From Brazil to Peru, South America has become a major food-lover’s destination. And lately, some of our favorite chefs, like David Kinch and Ignacio Mattos, have been sending us excited dispatches from Bogotá, Colombia. So we hopped a plane to check it out. Turns out, the ideal way to spend a gastronomic trip there is to combine the high and the low, the fast and the slow, the healthy and the very, very deep-fried. While the city’s nuevo Colombiano chefs are creating intriguing mash-ups of traditional ingredients and imported techniques, the street food, from empanadas to truly exotic fruit salads, is just as worthwhile. Bogotá as a culinary destination? You heard it here first.
The classic Bogotáno breakfast is chocolate santafereño: hot chocolate accompanied by cornbread and white cheese, with a moist, chicken-filled tamale for good measure. Pastelería Florida (est. 1936) and La Puerta Falsa (est. 1816) both do excellent versions.
The new Colombian cuisine involves plenty of locally grown produce, a nod to traditional recipes, and a marked tendency toward the whimsical. Here are six Bogotá restaurants getting seriously creative.
A chill neighborhood favorite, Alejandro Gutiérrez’s spot is a place to linger over lunch. The order: calamar pota apanado (fried calamari), plus whatever’s on the specials list.
With its focus on sustainable produce from local farms, this colorful restaurant-cum-bodega is totally on-trend. The order: pulpo de pesca artesanal (tender grilled octopus and veggies).
Popular with the cool kids. Each well-sourced dish is a surprising twist, like a sushi roll of salted cheese and sweet plantain. The order: tumaco (plantain balls stuffed with crab and cooked in coconut milk).
Tomás Rueda does home-style dishes in one of the city’s most beautiful dining rooms. The order: puchero de garbanzos con chorizo (a tomatoey stew of chickpeas, chorizo, and egg).
The semi-vegetarian menu presents the familiar with a dash of, say, a reduction of fermented corn juice. The order: chips de cerdo (fried pork rinds with yuca).
Celeb chef Leonor Espinosa’s much-loved spot does farm-to-table cooking Colombian-style. The order: pollo campesino (country-style chicken).
Bogotá's definitive dish is the perfect antidote to the city's chilly evenings, though locals eat it any time of day. Ajiaco is a soup made with three kinds of potatoes, including the tiny Colombian papas criollas. It's savory, hearty, and textbook comfort food. What's in it: a. Potatoes b. Chicken c. Corn d. Crema e. Guascas (a grassy herb) f. Capers g. Avocado
You could spend weeks trying all of Colombia’s fabulous fruits and not even make it to hybrids like the guayaba manzana, a guava-apple combo. For an afternoon immersion, visit Paloquemao market: Grab an exotic juice from one of the stalls, lunch on lechona (a pork and rice dish served out of the pig itself), and crunch some roasted ants (the butt is the best part). Where to start? Here’s our fruit cheat sheet:
Sweeter than an actual tomato, with a hint of kiwi.
Passion fruit, only better.
Chalky, milky, and tart.
A flavor reminiscent of bubblegum; best mixed with leche for a delicious juice.
Imagine a peach crossed with a strawberry.
Super popular in juices and great in cocktails, this “little orange” can be tongue-tinglingly sour.
“Chokis, a snack of chocolate-covered corn puffs, are my obsession. I eat them by the bag.” —Chef Daniel Castaño, Gordo
It used to be impossible to get a decent cup of coffee in Colombia: All the good stuff was exported. These new cafés are finally bringing world-class coffee home.
Expert baristas brew coffees from different regions in Chemex, AeroPress, or siphon.
A shipping container turned café with a menu of locally grown beans.
Sit in the garden with a house-roasted coffee and an off-menu egg sandwich.
Lots of expertise crowded into a tiny, design-y space.
Half restaurant, half circus, Andrés Carne de Res—a 40-minute drive from the city center—is a massive labyrinth of dining rooms and dance floors that sprawls along the side of the road and is probably visible from the moon. Roving bands of performers stop by tables where guests are feasting on serious platters of grilled meats, and it’s a rare night that doesn’t see people dancing on the tables. Ask your hotel to arrange a van to take you to and from so you can indulge in a bucket-size cocktail.