So let's break in this blog with a drink and a post about my last trip: Bogota for the holidays.
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My friend Irene, who lives in Quito (she will be coming up a lot in future posts) and I had originally planned to travel around Colombia for 2 weeks. But then the Colombian heavens opened, roads became inaccessible, 200 people died in mudslides in Medellin and travelling around the country by bus looked more and more difficult. So after some umming and arring we decided to change plans, cut the trip short and only visit Bogota over Christmas. And I absolutely loved it: the weather isn't exactly to write home about, but the city is amazing - beautiful, vibrant, chilled, faded but full of life.
We were really keen to do a bit of our own cooking while in Bogota. As much as I enjoy eating out and trying new food while travelling, it can become a bit tiresome and expensive. And I love discovering local markets and trawling for new produce. So we were really excited when we managed to book ourselves into an apartment at the lovely "Chorro de Quevedo" in the historic Candelaria district in Bogota. The place was light and airy, the staff are among the friendliest people I've ever met and pointed us towards the local markets.
We both love tropical fruit, so we went to the biggest market in Bogota and bought amongst other things 4 kilos - yes 8 pounds - of plump passion fruit or Maracuya as it is called in Spanish, that we used for delicious crepes and cocktails. More about the crepes on another day.
I was really surprised to see that there are several types of maracuya in South America, and sometimes the fruit can be as big as an apple.The minty, tangy, boozy cocktail became the drink of the trip for me. We had two lavish orphan dinners for Christmas with friends and everyone loved the mojitos. They are really easy to make:
All you need is passion fruit, rum - don't try to go for the cheap bottle, otherwise you will regret it - brown sugar, fresh mint and ice. Scoop out the pulp - it does look a bit like orange tadpole soup, but never mind.
I don't have exact measurements, but aim for the same amount of rum and passion fruit pulp, and add sugar to it. Blend it with ice cubes and then stir in the mint leaves. Salute!
