Buñuelo

A fried ball of corn starch and fresh cheese, the size of a fist, golden outside, airy and salty inside.

Eaten hot, for breakfast, with coffee, or straight from the hand in the street. Sold everywhere: in bakeries, at markets, from a stall by the bus stop.

The best one is the one straight out of the oil. Half an hour later it is a different food.

At Christmas it is served with natilla, and it is one of those things a Colombian associates with December the way a Czech does the smell of vanilla.