Costeño Cuisine

Colombians have different names for their compatriots depending on which departmento (state) they're from. In Australia we quite simply call someone from Queensland a Queenslander. Not so in Colombia. Someone from Medellin is known as a Paisa, a person from Cali is known as a Caleño and those from the coastal areas are known as Costeños. 

When we visited the coastal town of Cartagena, the home of our good Costeño friend, he gave us some very firm instructions: to experience the best of Costeño cuisine we had to eat a meal at La Casa de Socorro in Getsemaní. However, we were told, we must ensure we go to the real Socorro, and not the original one (!?) 

On our first day in Cartagena the temperature was set to baking hot. Not that I was complaining after the bone-deep-chill of Bogotá nights, but the heat can take it out of you and I was approaching the tired-and-over-it stage of our day of sightseeing. Compounding the issue was the fact that I was still limping about with a thigh the size of a watermelon (tales of my frequent and embarrassing tumbles is a blog unto itself) and my blood sugar levels were bottoming out. It was not a good situation for El Hombre Latino. 

After a trek across the shadeless expanse of concrete and bitumen that separates the Old Town from Getsemaní, I didn't care much for firm instructions. As only a girlfriend tired of dragging around a swollen leg in the wiltering heat with nary a snack for several hours can do, I demanded we sit in the first La Casa De Socorro we find. 

Fortunately, we chanced upon the real Socorro and as our Costeño friend promised, the meal was sensational: Breaded fish and a coconut rice that was both sweet and savoury and seriously addictive. This was served with patacones (plantain fritters) on which I slathered a spicy thin salsa and sour cream type cheese, following the example of the dozens of locals dining around us.

I just couldn´t accept plain patacones after this delicious combinationFor our second trip to Socorro we wisely took a taxi and asked the driver how there could be a real Socorro and an original. The story goes Socorro was a woman with a stall in the market, famous for selling food so fresh it attracted no flies. She soon had enough business to open a restaurant - the original La Casa de Socorro, where she worked with a loyal team of cooks and waiters until she passed away. After this point, new owners bought the restaurant and started to change a few things, including the quality of the food. So the original team, dedicated to the the high standards set by their departed boss, left to open the real La Casa de Socorro. Locals all know the difference between the two and provide the real Socorro with enough business that they don't need to explain themselves to tourists, even though it would be nice if they did.