to see what I could find there. This was an interesting experience as the supermarket is not self service here, it is more like the old village shop where you tell someone what you want and they run off and get it for you. This is ok if your Spanish is acceptable, however for me it degenerated into a lot of "umms" and hand gestures to get what I wanted.

The haul I ended up with was...
2 chicken stock cubes
1/4 of a chicken (leg, bit of thigh, lot of rib)
1 bottle of butter flavoured cooking oil?!?!
2 Spanish onions
2 green peppers
4 plum tomatoes
Garlic
Parmesan
Rice (they only had one type, definitely not risotto)
5.5 litres of drinking water in a bag!

Planning when you only have one gas ring is pretty important, I needed it for hot water for washing up, for making the chicken stock, to help peel the tomatoes and of course for cooking the risotto itself.

First I put some water on the boil to make the chicken stock, while this was heating up I washed all the veges in tap water to get the worst of the dirt off before rinsing in drinking water. I then scored the tomatoes with a cross at the top and bottom and dropped them into the now boiling water for a minute or two. These were the removed and left to cool, when they were subsequently peeled. I then disolved the stock cubes in the water.

The biggest problem with the kitchen was actually the lack of any kind of sharp knife. Luckily I have my pen knife but the blade is at best 1 and a half inches long. I used this to chop the garlic, onion, pepper and tomatoes while the stock was boiling.

I used the jug to hold the rice while I rinsed it (we have no sieve so I poured the water off the rice using my fingers to stop the rice escaping) before putting the drained rice in the frying pan. I then put around 300ml of the stock in the frying pan with the rice (this pan is not on the heat) and put the rest of the stock in the jug.

Finally I prepared the chicken this was fun using only a penknife basically separating the thigh and leg by cutting most of the meat around the joint then pulling, i skinned these and left the meat on the bone, I then cut all the remaining meat of the carcass.

I heated some butter oil in the pan and added the onion and garlic, after the onion had softened I added the pepper and chicken and waited until the chicken had started to brown before adding the rice and half of the stock (something like half a litre) and the tomatoes. I then stirred this all in and put a lid on the pan and brought this to the boil before simmering for 2 hours while occasionally stirring and adding more stock.

Once finished it tasted pretty great, especially accompanied by a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon from concha y torro!

The total cost was around 20,000 Colombian pesos, or 8 quid but when you consider a steak and chips in a restaurant is only between 18 and 22 thousand I suspect I won't be going to the effort again in Colombia!

Pictured are the pan, the water bag, the finished risotto and the gas ring and preparation area.

Bogota, city of surprises

From Quito the plan had been to get busses through Colombia, this would have taken a couple of days and allowed us to see Ottavalo, where there is an apparently great market, Pasto and Popayan. Sadly the coffee pickers in the south of Colombia had other ideas and decided to go on strike blockading the two main northbound roads. So we once again decided to fly (so much for our good intentions of taking buses and saving money.)

We booked a hostel in La Candelaria area of Bogota, which is the main historic old town where most of the tourists go, as well as having a large student population. It is also blessed with an abundance of restaurants, juice/cocktail bars (depending on if it is day or night) and eating options to go with a pretty impressive nightlife scene.

The first thing we noticed when arriving was it was cold, well, cool. I had expected it to be sticky and tropical but because Bogota sits at around 2600m above sea level it has an average temperature of 14 Celsius.

The second thing that became apparent is that tourists appeared to be giving Bogota a miss and instead heading straight to Medellin or Cartagena and the rest of the Caribbean coast in the North. I think this is a shame because Bogota has a great vibe as a city and there is plenty to do with around 50 museums, including the excellent Museo de oro (museum of gold), as well as having a 2 hour free walking tour (in English) run by the central tourist information and gives information on a bit of South American and Colombian history while introducing you the main historical buildings.

There is also a hill (Cerro de Monserrate) in the city (near La Candeleria) which has a church (sanctuario de monserrate) on it and once you have taken the cable car or walked up you are treated to spectacular views over the whole of Bogota.

Food wise making a decision on where to eat was difficult with many nice looking places offering a variety of food.

