Eat sausages at every opportunity you get, whether in the Llanos or not. Different from dry-cured Spanish chorizo or crumbly Mexican chorizo, Colombian chorizo is mildly seasoned by comparions. Their flavor comes mostly from the tang of partial fermentation, which lands them somewhere between a fresh Bratwurst and a dried Italian salami or a saucisson sec in flavor.
Rivers and Rice
Though they don’t quite share the same deserved fame and spotlight as the barbecue, fried fish and rice and corn-based breads are ubiquitous foodstuffs in the Llanos. Fresh river fish like the large amarillo or the piraña-shaped cachama are caught and cooked up coastal-style, served with fried plantains of two types: the smashed green plantains known as patacones (tostones is the more familiar term to us), and sweet, ripe black plantains called maduros. I prefer the sweet. Deeper in the llanos, heading towards the more dangerous Guerilla territory, I’m told that giant armadillo is not an uncommon item for barbecue, though according to an 1880 article from the New York Times, the meat is greasy. I hope to judge for myself these days. I’ve yet to meet a quadruped I didn’t like.
