The empanada, the law of the barrio
In Antioquia the empanada is made of corn dough, fried, filled with potato and beef or with chicken, and eaten with cilantro chili sauce and lime. It is sold on any corner from six in the morning and it is the reason people here do not have breakfast at home. They are not included in the tour, but your guide will point out the stall where the neighborhood buys them, not one for tourists; order two, nobody stops at one.
Patacón with hogao
Patacón is green plantain smashed and fried twice, crunchy on the outside. Hogao is the tomato and spring onion sauce that goes with everything in Antioquia. Together they are the paisa snack par excellence. If you try it and like it, in any restaurant you can order "patacón con todo", which is the same with meat, cheese and sauces on top.
Butifarra
Not the Catalan one. The Antioquia butifarra is a short pork sausage, boiled, eaten on the street with lime and a piece of arepa. It is the Friday afternoon bite in the neighborhood, when people get off work. It is not included in the tour; if you want to try it, your guide will tell you where. It goes well with a cold beer from the same shop.
Mango biche ice cream with salt and lime
Mango biche is green, sour mango, cut into strips and eaten with salt and lime: the childhood treat of all of Colombia. In Comuna 13 we turn it into ice cream and serve it at the house of the grandmother of one of our guides, which is also where we tell the hardest part of the neighborhood's story. The combination is not accidental: in the 13, sweet and bitter have always gone together.
What is not on the tour and you should try
If you are still hungry, the neighborhood has more.
- Salpicón: fruit salad with juice, in a cup, for the heat of the climb.
- Chorizo with arepa at the stalls next to the escalators.
- Mazamorra: corn cooked with milk and panela, the grandmothers' dessert.
- Regional coffee at Garden Coffee, the meeting point, before or after the tour.
Allergies and prices
The patacón with hogao and the mango biche ice cream are included in the Graffiti Tour price; the empanada and the butifarra are paid separately if you want to try them. If you are vegetarian, celiac or have allergies, tell us when booking; the patacón with hogao is already vegetarian. An empanada costs around 3,000 pesos and a patacón con todo about 12,000, as of this article.
