Gastronomique Tour de Colombia v2.3
Soooooo, today I am TOTALLY by myself today. My bubble isn’t that big and I am not sure how far I should wander. I got my days mixed up and thought V was going to pick me up today and play tourist with me. Not so much. I have a loaner phone, but there’s an error message in Spanish? At least I THINK there’s an error message as the phone call didn’t go through. Maybe it was voicemail? I honestly have NO CLUE. *note to self find out about Rosetta Stone when I return* Not that I’m failing misserably at trying to communicate in the native language, there’s just a crap ton of vocabulary I don’t know. LOL
I love seeing these every morning:
So, I wander. I push the limits of my bubble to see how far I can go today. Well, I’m not sure how far I CAN go, but know how far I am confortable going which is not far. I head out to the main street and turn right. I think the Carullo is near by…and I am feeling the need to wander aimlessly in a grocery store. I could spend hours in a new one going up and down every aisle seeing what’s there. Even worse in a different city; especially a foreign one. *snort*
I know I’m going to bring back coffee, and hope that I can bring back a bottle of olive oil or balsamic vinegar. I have had some delicious stuff here. The breads are amazing! Everywhere I go they just look drool worthy! Yeah…now I’m hungry. I need food…that chocolate croissant really didn’t stick around. So, there’s a cafe on top of Carullo, but I’m just not feeling like I can order food here. I can’t figure out what’s on the menu, there’s four of them, I’m in my bubble… You know how it is, right?
So, I wander down the street a little further and find a samdwich type shop. I order this:
Chicken with gouda, I think? There are panini’s everywhere it seems. What is the obsession with smashing a sammy flat with ridges? It’s like grown up grilled cheeses or something. Not that it wasn’t good. BTW this is pan blanco. I only wish our white bread tasted like this…or even a loaf of French or Italian. It was so flavorful for a white bread! I just wanted to eat the bread! LOL
This is my curse since I have landed in this beautiful country:
RAIN! A day HAS.NOT gone by where it hasn’t rained! FFS! I’d REALLY like to take some nice photos of the mountain sometimes while I’m here. *sigh*
V called around 12 I think? And she was going to meet up with me and do lunch/touristy type things. We start walking to Wok and … well … yup! RAIN! Not just a light rain. It was raining so hard that there was water leaking out from under her chair and they had to mop it up frequently. LOL
The menu is like a thin magazine. There’s a TON of stuff on there! Appetizers, soup, salad, sushi, pho, stir fry, noodles, rice, drinks, postre (dessert). V said that this is a popular drink and really couldn’t explain it. You really can’t explain it. It’s like a minty, limey, slushy? VERY refreshing!! But yes, it was a bit weird to be drinking a minty limey slushy for lunch.
PHO!
V: I would like pad thai without chicken.
Waitress: Let me check. (asks chef and returns) We can’t do that.
V: Is the pad thai made fresh?
Waitress: Yes.
V: Then why not?
Waitress: We just can’t. But there’s vegetable pad thai.
V: I don’t want that. It doen’t taste the same as the other pad thai without meat.
Um…if it’s made fresh, then why can’t they made meat pad thai without the meat? I just didn’t understand why they couldn’t/wouldn’t accomodate her request. Maybe it’s a cultural thing? *shrugs*
It’s POURING. I mean P.O.U.R.I.N.G! And has been for quite some time now. She tries to call for a cab, but apparently that’s not an easy thing to do. So, I call the hotel and ask for one. Um…traffics too horrible and would take 20 minutes to go the 3 blocks to get to you. We’ll just walk down with an umbrella and escort you back. Okay…?
He shows up with the umbrellas and yeah. It’s been poouring for quite some time now and all the streets are rivers. Like, up to my ankles rivers. The short walk back to the hotel was amusing.
Yes, I got soaked. My pants are soaked. My shoes were full of water on the way back. Up to my ankles rivers of water in the street.
I keep reading about putting newspaper in your shoes when they’re wet? I thought, why not? What could it hurt? HOLY AMAZING! They were dry by dinner! Like, COMPLETELY dry! Considering they were squishy when I got back, I was floored that they were even remotely dry AT ALL. I wound up not wearing them anyway. I put on some big girl shoes and headed up to La Biblioteca. I sit on the patio, cause I’m a people watcher. There’s a family of Brazilians having dinner there. They’re entertaining to watch. LOL
That round bread? FABULOUS! It was yummy, flaky goodness in my mouth! I think they felt sorry for me; dining alone and all ya know? Cause they brought me:
Yeah, they were swimming in cilantro, but the chips were REALLY good and I could deal with the taste of it in the salsa. Not so much in the guacamole type stuff. I’m not really sure what it was. It was pureed and I think it was guacamole, but I’m just not sure. I nibble….the chips were good.
A word about banos in Colombia. Apparently, the public ones are HORRID and can traumatize people for life. You either have to ask how the bathrooms are or just use one you KNOW is good before you head out to the restaurant. I didn’t visit this one. It was an option to rate the restaurant by on one website I came across and thought it needed a mentionining. Sometimes, there’s no seat, you have to pay to use it, you don’t get much TP for your money. These are all things I’ve heard about the bathrooms here.
Back to food.. Medallanes Bernaise: