Last week Friday, Naomi and I took a walk to see where our next Airbnb was, and to have a look at the neighbourhood. On a street corner very near our apartment we passed a large and very busy restaurant. There were many tables all along the two sides that faced the streets, and inside were many more tables. And most of the outside tables were occupied. The place was humming. And it looked like mostly locals — fishermen, taxi drivers, and families were enjoying breakfast. We made a note of it: if the locals eat there and the place is busy, it must be good.
We’ve already had one evening meal there (I really like my pollo asado – roasted chicken). But the menu is extensive, so tonight we went back for another round.
I have been using my phone to ‘Translate’ the menus so far. My Spanish lessons from twenty years ago haven’t really helped me at all on this trip. Naomi’s Spanish is MUCH better than mine. She had mentioned a street food called ‘salty peppers’ a few times on this trip, So when I decided to try one of the ‘Salchipapas’ dishes, Naomi knew exactly what that was. She said basically it was sliced up wieners mixed with french fries, and it had been a favourite for her and her family when they’d lived in Guatemala for a year some 30 years ago. Well, wieners and fries are two of my favourite foods, so I was looking forward to this. In fact, I decided on the ‘Choripapa’ — which substituted wieners with chorizo. Even better!
I was already enjoying an Aguila cerveza (an original Colombian beer, delicious, and like all the local beers, around $2 Canadian in a restaurant!) when the waitress brought us our food. Here she comes with a big white bowl, filled to the top with white cheese! This was a lot of food! Well, below that cheese topping was lettuce, slices of fried chorizo, salsa, lettuce, onion slices, and tomato slices. It was DELICIOUS! And with a little help from Naomi, I finished the whole bowl. Just describing it here makes me hungry — and I’m quite sure that won’t be my last ‘Salty Pepper’.