Into the Guts of Colombian Street Food
Into the Guts of Colombian Street Food
By John Jarlen Quiroz & Angélica Toro
- Love this?share
- Email article
- Copy link
Copy link to share with friends
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Because it’s greasy, smoky and delicious.
By John Jarlen Quiroz & Angélica Toro
Colombian cuisine may be known for its dazzling array of fruits and juices — Colombians drink more fruit juice than almost any other nation on earth — but one of its best traditional street food dishes is NSFV (not safe for vegetarians).
At the heart of every great fritanga plate are crispy, fried guts …
Fritanga is one of the most popular street foods in Colombia, where it battles with corn arepas, fried-dough buñuelos and meat-filled empanadas for prominence, but the smell of the smoke wafting out of fritanga stands at night catches people’s attention.
Though the exact ingredients of this meat platter vary depending on which region of this mountainous South American nation you’re in, at the heart of every great fritanga plate are crispy, fried guts. There’s chunchurria (fried small intestines), morcilla blood sausages (bowels filled with rice, clotted blood and spices) and butifarra sausages (boiled intestines filled with meat and pepper) — and for a palate cleanser, some traditional carbohydrates from the Andean region of corn, potatoes and cassava (known as yuca in Spanish).
Hungry yet? Buen provecho!
Videography and editing by John Jarlen Quiroz and Angélica Toro; produced by DeMente Fotográfica; text by John Jarlen Quiroz, Angélica Toro and James Watkins.
- John Jarlen Quiroz & Angélica Toro, OZY Author Contact John Jarlen Quiroz & Angélica Toro