Tradición envuelta en hoja

“More paisa than an arepa” is a famous saying people use when our accent, customs, or beliefs reveal the spirit of our homeland. And how could we not show our love for our region, if we’ve always been known for our energy, for being driven, welcoming, kind, quite traditional, yet creative.

Our cuisine, just like Colombian cuisine as a whole, is rich in flavors, textures, and combinations. Combinations that have emerged from ideas or simply from necessity, like the bandeja paisa, which originated, in short, as a marketing idea back in the 1960s.

We wanted to highlight some of the most iconic dishes in one of our campaigns. We love eating, but we also love recognizing the elements of our culture that represent us, that make us antioqueños, that make us proud Colombians.

Fiambre is one of those dishes born out of necessity, the need to carry food wrapped in a leaf to preserve it during long walks through the mountains. It generally contains rice, ground beef, sweet plantain, chorizo, pork crackling, a hard-boiled egg, and arepa… though it can vary depending on what’s available.

This recipe is especially meaningful to us. While we no longer take those long mountain journeys, all of us have taken this iconic wrapped meal to picnics and long trips. We could even say it has become the “fashionable lunch,” the one many of us take to work.

And speaking of the charm of each traditional dish in our culture, we chose sancocho. In Colombian cuisine, it’s widely known, and there isn’t just one version. There are many variations of this delicious, countryside-origin soup: sancocho antioqueño, caribbean sancocho, cundiboyacense, valluno, among others. Each one with its own seasoning, ingredients, and accompaniments.

A delicious dish found across almost the entire country! And if we’re talking about variations, mazamorra definitely has them. Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Spain, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Colombia, each country has its own ingredients and ways of preparing it.

Ours is an exquisite dessert made from pounded corn with milk and bocadillo or chopped panela. It accompanies our main dishes, a good plate of beans or a comforting sancocho. All of them traditional dishes, all of them foods that preserve flavor and culture from generation to generation.

There’s nothing to envy about the celebrated Peruvian or Mexican cuisines. Ours is an exquisite blend, a folkloric and flavorful mestizaje.