Colombia

🇨🇴Bogotá, Colombia

Chuzo

A Colombian street-food skewer of grilled meat, chicken, and sausage, served with potatoes, plantain, and arepa. A popular late-night snack, especially in Bogotá.

🇨🇴Colombia

Cilantro Cimarrón

A wild cilantro variety from the Colombian Pacific, with long, serrated leaves and a strong, aromatic flavor. Used in Pacific soups, stews, and tapao.

🇨🇴Colombia

Cocadas

A Panamanian coconut ball with raspadura, condensed milk, and cinnamon, baked until golden, a Holy Week and daily classic.

🇨🇴Boyacá, Colombia

Cocido Boyacense

A Boyacá stew of beef, pork, chicken, potatoes, corn, and vegetables, slow-cooked in a clay pot. A rustic, hearty highland meal for cold weather.

🇨🇴Colombia

Coconut Flan

Flan de coco

Coconut flan made with eggs, coconut milk, condensed milk, and flaked coconut, smooth and creamy with proper caramel layer.

🇨🇴Colombia

Colombian Cape Gooseberry

Aguaymanto

A Colombian cape gooseberry, a small, orange fruit in a papery husk, tart and sweet. Eaten fresh or in jams and desserts, a highland export crop.

🇨🇴Colombia

Corozo

A Caribbean-coast palm fruit with red-purple skin and tart, fibrous flesh, used in juices and chicha. A coastal specialty, sweet-tart and refreshing.

🇨🇴Cali, Colombia

Corte Valluno

Cali's signature grill plate: a thick beef cut char-grilled over coals and served with hogao, fries, plantain and arepa — Valle del Cauca's answer to the parrilla steak.

🇬🇫Amazonas, French Guiana

Couac

Roasted cassava semolina/grits; grated cassava pressed to remove toxic cyanide juice, dried, crumbled, sieved, and roasted on a steel plate; yellow to gray to white; eaten like bread at every meal; an Amerindian legacy; long shelf life.

🇨🇴Colombia

Cuajada

A Colombian fresh cheese curd, slightly sweet and soft, eaten with panela or used in almojábanas. A rustic dairy snack of the interior highlands.

🇨🇴Boyacá, Colombia

Cuchuco

A Boyacá soup of wheat or corn, beans, potatoes, and pork ribs, slow-cooked until thick. A rustic, hearty highland stew for cold weather.

🇧🇷Brazil

Cupuaçu

Copoazú

An Amazonian fruit with a tart, fragrant pulp used in juices, ice creams, mousses, and desserts, with a flavor likened to cocoa and pineapple.

🇨🇴Colombia

Curuba

Taxo

A Colombian banana-passion fruit, with yellow-green skin and orange, seedy pulp. Used in juices and desserts, a highland specialty, tart and aromatic.

🇨🇴Nariño, Colombia

Cuy Asado (Roast Guinea Pig)

Cuy asado

Whole roasted guinea pig from the Ecuadorian highlands, basted with garlic, cumin, achiote and lime, then grilled until the skin is crisp. Served with potatoes, avocado and aji.

🇨🇴Colombia

Deditos de Queso

Colombian cheese fingers: small, breaded cheese sticks fried until golden and melty. A children's party and bakery staple, served with guava paste or alone.

🇨🇴Colombia

Dulce de Feijoa

A Colombian sweet of feijoa (pineapple guava) simmered in syrup until tender. A highland dessert, served with cheese or cream, sweet and floral.

🇨🇴Colombia

Dulce de Papaya

A Colombian sweet of green papaya simmered in syrup with cinnamon and cloves until tender. A rustic, traditional dessert, served with cheese.

🇨🇴Colombia

Dulce de Tamarindo

A Colombian sweet of tamarind pulp and sugar, shaped into balls or logs. A tart-sweet coastal snack, sold in markets and on the street.

🇨🇴Colombia

Empanada de Pipián

A Huila specialty empanada filled with pipián (a spicy peanut and potato stew), fried until golden. A regional street snack with a distinctive red filling.

🇨🇴Colombia

Empanadas Colombianas

Colombian fried empanadas of yellow cornmeal dough filled with beef, chicken, or potatoes, served with aji (salsa). Crispier and smaller than Argentine versions.

🇨🇴Atlántico, Colombia

Enyucado

Caribbean coconut-yuca cake: grated cassava folded with coconut, anise and cheese, baked until the top caramelises. A Costa Abajo classic shared by Colombia's Atlántico coast and Panama.

🇨🇴Colombia

Flan de Arequipe

A Colombian caramel flan made with arequipe (dulce de leche) instead of caramel, giving it a richer, milkier flavor. Served chilled with cream.

🇨🇴Medellín, Colombia

Frijoles Paisa

Antioquian red beans slow-cooked with pork, plantain, and spices, the base of bandeja paisa. Thick, rich, and savory, served with rice and avocado.

🇨🇴Cundinamarca, Colombia

Fritada

A Colombian dish of fried pork ribs, served with potatoes, plantain, arepa, and avocado. A hearty, rustic family meal of the highlands, especially Cundinamarca.

🇨🇴Medellín, Colombia

Frito Paisa

An Antioquian platter of fried pork, chorizo, chicharrón, plantain, arepa, and avocado. A hearty, rustic meal of the coffee region, served with beans.

🇨🇴Colombia

Garulla

A Colombian corn bread roll from the Caribbean coast, made with fresh corn and baked in a leaf. Soft and slightly sweet, it is a regional breakfast bread.

🇨🇴Colombia

Gelatina de Pata

A Colombian jelly made from cow's hooves, sugar, and cinnamon, set until jiggly. A traditional dessert of the interior, served chilled with cheese.

🇬🇵Guadeloupe

Guanábana (Soursop)

Guanábana

A Panamanian tropical soursop fruit, eaten fresh or in juices and desserts

🇨🇴Colombia

Guarapo

A sugarcane drink served fresh or lightly fermented across tropical Latin America, with Colombia and Costa Rica among its established forms.

🇨🇴Colombia

Hallaca

Maize dough stained with annatto, spread on plantain leaves and filled with a stew of beef, pork, chicken, olives, capers and raisins, tied and boiled — made only at Christmas.

🇨🇴Nariño, Colombia

Helado de Paila

Pasto's hand-churned ice cream: fruit pulp poured onto a metal paila set over ice and straw, worked against the cold by wrist until it freezes into dense, grainy scoops — a market craft dating to the 1800s.

🇨🇴Colombia

Hogao

The base of Colombian cooking: a sauce of tomatoes, scallions, garlic, and cumin, sautéed until thick. Used in stews, rice, beans, and as a topping.

🇨🇴Santander, Colombia

Hormigas Culonas

A Santander specialty of large, roasted leaf-cutter ants (hormigas culonas), eaten as a salty snack. A pre-Hispanic indigenous delicacy, crunchy and nutty.

🇨🇴Colombia

Jamon de Mono

Jamón de mono

A Tolima sweet of panela, milk, and rice flour, cooked until thick and sliceable. A rustic, traditional dessert of the interior, served at Christmas.

🇨🇴Colombia

Jugo de Borojó

A Pacific-coast juice of borojó pulp, milk, and sugar, blended until creamy. A nutritious, energizing drink from the Chocó, served cold.

🇨🇴Colombia

Jugo de Corozo

A Caribbean-coast fresh juice of corozo palm fruit, water, and sugar, served ice-cold. A deep-red, sweet-tart coastal beverage.