Celebrating Christmas in Colombia

This blog post is actually from an email that I sent to my subscibers in December of 2008.

Celebrating Christmas in Colombia

 

In 2007, I celebrated the holidays in Barranquilla, Colombia. But in 2008, I spent the holidays in Medellin.

Barranquilla and Medellin, just like the rest of Latin America, actually celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve — the 24th.

Just like when I was in Barranquilla, I had a typical Colombian Christmas dinner here in Medellin. Again, I had a dinner consisting of “pollo relleno” (stuffed chicken), “buñuelos” (I’d describe these as fried cheese balls), “natilla” (raw sugar pudding).

The above image is a picture of “buñuelos.”

Being a non-traditionalist, I found myself cooking a couple of non-Colombian dishes for my “paisita” (diminutive word for woman from Medellin) on Christmas Eve.

The last time I went to New York I made sure that I bought all the Puerto Rican and Dominican cooking ingredients that I would need to take back here to Medellin to cook some Puerto Rican or Dominican dishes that I had learned from Boricua (Puerto Rican) and Dominican friends in New York.

From New York, I brought back Sazón, Adobo, Goya Culantro, and, of course, Sofrito. I’d describe “Sofrito” as a slightly “picante” (spicy) Puerto Rican tomato sauce.

And with those ingredients, I managed to cook Puerto Rican or Dominican style dishes of “arroz amarillo” (yellow rice) and “habichuelas” (stewed red beans). But in Medellin, the word “habichuelas” means “string beans” and “frijoles” means “beans.”