El Retiro, Colombia

Spent most of the afternoon, as I usually did in Medellin, at the café near Parque Lleras, drinking coffee and people watching. Back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for another night bus to Bogota. The bus didn’t leave until midnight so I left my bags at the hotel and it was part two of the Bourdain tour.

I went into the centro to get a bus , headed to another restaurant from the show that’s in the hills about 40km from the city. I find the bus, pretty much a chicken bus. Old and run down, questionably road worthy, but still totally pimped out. Tinted windows, spoilers on the back and chrome rims. The bus was packed, but after a few stops I found a seat in the back. I was the only gringo on board.

The views were amazing, the sun setting over the valley and all the city lights were on. After 45 minutes or so, we were getting close to the top of the mountain and I starting to look around for the restaurant. I knew (or thought I knew), the name of the town and thought surely I’d see the restaurant. It’s now totally dark. And we start heading down the other side of the mountain, almost no lights on this side of the hill. I’m starting to wonder if I missed it. I finally ask an old man next to me and he said he was going to the same stop, he’d make sure I didn’t miss it. Another 30 or 40 minutes later and we pull into a tiny town, the old man next to me tells me this is it. With a name like La Queareparaenamorarte lit up in neon, the restaurant was hard to miss.

I sat at the bar and started chatting with the bartender, Elizabeth. She didn’t speak any English but was really nice. We talked about the Bourdain show and she brought out a framed picture of her and Tony. She was so proud. She introduced me to an older guy that was also sitting at the bar, he had a farm not far from the restaurant and was fun to talk to.

The restaurant was started by a anthropology professor that wanted to help preserve the traditional Colombian food. Because of the growing global influence in Colombia, the cuisine here is changing rapidly and he wanted to make sure these traditional recipes lived on. The menu is comprised of typical food from all the regions in Colombia- the pacific coast, the Caribbean, the mountains, the southern highlands and the amazonas.

I started with the chicarones, basically it a very thick strip of bacon that’s been deep fried and cut into pieces. It came with some kind of corn fritters. Elizabeth said that chicharones and aquardiente was a classic combination in Colombian food, mostly found at the street vendors. Who was I to argue so I had a ordered one, it’s basically cheap rum flavored with anise and tastes similar to sambuca.

For dinner I had the tamal de pescado. It’s from the coastal region and was sea bass with mashed plantain, shaved coconut and shrimp wrapped in plantain leaves and cooked. Then it was topped with a Managua, passion fruit, sauce. Delicious.

After dinner Elizabeth took me for a tour of the restaurant, it was gorgeous. Open kitchen made from stone and wood, gardens out back where they grew vegetables and herbs for the restaurant and more tables in a patio outside. It felt like I found the Colombian Potager. I was very happy here.

While we were checking out the restaurant, Elizabeth introduced me to a woman that was eating with her mom. She was Colombian but has been living in NY for the past 20 years or so. She and her family had a farm nearby and they spend their summers and vacations down here.

The last bus for Medellin left at 9 and it was about 8:45. It was either dessert and another glass of aquadiante or the bus back to the city and a 10 hour ride to Bogota. I stayed for dessert. The bartender had a friend in town that owned a hotel. She called and got a room for me. I was very glad that I stayed, dessert was amazing, sweet tomatoes, marinated and served with crème fraiche.

After dessert, the woman from ny was getting ready to leave and offered to give me a ride to the hotel. She took my by her finca. From there you could see the lights of town. Then she took me into Retiro and drove me around, the town square, showing me the mayor’s house, and the best pollo asado place in the county. We finally made it to the hotel. It was definitely the nicest place I’ve stayed so far. Lots of wood and stone, antique typewrites and cameras in the lobby and great b/w photographs in the hallways. Before heading into the hotel, Linda invited me to breakfast at her farm in the morning and said she’d send her son to get me in the morning.

The bartender met me in town after work. We walked around a bit and ended up in a little tienda that had 2 tables and a few local guys hanging around. The guys all had a lot of aquardiente, rum or maybe some local moonshine, they kind of gave me strange looks, but they ended up being cool. A few of them had fun practicing their laughable English with me. It was a really cute, sleepy little country town.

I got up early the next day, trying to find an internet connection to call Justin in Medellin. I left my bags in his room, told him I was headed to dinner and would be back in a few hours. It’s now about 15 hours since I left and it was going to be a while before I made it back to Bogota. Walked around town a few times, all the internet cafes, both of them, were closed and didn’t look like they were opening anytime soon. So I had a few cups of really good coffee and just did some people watching and checked out the town a bit more.

Linda’s son, Anthony, and Elizabeth picked me up and we went to the farm. Anthony spoke very good English and was my interpreter for breakfast. The farm was amazing and their house was beautiful. It was just a few minutes outside of town, in these beautiful rolling green hills. They had chickens, horses, a few cows and all sorts of fruit trees- manacuya, avocado, all sorts of citrus, tomatoes and a huge herb garden. We had eggs, milk and cheese all made, milked, whatever on the farm that morning. Fresh corn arepas, so different from the ones made with dried cornmeal on every corner. Empanadas, all sorts of savory pastries, fresh fruit and homemade salsa. And, of course, good strong coffee. Linda’s other son was also there, along a few of their Colombian friends. We ate at a huge farmers table in their open air dinning room. Easily one of my best meals in Colombian and one of the best meals of my life.

After breakfast, Anthony took Elizabeth and I to the restaurant. We took another tour in the daylight, their garden was immaculate. She also took me in to meet the chef. I talked to him for a while about the restaurant, the menu and about eating local, regional food. It was really cool to meet a group of people in Colombia with the same attitude about food. Back on the bus, I was headed to Medellin to let Justin know I hadn’t been kidnapped and a second chance at the night bus to Bogota.