Empanada
A fried corn pastry
- Where the photo is from
- Parque de los Pies Descalzos
It is not an arepa, even though people mix the two up.
An arepa is a soft corn flatbread, baked or grilled, eaten alongside the food. An empanada is a pocket of yellow corn dough, deep fried until crisp, and it is a meal in itself. That bright yellow is not colouring, it comes from the corn and the spices.
Inside was pulled chicken mixed with potato and hogao, the basic Colombian sauce of tomato, onion and garlic. It sounds plain and it is plain. It is also exactly what you want in your hand while standing at a market.
A stall normally comes with a bowl of ají, the hot sauce of chopped spring onion, coriander, lime and chilli. Bite it open and drip it inside. Skip the ají and you miss half of it.
I had mine at the Sunday farmers market, which was the right moment: breakfast on the move, between the stalls.
Where to get it
