Puerto Colombia is one of my favorite casual little spots in Bogotá. Unfortunately I heard recently that they are looking for buyer’s and will be closing soon. A shame indeed.
I don’t actually go there very often becaus the food is a very guilty pleasure. Pretty much all the good stuff is fried – as all good stuff is. I do daydream about it often and sometimes I treat myself to an arepa de huevo and a thick zapote sorbete which resembles a milkshake. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why it’s so good.
The best arepa de huevo I have ever had was on a grimy street behind a supermarket in Cartagena but this one is pretty good considering we are way up in the Andes. If you know what an arepa is (cornmeal patty, more or less) then picture this: take a raw arepa and fry it for a little while. Then remove it from the oil, cut it open like you would a pita more or less. Crack an egg into this hole, seal it up and throw it back in the fryer until the egg is cooked through. An art and a delicacy.
As with many of Bogotá’s restaurants, Puerto Colombia also has a daily lunch menu. For $10,000 pesos (USD$5.00) you get juice, soup, some kind of meat, carb (usually rice), some plantains (usually) and a small salad. It’s a filling lunch and the ones I have had are very much home-style Colombian cooking. In other words, nothing fancy, but definitely tasty.
If I were you, I’d visit this place while it’s still open and take a little trip to the coast…
Consider ordering any of the following:
- Arepa de Huevo (with or without meat inside)
- Quibbe (one day soon I’ll write about Colombia’s Middle Eastern immigrants and their heavenly culinary contributions)
- Deditos de queso
- Nispero and Zapote sorbete (not too sweet, thick and delicious)
- Corozo, guayaba agria and tamarind juice
- On Friday’s the set lunch menu is the coast’s traditional fried mojarra (a type of sea bream) and coconut rice. Good stuff.
PUERTO COLOMBIA
Cra. 9 # 73-09 (across the street from the Juan Valdez café in the JW Marriott)
211.3319
Looks like somewhere I could try after a meeting this week at your office. That shake looks delicious!