Perfect Popayán

Say hola to Popayán, Colombia, the first, and only, place in Latin America to have been declared a City of Gastronomy by UNESCO. No small feat considering there are only four other cities in the world with such an impressive acknowledgent: Chengdu in China, Östersund in Sweden, Jeonju in South Korea, and Zahlé in Lebanon.

The acknowledgment was given for a number of reasons: Popayán has a rich gastronomy spanning several centuries, based on indigenous traditions that have blended with Spanish and other European influences. Apart from restaurants, markets, and street stalls featuring typical regional Caucá dishes, the city hosts a number of culinary events, the biggest being the National Gastronomical Congress, organized annually by Popayán’s Gastronomic Corporation since 2003.

The Gastronomical Congress takes place in September with thousands of visitors. Popayán invites representatives of other countries and Colombian cities that will all showcase their own specialities through public workshops, tastings, and lectures by experts on gastronomic and cultural characteristics. But what if you’re in Popayán during any other time of the year? Let’s see where else you can get a taste of this rich culinary tradition.

Markets and Street Stalls

Whether for a refreshing drink, a typical snack or an entire meal, see what the vendors on street corners have to offer (keep an eye out for chonta dura, a palm fruit cooked with honey and salt) or check out one of Popayán’s four markets: La Galeria del Barrio Bolivar, la Galeria de la Esmeralda, la Galeria de la Trece, and La Galeria de las Palmas.

Among the typical dishes you may find here are carantanta (an indigenous word meaning cornbread) and sancocho. Don’t forget to give the desamargados a try: sweet treats made of acidic fruits such as oranges and limes, or grapefruit lace cookies. If you’re into sweet biscuits try Doña Chepa’s aplanchados, a type of shortbread (on Carrera 5, #1-60).

On Rincón Payanese you can alternate shopping for crafts and souvenirs with snacking that will also please vegetarians and vegans. Several vendors daily prepare Popayán’s famous empanadas de pipián, fried, stuffed turnovers made with the locally grown papas collaradas (colored potatoes); tamales also prepared with papas collaradas; and empanadas grandes with a potato called papa guata.

Popayán’s Icon Dish: Bandeja Patoja

In Popayán there are two excellent restaurants to try authentic tipicas payanesas (the typical food of Popayán): Restaurante Sendero de los Quingos and Restaurante Camino Viejo. The restaurants are run by one family, brothers, whose grandmother introduced Popayán’s famous Bandeja Patoja some thirty years ago. For about eight dollars you get a plate full of traditional snacks, including empanadas de pipián (served with a fabulous peanut chili salsa),  tamales, trozos de rellena (blood sausage), pieces of costilla and chicharron (ribs and deep fried pig skin with pork), envueltos (type of cake made of corn flower steamed in plantain leaves), and tortillas made with sweet potato and carrots.

Typical drinks to go with this delicious dish are chicha (a brew made of yellow corn cooked with cinnamon, cloves, and sweetened with panela) or champús, a fabulous drink also made of corn but cooked with orange peel, pineapple, lulo fruit, lemons, cinnamon, cloves, and panela.