Just go!!! It was one of the best experiences I have ever had, shopping at the market and then cooking with Duran and Maria in their home. Great hosts, amazing food, loved every minute!
hollyraesmith
17 Sep 2024
JUST DO IT!!! Seriously, one of the most amazing experiences in all our travels, picked up at the hotel, tour and purchasing at Bazurto market, which is quite the experience, and then cooking at Duran and Marias home was an time I will always cherish. Duran was not busy in the afternoon, so we wound up doing a city tour as well, which was great! We learned to cook great food and meeting him and his family was just a blessing. 100% recommend this!!!
Our host picked us up at our hotel with a professional driver. We talked through the day's plan on our way to a sprawling, bustling marketplace, where we sampled local exotic fruits unavailable in North America. One fruit looked like a kiwi, but on its inside looked and tasted like a cinnamon-spiced holiday yam! We met a few of our host's venders/friends. One gentleman made us a fresh juice using some of the fruit we sampled. Delicious! Eventually, we had to get down to business. So we learned how to pick out the best plantains for our purposes (ripe, yellow, and sweet for fried plantains; green ones for patacones). We learned how they spot the freshest of fresh fish, and what local spices are essential to our dish--stuffed white fish with coconut rice and salad. Our fish monger also weighed in on the popular topic of which Colombian music genre is best--I think he favored Vallenato over Champeta. With our grocery bags filled to the brim, we were escorted back to our host's home where her mother, Maria, put us to work. We do a lot of cooking at home, so I wasn't expecting to learn cooking techniques, but we did! Our jaws dropped when we watched Maria process a coconut without spilling any liquid and without using any sharp objects. I just tried the same back at home, and I was able to break down a coconut in about five minutes, beating my previous record by an hour or two. From there, we learned how to make coconut milk from an actual coconut. And then we took our fresh ingredients and made a piece of culinary art! I will be cooking stuffed white fish, patacones, and coconut rice for the rest of my life thanks to these to gracious hosts. So, we learned a lot and got the full, immersive cultural experience. But what I wasn't expecting was that our hosts made us feel like part of their family for the morning. We sat at their table, talked with the children, we prayed, drank, ate, and laughed. This was one of the most memorable, important experiences of our lives, and we feel very fortunate to have been given this opportunity. Thank you so much :)
~ David & Britton