There were a few things in Bogota I really wanted to eat. The first is a chicken soup called ajiaco which, like much of South America has its origins with the South American tribes (not the incas in Colombia, they did not get that far north) and the Spanish conquistadors who conquered them. The basis of the soup is a corn and vegetable broth (traditional indigenous Indian staples) with chicken added and served with pots of cream, avacado and capers (all Spanish additions) which you can add into your soup in quantities you want.

I had the one pictured at the bottom of the blog at a restaurant called Sanalejio on Jiminez ( the Main Street running down the side of la Candeleria) which was filling, tasty but not exactly haut cuisine. The idea of eating avocado floating in soup was interesting and not unpleasant.

The embrace and extend attitude of the conquistadors can be seen all over South America, with many of the churches are built on inka (or other indigenous) sites of worship. The church also incorporated a lot of traditional aspects into its art in South American churches with the sun and moon featuring strongly as they were also worshipped as part of the earlier religions here.

Anyway, I digress, I have to say that my first impressions of Bogota were very favourable (and not just because the cool temperature and inclement weather reminded me of Britain). In my next blog I'll go into the other food we had here and maybe a bit more about the city. Pictured below are the ajiaco and accompaniment, the church in bolivar square and 2 views of the city from the cerro de Monserrate.

Quito, journey to the middle of the world

Either side of our Galapagos trip we stayed in Quito, Equador. I think it is safe to say that it would be no-one's first choice holiday destination were it not for the regular flights to the Galapagos.

This is probably slightly unfair as the city does have several beautiful squares and a rather strange boast, in its northern suburbs it has "el mittad del Mundo" or "the middle of the world!"

The general ambiance of the historic centre with its grand buildings and squares is pretty relaxed although you'd be forgiven for thinking that every other person is a policeman of some kind, this includes the staff in the tourist information office!

Budget wise had been struggling to stay within our limits so we were glad to discover Almuerzos, this is a set lunch menu offered by most restaurants. The meal starts with soup, has a main course of fish (or meat, you do occasionally get a choice) with rice, usually a lentil or tomato sauce and some avacado slices on the side, it is served with a fruit drink of some description and sometimes even comes with a dessert. The whole thing usually costs less that 2 dollars per person and if you pick somewhere with plenty of locals inside it is usually pretty tasty.

In the evening we had several nights to explore the restaurants. We were given dire warnings about stepping out of the tourist zone, so we felt hemmed in to the historical centre where the restaurants are much of a muchness and a main costs between 7-14 dollars. Food is very much meat, some potato and veges an a slice or two of avocado.

There are two main groups of these restaurants, one on the main square in and near the archbishops palace commercial centre and the other is on the restored tourist street called La Ronda. The portions are usually massive in these places so if you have a small appetite skipping a starter would be a plan.

The pick of the restaurants were probably cafe Grand Plaza where I had a very good goat curry and "hasta la vuelta, senior" which had some good steaks and a decent seafood pasta but really we didn't have a terrible or brilliant meal while we were eating in the tourists areas.

Food wise the best find may have been the San Augustin heladoria which has loads of different sorbet flavours made from local fruits (such as cactus and passion fruit) and is definitely a great place to stop on a hot afternoon.

While we were in Quito our luck also ran out on the stomach front, so we only really did one excursion which was to the middle of the earth. We chose the cheap way to get there, which was 2 dollars each in bus fare, rather than the secondary option which was a 45 dollar taxi tour. The buses were very similar to catching the northern line in a morning but other than that got us there OK.

The middle of the earth itself is not really very impressive, it was designated by a group of Frenchmen who wanted a good triangulation point on the equator. They have built a whacking great stone building and marked the equator and a kind of theme park has grown up around it with shops and restaurants.

There are a couple of issues, 1) it is not technically on the equator and 2) the shops etc. don't really have much interesting stuff.

However five hundred metres down the road is the inti-ñan solar museum. This is actually on the equator and for 4 dollars a guide will take you through some equadorian history and show you a load of cool experiments you can do on the equator, such as draining water in the northern and Southern Hemisphere then on the equator, walking down the equator with your eyes closed (fiendishly tricky) and balancing an egg on a nail (surprisingly easy). I think had we paid the 45 bucks for a cab we'd have felt robbed but as it was only 4 dollars and 3 hours of our lives spent on buses it was probably worth while.

