Cuisine Spotlight: Bandeja Paisa

For my first post in the new "Cuisine Spotlight" series, I will be focusing on my favorite dish here in Colombia, which is known as the "Bandeja Paisa." Flavorful, unique, and made up of different food groups, "Bandeja Paisa" is a conglomeration of the best of Colombian cuisine, specifically of the Antioquia region. You can tell by its name that this popular food dish has its origins with the Paisas, who are the inhabitants of Department of Antioquia. If you translated "Bandeja Paisa" from Spanish to English, it would roughly mean "Paisa Platter."

It’s a paisa platter because there are a number of different foods that make up this huge plate of food. There are a variety and amount of flavors and tastes that you can’t find in many other dishes here. While there are a number of "Bandejas" or "Platters," the "Bandeja Paisa" is the most well known along with its ingredients. The "Bandeja Paisa" usually includes red beans mixed with pork, white rice, ground meat, chicharron, fried egg, plantains, chorizo, arepas, blood sausage, avocado, and criollo sauce to top it all off. You have to eat "Bandeja Paisa" on an empty stomach. Otherwise, you may not be able to finish half of the dish.

"Bandeja Paisa" is a lunchtime dish and should be enjoyed with a nice cold glass of fruit juice. In Colombian culture, lunch, rather than dinner, is the main meal of the day and is to be taken seriously. I would recommend having your "Bandeja Paisa" dish with other people around whether they be friends or family because chances are good that you won’t be able to finish it all on your own. It is likely that the "Bandeja Paisa" dish was made for those people who worked the fields for farming and growing crops. They also could be herding cattle and collecting food for their families.

I would like to believe that they would look forward to having "Bandeja Paisa" as their main meal of the day due to the arduous physical tasks that would be asked of them to complete from sunrise to mid-day. I’m sure millions of Colombians and foreigners here like myself have thought about settling down and having "Bandeja Paisa" after a long day of work regardless of which profession we tie ourselves to. Once again, it’s worth noting that the simple pleasures like a big meal after a hard day of labor can make a world of difference in brightening our outlook for the rest of the day. Having something to look forward to like biting into a chorizo or sampling some avocado can make the work less tedious and the time pass by more quickly.

"Bandeja Paisa" is considered to be a mestizo dish, meaning that it is a unique mixture of both American and European ingredients and foods. The different indigenous peoples who have inhabited Antioquia and Colombia, in general, have left their influence on dishes like this one along with the Spanish colonists who adapted the "Bandeja Paisa" to their own tastes and preferences. Interestingly enough, there is also some African influence along with that of British and French colonialists. The best thing about the "Bandeja Paisa" is that you can adapt it to fit your dietary needs. If you don’t like having so much meat, you can switch in a salad or a vegetable. While the original food options are preferred, I’ve noticed that there are a number of variations to the "Bandeja Paisa" and that Antioquians are flexible with its’ presentation.

The people of Antioquia have such a fond love for "Bandeja Paisa" that they tried to get the national government in Bogota to make it the national dish of Colombia. While there has been no movement on having this become official, "Bandeja Paisa" is held in high regard in terms of representing Colombian cuisine and is advertised by many restaurants and tourist agencies alike. Similar to the popular "Sancocho" favored by Costenos on the Atlantic coast and the delicious "Ajiaco" soup that Bogotanos covet, the Paisas of Antioquia regard "Bandeja Paisa" as the national dish of Colombia even though its overall popularity is limited to the department itself.

While "Bandeja Paisa" is not an everyday kind of food, it is a delicious and unique plate of food that is a large part of the cuisine here in Antioquia. It is an excellent choice when it comes to filling yourself up after a long day of work. It is very affordable, has all different food groups represented, and it will earn you respect from the locals by trying it out. My last recommendation if you are going to try to eat the whole "Bandeja Paisa" is to order some lemonade, water, or fruit juice because it will help a lot with the digestion process and prevent you from getting a nasty stomachache. Buen provecho!