My favorite part of travel is food. I'm not even going to dance around it and try to sound educated and worldly about my travel motivations. I love to try new foods in new places!
We chose Medellin, Colombia as our first trip into South America because we thought it would be a quick travel day(nope!), it was inexpensive to fly there (it would have been if we'd remembered the fine print) and the weather was amazing (now that proved to be true).
The bonus we discovered when we got there was not only was the food fantastic, it was cheap! Like, crazy cheap! Like, "how in the world is this possible" kind of cheap.
I'm not a food critic. I can't capture the subtle shades of seasonings and wrap them in a soliloquy of praise or tell you if the chef trained in a fancy culinary school. I know what I like and it makes me happy to enjoy it.
So instead of describing what we ate, I'm going to show you pictures and prices and if I can recall the name of the place, I'll add that too. Then I'll say things like, "So Yummy" and "amazing" and "best steak I've had in a long time".
This lovely meal was at a coffee shop in the Poblado neighborhood. I had a late breakfast/early lunch that included smoked salmon with cream cheese on sourdough bread, fresh fruit, and a sparkling watermelon drink. Don got a bagel with eggs, cheese and bacon, fresh fruit, and a latte. The whole meal was more food than we could finish and cost about $12 including tip!
That's not a mistake. $12 for a fresh, fantastic, flavorful meal!
We went in search of a steak dinner the next night and Restaurante Malevo, an Argentinian place a few blocks from our hotel did not disappoint!
In fact, it smelled so good and tasted so amazing that this is the only picture we managed to snap of the meal. As you can see, Don was already well into the potatoes and rib eye before we realized we hadn't taken a picture. We didn't bother to take a shot of mine since it was a carnage of chopped potatoes and steak.
This was, for sure, the best steak I've had in a long time!
Again, we couldn't finish the meal and had to take some back to the hotel. However, we did share a chocolate cake with fresh ice cream dessert. Which looked lovely and tasted amazing. But you'll have to take my word for it since we forgot to take a picture of that as well.
Total price for two steak dinners, a couple of glasses of wine each, and dessert? $50 including tip.
You don't have to go to a fancy place to get good food either. This meal was from a typical local place with hearty servings and traditional platters. I got the fried fish and Don got some sort of cut of beef with a wonderful cheese arepa that I swiped half of. Total for the meal with Coca-cola sin azucar? About $13 dollars. Cheaper than a Big Mac Bundle Meal from any Mac Donalds in the US.
We did, however, head over to another fancy place for lunch the next day. Idilico specializes in Colombian Farm-to-Table fresh food with only local ingredients. One reviewer on Google said this restaurant should get a Michelin star and with 356 reviews and a 4.8 rating, it seems a lot of people think the same thing.
Apologies for the pictures, cause the food was too yummy and we jumped right in. We had two appetizers, soda, water, and split a meal. It was out of this world good! Total? $22.50, including a tip.
You're getting the idea right?
The mushroom gnocchi on the left was $8, the peppered steak and zucchini roll $9, and the Peruvian-style beef and rice only $5.
I have to go now. I've made myself so hungry I need to scrounge up something in the kitchen. It won't be as good as the food in Medellin, although I love to eat, I don't love to cook, but I'll always have the memories.
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