Lengua en salsa

Beef tongue. I know how that sounds, and I expect half the readers to leave at this sentence. A pity, because this has been the best thing I have eaten in Colombia so far.

A plate arrived with everything on it. Tongue in a dark sauce, rice, boiled potatoes, a piece of yuca and a fried plantain. On the side, a bowl of salad with tomato, onion and avocado. The sauce is vegetable based, chopped very fine, thick rather than runny, and there is enough of it to reach the potatoes as well.

The meat is soft enough to eat with a spoon. The flavour is not wild at all, more full and round, closer to braised beef cheeks than to anything you should be afraid of. If I had not known in advance, I would not have guessed.

With a glass of wine, which suited lunch in the mountains better than I expected.

How it is eaten

Nothing gets mixed together. You take it piece by piece. A bit of meat, some rice, a potato or yuca here and there, sweet plantain in between and salad to clear the palate. That sweetness of the plantain against the salty sauce is half the reason the whole thing works.