Next stop is Bogota, Columbia, which we are flying to despite the cost, mainly because the UK and Australian governments both have do not travel warnings for the border crossing in the south which we had planned to take a bus through.

The Galapagos, amazing things people used to (and in some cases still do) eat

We are pretty much half way through our trip here in South America. Leaving Lima and Peru behind we flew TAME (which is an achievement as getting tickets outside of their native Equador is a mission) to Quito in preparation for the main part of our trip, the Galapagos islands.

Rather than busking it and trying to get a late deal or DIY a trip when we were here this was the only tour we have booked in advance. We did this to make sure we got a spot and to guarantee an English speaking tour. We got our trip through Geckos because they had a 2 for 1 deal a while back (just when we were booking, which was lucky) but several other English speaking companies operate boats and tour services(intrepid and g adventures to name but two). You do have to do some kind of licensed tour as the national park in Equador is pretty strictly regulated and all boats have a set itinerary for the week.

Our tour was 6 days on the boat sailing around these amazing volcanic islands, with different walking and snorkelling activities each day. I should probably mention the food on board, which was predominately fish and tasted excellent was all caught locally (there are designated area for long line fishing, regulated by the national park). To be honest though this was very much secondary to the island themselves.

From the first landing it was easy to see why people flock to these islands, hundreds of animals with very few predators sit on the side of all of the paths. The first place we landed was surrounded by hundreds of red crabs. Rather than scuttle off these simply sat and watched as we walked past. I asked our guide if they were tasty, which he assured me they were but 10 years ago catching them and eating them was banned as they were on the brink of dying out. This ban appears to have worked wonders as we saw hundreds of them over the next week.

The islands and their animals have had a quite chequered history, after being discovered by Darwin lots of people used the islands for all sorts of sailing activities, pirates used it as a base, whalers used it as a safe harbour and people came to look at the wildlife.

Sadly the pirates and sailors dumped several different species for food (goats and pigs) on several of the islands which competed for the same food as the tortoises and iguanas and almost led to them dying out. The original visitors also took tortoises and turtles with them to eat on their long journey home.

In the last 30 years or so conservation has really taken off in the islands. The goats have been eradicated as have the pigs, although black rats (an accidental addition) still remain on the bigger islands. Tortoises and turtles have grown in number partially as part of a captive breeding program but also on their own, on a couple of the islands they are everywhere, in the roads, on the paths and in the bushes and like all the animals on the islands they weren't afraid of humans at all.

Snorkelling around the islands was also amazing, there are many different types of sea life to see, during my time there I swam with Sea lions, turtles, manta and sting rays, reef sharks, a hammer head shark and tropical fish too numerous to mention.

It was a great few days although on our tour it was a bit of a shame that no-one on our boat was particularly up for staying up after 8pm despite a well stocked bar, although it probably saved us some money and meant that we didn't put on even more weight (walks in the Galapagos are around 96% standing round taking photos and 4% actually walking). Definitely glad we guaranteed this trip early and built our itinerary around it, will definitely be something I remember for a long time.

Pictures below are some of my favourite animals, the red crabs, tortoises, marine iguanas, sea-lion and feedig time at the tortoises captive breeding program at the Darwin centre

Astrid, Gaston and the American moustache hunt

Lima was definitely growing on us. The restaurant scene in Miraflores was really very impressive and we had yet to try the pinacle. Astrid y Gaston is recommended by everyone. It is number 35 on the top 100 restaurant list, fodors raves about it, it is in our lonely planet AND the hostal owner said we had to go there.

To guarantee a table you usually have to book 3 weeks in advance but there is a bar which you can sit in and order from the restaurant menu as long as you get there earlish. We desperately wanted to go so we arrived at 6:30pm, 30 minutes before it opened. People who know me will think this was me panicking but for a change the eagerness was mainly on the part of my fiancée.

To be honest there was no need for this early arrival, we could have got there at 8 and got a table on this particular evening but this did mean that we got talking to an American woman who also turned up before they let anyone in at 7.

