A Taste of Colombia: Valdez

I took in the third game of the day at a Colombian restaurant called Valdez. I got there just as the second game was finishing and managed to get one of the few seats that opened up and wasn’t immediately reserved for someone in the next wave of people coming in to the rooftop patio. Some Latin music was playing loudly from the speaker positioned above my table which was perfectly suited to this place and their food.

Today I decided to try a few things from the appetizer menu.  I started with an order of empanadas and something called La Reina (which mentioned arepa in the description).  The three empanadas were served in a small paper bag.  They seemed to be made with a corn based dough which I guess is the Colombian way (see my other post for the Chilean version) and came with a small container of sauce.  There were some nice spices in the dish but I think I prefer the Chilean version of empanadas over these ones.

I’ve only had arepa’s from the Arepa café where it is served sort of like a stuffed pita.  I assumed that that was what an arepa was.  I assumed wrong.  I just googled it and the arepa is just the flat bread part which is generally made from ground corn.  Feel free to correct me if I’m still wrong. ;)  The La Reina was an arepa that was served kind of like an open faced sandwich.  It had guacamole, pork and some other things topping it.  It was pretty good too.

While we were eating the patio briefly filled up with a bunch of smoke.  They had a BBQ in the front corner where they must have been cooking some of the food.  It turned out that it was also their one year anniversary so there was going to be a party later.  I also noticed that very few people were actually watching the game.  Most people had just come to hang out with friends and enjoy the food, or perhaps wait for the party.  The Chips and Guac seemed to be a very popular appetizer too.  There were quite a few orders of those going by.  The chips included plantain, yucca, taro and potato.  It’s something I’ll have to try next time.

I did have room for something more so I also ordered the Chuzos al Plancha or two beef skewers with chimichurri sauce and arepa.  When it first came out is was visibly raw in spots.  I don’t know if it was supposed to be that way but I prefer my meat to be cooked medium rare at the minimum, not blue, so I requested that it be cooked longer.  It took quite a while for it to come back and my waitress was keenly aware of this.  She continued to check on it and eventually brought it out with apologies.  It was worth waiting for. It was really good.

When the game finished the Latin music was turned back on and their anniversary celebrations began.  They started with some great entertainment as shown below.  I’m surprised that no drinks were knocked over by the dancers costumes.  I saw lots of people getting feathers in their faces though.  It’s always fun when you stumble onto these sorts of celebrations.  It’s nice to be surprised from time to time. :)