Thursday 21 April 2022

Cartagena pasties

I’ve noticed that in South America that – well, the bits of it that I’ve been to –pasties are pretty popular.

Lunch places often have a heated display sitting on the counter full of these small packets of deliciousness. Yum I do love me a pasty.


At the judging in Blumenau, one day we were served mini-pasties in the coffee breaks. Two different types: one with minced beef, the other with cheese. The former was quite like a Jamaican pattie, just without the spice. Very nice it was. Perfect for dropping on top of a dozen Barley Wines.


In Cartagena, we noticed that a type of pasty was very popular for breakfast amongst the locals. Round, rather than the classic pastie shape. I was intrigued. But not enough to forgo my breakfast eggs.

Then one day, when for some reason I’d forgotten to eat lunch, I happened to be passing a little place that seemed to specialise in these pastry delights. Feeling peckish, I popped in.

With some pointing, I managed to order a pair of these parcels of perfection. And a can of beer. You wouldn’t want to eat them dry. They came with a weird looking brown spicy sauce.


What would I discover inside?


Egg. The answer is eff. And minced meat.

A nice lady came over and showed me something on her phone. She’s translated a description of what the pasties were. Some local delicacy, evidently, eaten by people living on Columbia’s Caribbean coast.

I can highly recommend them. Not the Andina beer, though. That’s a bit watery.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They're arepas. I fell in love with them when I visited Colombia in 1978 as a 14-year-old.

Anonymous said...

Each year there is a worldwide pasty baking competition. A few years ago it was won by an old Mexican lady here! Pasties are BIG in Mexico too. Some Cornish tin miners came over to help Mexicans set up some mines, toward the end of the 19th century. They left as their legacy - pasties and strange blonde haired kids.