She was a regular there and as well as telling us about her favourite dishes she also old us about a hole in the wall seafood restaurant we had to try for lunch. Apparently it was so good the locals don't like telling people about it. She gave us a street address and a name, el begote (or the moustache) before she left to catch a flight to the States while we got on with enjoying our meal.

Moving onto the food Astrid and Gaston is certainly a case of how many people can't be wrong. The whole experience was truly excellent. I started with scallops in a slighty sweet sauce covered in dried (or maybe fried) carrots and a foam while my fiancée had octopus in a frothy sauce, sadly the food envy for my scallops was too strong and I was forced to change halfway through!

For main course I ordered a piece of beef which had been stewed until perfectly tender, the whole main was really very good. My partner had a very nice rare tuna steak with a creamy sauce.

The highlight of the whole thing was dessert. I had an amazing chocolate covered giant marshmallow on a biscuit base with a raspberry coulis (there is a sweet in the uk which is similar although not as big) this was served with hot chocolate poured over the top (which melts the choccy coating and ends up as a sauce). My partner had a really interesting postre called "the tomato who wants to be a dessert" this was a pear and raviloi tart topped with a tomato puree and served with basil ice cream which she claimed was one if the best desserts for people without a sweet tooth she had ever tried.

I think it would have been sad to pass through Lima without getting a chance to eat here so despite the time we wasted standing around outside I think it was worth blowing our budget for. Although again by Uk standards the price was pretty average, with a main costing between 20 and 30 pounds.

The following lunch time we took advice from the American lady and went looking for "El Bigote". Because we had a street address and a name we didn't bother checking the Internet or even a map to see if the directions we had made sense. They didn't, so we spent an hour and a half trudging the streets looking for it.

Eventually we were too hungry to continue (I am not a pleasant person to be around while hungry and my fiancée is similar) so rather than have a massive fight we picked a touristy restaurant and ate some dodgy seafood.

My fiancée was not yet ready to admit defeat though, using the restaurants wifi she looked up where we should be (about 75m from where we were) and the actual name of the place "la rincon de el bigote" which has the address José Galvez 529 and after abandoning most of our first lunch we headed off to try it.

It is the most unassuming place you can imagine but the food there is definitely something they should be shouting about. We had the giant clam ceviche starter (you order as many as you think you can eat) which was great, and followed it with their mixed fried seafood. This was light and fluffy in amazing batter. Everything was cooked wonderfully.

It was definitely worth the effort I just wish we'd found it an hour earlier so I could have tried things like the pulpo al olivio (octopus in puréed olives).

It wasn't the cheapest meal out with each clam costing 1pound fifty and the mixed seafood costing 8 pounds (much more expensive than our first lunch in the tourist place) but it is definitely worth it.

Pictured below are the scallops, octopus, beef, tuna steaks, chocolate marshmallow ball and the tomato who thinks he is a dessert from Astrid y Gaston. The front of El Riñcon el Begote and the clams and mixed fried seafood.

Lima, fine food by the sea and the deadly sins!

So, it turns out Lima, in deepest darkest Peru has a beach! Who knew? Well I guess anyone who has looked at their map, however I hadn't really been paying attention. I think this was mainly because I saw Lima as just a stop on the way to Quito and the Galapagos rather than a destination in its own right.

This was wrong because we found Lima to be a pretty darn good destination city. We were staying in up market miraflores, which is a pretty affluent neighbourhood full of embassy's and sea food restaurants. This was pointed out by the owner of our hostal, Miraflores house, who from his substantial girth clearly loved a good meal. He spent a solid hour marking every type of food and restaurant on a map for us as it quickly became clear we probably hadn't scheduled enough time for Lima if we wanted to eat all of the cuisines that were on offer.

On the first night we decided to go for a Chinese as it was close to the hotel, I was expecting a chifa, which is a budget style of Peruvian Chinese we've eaten a lot, usually costing at most a couple of dollars for a dish which is enough for two. However Wa Lok was a more traditional Chinese (the sort of dishes you would find in London's china town) but the prices were (for Peru at least) sky high (12-15 pounds a main course) and a little disappointing (the salt and pepper squid certainly was) and we promised ourselves we would do better the next day.

