I mean if you travel to a place like Colombia and miss the street food, you kind of missed the entire reason to come to Colombia.
On our week-long stay in Cartagena, we ate all sorts of fruits from carts and even drank some coffee. But, clearly the real deal was at the Frito carts. They don’t serve those childhood chips (Frito Lays), but instead a whole range of fried specialities.
One of the more legendary of these is Los Fritos de Dora. It opens later in the day and is open throughout the night (just like the famed Arepa Lady in Queens). Since we were traveling with a six-year old, our nights were mostly spent tip toeing around a hotel room rather than hitting the streets
But no reason why I couldn’t stop here for a pre-dinner gutbomb. And so, I visited Plaza San Diego one early evening and got a few specialities from Dora’s son. The arepas con huevos were not quite ready, but I certainly clogged up my arteries a few other ways.
Most spectacular was the football shaped carmiańola. This hot pocket is a gently fried yuca fritter stuffed with cheese and seasoned ground beef.
There were layers of texture – a hot oily exterior giving way to chewy cassava mashed not so different from mashed potatoes to a cheesy meaty center.
It had been just fried and was so spectacular. Very different from some of the carts in NYC I’ve been to where empanadas were fried earlier that morning. This was literally hot out of the fryer and was absolutely stunning. I squirted some of the sauce from the bottles on the cart – spicy, tangy, and may rico. The experience reminded me of why I love to travel and why you should never overlook the food carts in Colombia.
| LOS FRITOS DE DORA |
| Plaza de San Diego Cartagena de Indias, Provincia de Cartagena, Bolivar, Colombia 312 3887990 |
