Bandeja Paisa

During our recent trip to Colombia, my sister and I learned to make one of the most traditional of Colombian meals, bandeja paisa. Specifically, it is from the Medellin area.

A friend and her mother walked us through each dish of the meal. We then finished with a few different desserts. And also we made empanadas, because why not make some empanadas? And also we made almojabanas, because I wanted to learn to make almojabanas.

The set of dishes, garnishes and toppings that constituted our bandeja paisa were

• frijoles
• arroz
• chorizo de cerdo
• hogao
• ají
• chicharrón
• carne en polvo
• aguacate
• huevos fritos
• patacones

Roughly translated to English, the dishes for our country plate were

• beans
• rice
• pork sausage
• (sofrito)
• (chili pepper sauce)
• cracklings
• powdered beef
• avocado
• fried eggs
• (twice-fried plantains)

(The items with parentheses have no direct translation in English. For those, I simply give a short description.)

There is something major we skipped, of course–arepas. We’d been eating arepas all week, so didn’t need more. And I already know how to make pretty decent arepas.