It is important to learn from you mistakes so at lunch the following day we went for the very traditional option of Ceviche. This is mainly served at lunch time at restaurants near to the sea. We went for a restaurant called Punta del Sal seafood, which is a three story place on the waterfront overlooking the beach.

The Ceviche for 2 people that we got was around 55 Soles (15 pounds), don't be fooled by the labelling of it as "snacking" in some menus English translation, the actual Spanish is more literally translated as "for sharing" and if you order this a main course is probably not necessary (if you are still hungry order more food after you have finished). The ceviche there had 5 dishes, raw white fish served with the traditional sauce of chilli, lemon, red onion as well as a more unusual thick orange creamy sauce. There was octopus served with avacado and tomato covered in a wonderful olive oil dressing and some boiled vegetables. The final dish and centre piece was a crab, potato and avocado cake topped with a boiled egg.

All of it was amazing, if you like sea food I really can't recommend something like this enough.

Our evening meal was also fish based, with all of the dishes having a theme from the seven deadly sins and various virtues. Pescardo Capitales is also one of the few restaurants to offer ceviche at night, which was why, a few days earlier, we'd booked in online (It was also recommended by the excellent fodors which for us is now very much a badge of honor). One thing to mention is that the restaurant is right on the (slighty dodgy) edge of Miraflores, so rather than walk it may be an idea to get a taxi.

Having had excellent ceviche at lunch we decided to go for something a bit different now we were here. We started with the 'little sins' which were prawn wantons. The batter isn't quite the same as the uk (different flour i think) but it is pretty good none the less.

I followed this up with another sin (a deadly one but not sure which), a really very good swordfish steak while my fiancée enjoyed a virtuous (can't remember which one either) seafood linguine which she described as the best pasta she'd had in South America so far (although this may be considered damning with faint praise).

Price wise this was not exactly within our budget, with the main courses costing between 50 and 70 Soles (12-18 pounds) but as a splurge I would recommend it.

Pictured below are the lunchtime cerviche, the wantons, the pasta and the swordfish.

Cuy, Valentines day (and food) in Arequipa

Valentines day this year found us in Arequipa. This left me with a bit of a problem in terms of booking somewhere nice, the place most people recommended was chi cha and those of you paying attention will know that we ate there in Cusco and weren't completely blown away by it.

In the end I used my best Spanish
(really not brilliant) to book a place called Paladar 1900 via Skype. In unsurprising news when we turned up there was no table for Barker, however Mr Parka did have a reservation we were able to take advantage of.

The setting was pretty romantic, a half barrel shaped room with lots of candles, my fiancee got an awesome chair too, which was pretty much a full winged armchair with an asymmetric back.

As a starter we shared an excellent octopus salad (which falls into the category of more excellent sea food from unexpected places as arequipa is 2500m above sea level). I followed this with a very good duck in orange sauce while my fiancée had an apparently less enjoyable fish on potatoes (thus proving the rule that seafood far from the sea is not usually a great plan.)

This was the day before our 3am start and trip to the colca canyon so we only had 1 pisco sour each (excellent as ever) and I left with a good impression of the restaurant, however my fiancée was less impressed. I think that if you go there meat rather than fish would be the option.

After our return from the colca canyon we were aware that our time in Peru was running short and we still had yet to try Cuy. After helping carry several guinea pigs out of the canyon (with limited success) we decided it was time to eat some before we left the Peruvian highlands (apparently in Lima it is less common and is not as good).

We'd spent a while building up to this moment, there were only 2 real questions, how do you want your guinea pig cooked? And secondly, do you want it "con cabeza" or "sin cabeza" (with or without its head)

We decided deep fried (cuy charcardo) rather than oven roasted or cut into pieces and served with sauce was the way to go with question one. However when it came to question 2 we both bottled it and had the head removed.

The guinea pig itself turned up with a great crispy skin (similar to Chinese crispy duck) and quite a dark meat which was similar to thigh meat on chicken or turkey (although a little fattier), my only criticism was the lack of meat (I know this will not be a surprise to anyone who has seen a guinea pig) but the actual food we did get off it was quite tasty, however I suspect this will be the last guinea pig we eat as I think I prefer chicken, beef and most other sorts of meat.