What a Flavour Journey
Meet Cartagena’s Street Foods (all residing in my belly)
I am soooo very very disappointed in myself. I can NOT believe that I waited till the end of my two months to take this Street Food tour and be introduced to these foods. What was I thinking?
Honestly, had I know idea this food was so effing delicious I would have been eating it way more often. It is cheaper than cooking at home (although I enjoy cooking my own meals). I mean seriously, some of the things were 0.75 cents.
I don’t even know where to begin, we met Kristy and another person taking the tour at a square in front of a statue where she gave us a brief history lesson and then our flavour journey began.
Kristy took us on an adventure through some of the best neighbourhoods in Cartagena and introduced us to the street foods at the street vendors we crossed paths with. She sprinkled in some Cartagena history with some ghost stories and legends as well as we were introduced to some of Cartagena’s more notable street art as well.
PS. These kinds of tours I really enjoy…because they are informative and interactive but also I love taking tours because I meet so many people from everywhere with such great stories. Let’s face it, you are both in the same place at the same time and the paths taken to get there are so different from one another…I find it fascinating how worlds collide.
While this tour is a Street Food tour, it was actually a perfectly balanced introduction to Cartagena.
My honest opinion is…that if you are going to consider taking more than one walking tour of the city (which you should anyway) you should start with this Street Food tour.
It is a kind of mash-up of all the other kinds of tours, meaning that if you collected together all the other tours on the market, this tour has a snippet of each all rolled into a 2.5 hour quest.
In theory, this means you get an introduction to them all, then you can decide afterwards which fascinates you more and specialize.
It should be the prerequisite tour to all others. HAHAHA
So start with this Street Food tour by Kristy first and as soon as you arrive in Cartagena, I promise you will thank me.
Then decide if you want to take a tour of the Street Art or if you love the food then take a cooking class, or if you love the history take a tour with some history, if ghost stories are your thing then you are covered because there is a tour for that too.
Jackelyn Approved 
Patacon con queso
Patacon con queso was the first food we tried on our street food tour in Cartagena. Patacons are made of plantains that are cut into thin slices, mashed together and fried then dipped in some garlicky water and served with cheese. I had to pass on this one because I am allergic to plantains and bananas. boo hoo!
Deditos
Deditos are soft and warm and stuffed with cheese. Dedito means little finger but they are not little, we ended up sharing two among the group. Let’s be clear though, I would eat the whole thing. When they are freshly fried, the cheese inside is still liquid.
Mango Biche
I want to say this was my favourite snack but the hard facts are that all the food was amazing. Had I known about this from the start, I would have been eating it multiple times a week. It is green unripe mango topped with lime, salt and pepper. It is a delicious mixture of salty and sour with a hint of fruit.
Arepa Choclo
In Cartagena, you can find several types of arepas at the street vendors. Arepa choclo, arepa con queso and arepa con huevo. All are made with ground corn flour and all taste very different. Arepa choclo is a yellow arepa made from giant corn and it is sweeter and has a stronger taste of corn than the others.
Coconut Water
You can either buy an actual coconut from the street vendors, drink the water and then enjoy the fruit or you can order it like this….coconut water in a bag. Just bite off the corner at the bottom and drink up. I have always loved coconut water, it’s refreshing and nourishing and a great cure if you feel icky (especially if it was a self induced icky feeling aka a hangover)
Selling Bolis
Selling Bolis from someone’s house.
Boli
This might have been the most fun thing to purchase. Look for random signs on people’s windows to their houses because that’s where you buy this frozen icy pop. You literally walk up to someone’s house, yell “Buenas” in the window and order up a homemade popsicle. We had one made with Colombia’s Cola and Leche (milk) and it was super pink and super fantastic.
Arepa con huevo
The arepa con huevo is typical for Cartagena and you can find it everywhere. It is an arepa that has been fried, then filled with ground beef and they crack an egg inside, seal it up with a little extra corn flour paste and throw it back into the frying pan to cook the egg. I only ate half and it was super filling…so if you think you might want a quick snack before your meal, this might fill you up. I smothered mine in a couple of the spicy sauces at the food cart.
Carimañolas
Carimañolas are prepared with yuca dough and can come with different fillings like cheese, beef or chicken, and…you got it…fried. I actually made these in the cooking class I took as an alternative to the Patacones.
Buñuelos
Buñuelos are fried balls of dough with a hint of cheese and are usually eaten over the Christmas holidays but everyone loves them so much they are available all year long and for good reason. YUMMY!!!
Nispero
My new favourite fruit in all the land. I am in LOVE! It looks like a potato but it indeed was not.
Nispero
Nispero is an orange fruit that you can find at various fruit carts. It has a tough skin similar to a brown pear but tougher and big black stones inside. (only eat the flesh) Nisperos texture is a cross between a pear and a super soft mango. But the flavour is incredible, like a fully dressed Caramel Sweet Potato Pie. It was magic and a bit of an enigma. I am in LOVE!
Matrimonio
The perfect pairing of bocadillo (guava paste) and queso costeño – here they call it matrimonio, a marriage for the ages
Street Food Sauces for the Fried Foods
Street Food Sauces for the Fried Foods. Pretty much every street cart selling fried foods has a bunch of these sauces on the side of the stand.
Street Cart
Street Cart selling coconut water
Now You Know!
Cartagena Connections (Tour by Kristy)
Totally totally 100% worth it. The tour was approximately 2-2.5 hours. (If you count steps then it was about 6000 steps.)
The cost was $30 USD and there was plenty of food samples to fill me up.
