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Colombian Culture cousine NY

Weekend in New York | Colombian Culture
A Fruit Shake, Then Shaking to the Beat of Cumbia

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/travel/tmagazine/07well-cartagena...

Amigos de Colombia
Robert Caplin for The New York Times

IF you always put pineapple on your hamburgers, can identify lulo juice by color, consider vinegar to be a vital ingredient in salsa and can distinguish cumbia music from vallenato, you’re excused from a Colombian weekend in New York.

Otherwise, it is worth getting to know the ingredients and rhythms of one of the city’s biggest — and most under the radar — immigrant cultures.

At what cost have we ignored Colombians? Here’s one cost: $2.65 for a fig, cheese and caramel empanada at Empanada Mama in Hell’s Kitchen.

That’s one of the few Colombian outposts in Manhattan, the fancier sit-down Manhattan spinoff of Mama’s Empanadas, a chain of takeout shops in Queens (where the same empanada costs $1.50). The sliver of a restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen serves entrees as well, but the heart of the menu is the empanada section. Order from the corn flour empanadas — the traditionally Colombian style, and be sure to dump on the vinegary sauce known as ají. Empanada Mama also serves salpicón, a fruit punch/fruit salad combo that falls just barely into the beverage category.

There’s also a surprisingly traditional Colombian menu hidden in a Midtown restaurant with a definitively Mexican name: El Tequilazo. That’s because it’s long been Mexican, but a few years ago Colombian owners added a Colombian side to the menu, including a traditional country platter called the bandeja paisa, a huge plate of meat, rice, beans, plantains and fried pork rind.

Considering that Queens is the home to most things Colombian, it’s surprising that the most mainstream and (vaguely) upscale Colombian restaurant in the city is Bogota Latin Bistro, in very non-Colombian Park Slope, Brooklyn. Its waitresses don’t even all speak Spanish, a bold move. The menu integrates Colombian classics like ajiaco (a chicken and potato soup) and a great bandeja paisa with other more fancy-schmancy, pan-Latin-sounding dishes like chipotle corn-crusted salmon.

Full Article
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/travel/15weekend.html?ref=travel

By webmanco on Jun 13, 2008, 07:15 in Friendly Talkzone.

Corey3368 says on Jun 13, 2008, 10:59:

Thanks , might make the trip to NY and try some of these restaurants.

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Simon says on Jun 13, 2008, 11:09:

Great article! I also posted it in the Spanish language forum.

"DON'T FOK WITH COLOMBIA!!"-----Simon

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CatGirl says on Jun 13, 2008, 13:58:

Thanks Webman ;) - Good post

Curious...the decor in the pic...colorful but - a bit "busy", hehe
An Americanized version of Colombian restaurant decor? ;) Shades of Planet Hollywood viva Colombia? ;))

Love and Time: the only two things that cannot be bought, but only spent

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Monpirri says on Jun 13, 2008, 14:03:

Webmanco, that is an awesome post.

The life spam of a taste bud is ten days

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coffee beaner says on Jun 13, 2008, 17:12:

That picture is in a restaurant called "El Basurero" in Steinway (Astoria).... they have the best picada I have ever eaten, I can't even find a picada like that here in Medellin.

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Medellin Traveler says on Jun 13, 2008, 20:33:

That picture reminds me of Mango's.

coffee beaner,

Where have you been hiding? You back in Medellin?

"Huevos Rancheros en Medellin, No Quiero Taco Bell." - www.medellintraveler.com

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