bogota

C'MON HEYZEOUS!!!  GIMME A BREAK HERE!!! AT LEAST HELP MY FF TEAM WIN THIS WEEK!!!

i don't know what to do about my luck anymore.  it is just absolutely horrendous.   can't catch a break.  i'm not complaining about my life.  but i need to vent.  i have big ticket items that are dragging me down and im coping by staying positive...but when daily routine becomes stepping in puddles and more puddles and then a paper cut and then a tooth ache and then a parking ticket and then a stolen license plate and then another puddle and then another 倒楣 another 冤枉....it just makes it hard...to wake up in the morning.  and a random check...over a passion fruit and an avocado...ruined by trip a bit.   it's taken me some time to recount bogota....so here goes....

definitely need to keep this blog more updated....it'll help bring back some of the lost persona.   keeps the frustrations linear and coherent at the very least.

bogota...

would you come back again?

probably not.

me neither.  unless there was some event.  if sergio leaves...i probably wouldn't come back again. 




the first thing bogota reminded me of was jakarta.  a lot of people.  kind of ghetto.  the smell.  infrastructure not well kempt.  we were worried about rainy season...but it was just another country with poor drainage causing flooding.  bogota is 8 million people and a bad traffic....it's the capital of a country barely 20 years removed from the cartels and civil wars....and probably due to that...it hasn't really become a haven for tourists...street graffiti represents different eras of the peoples voice and there's a tour if you really wanted to go on it.  but if you're chinese...it just looks dirty.  probably why you don't see a chinatown here...or any chinese tourists anywhere....we were the only asians in the country and while we were at the museo d'oro....school children on a class field trip stopped us for a photograph. 

"u want us to take a photo with you?  OH you want to take one with us...hahahaha"

i really enjoyed botero...whimsical and chubby.  variations of himself and 2 naked muses throughout different artistic mediums across generations....

joan miro

pablo picasso...(FREE ADMISSION TO MUSEUM!)

who's this?

this was was my first time in south america.  i got my feet wet with latin america in july for franks bachelor party to costa rica...but bogota is no latin tourista town.   and unlike most cities in the world, bogota seems to have little american influence.  we ran into one starbucks.  albeit a nice starbucks but juan valdez is the starbucks of columbia.  not bad.  i uselessly studied french but my spanish charisma got me by with the customs agent and finding the best bandeja paiso in town.  large caloric heavy plates that were to feed farm workers before the day.  except it wasn't greasy.  it wasn't salty.  completely unlike what i had in jackson heights.  why do americans end up turning every ethnic entree into a greasy salty americanized conversion?  the ajiaco also quite good.  empanada also quite good.  but unlike most cities in the world...the local foods are nothing to rave about....there's no scouring of street stalls and snacks...they seem to like bread and sandwich shops (pick up an arepa).



with all that being said....the simpleness of local cuisine gives way to a district specifically known as gastronomy which is just waiting to explode with the new generation of chefs and their interpretation of colombian cuisine.  michelin techniques hidden in the slums of bogota waiting for the world to take notice.  first night...we were told to go to el chato.  we were asked one question..."with alcohol or without"

this meal absolutely blew our minds.  the michelado in colombia is made with tamarind juice.  rather than the cheap tomato tabasco tecate version i've had before.  tamarind and stella...who knew??   so refreshing.  and then the dishes just kept coming out...paired with cocktails.  and wine.  and just delicate after elegance one after another.   wow...am i really in colombia?




best salad i've ever had in my whole life.  pomelo, artichoke hearts, burnt sage salad.  i think it's make-able.  on the menu next thanksgiving...









if el chato was friggin amazing....then i really didn't know what to expect from sergios place.  the country seemed casual and cheap.  el chato was trendy omakase.  there was no way i'd expect sergio to bring a spanish michelin dining experience to bogota.   but he did.  and it was FANTASTICO!  we went there every night for cocteles.  but our thanksgiving dinner thursday night is the quintessential example of bogota's youth yearning to break out from the aftershocks of civil unrest leading to a dull and scared nightlife with an automated 11pm curfew....and dinner also showed how young chefs around the world take michelin dining and techniques and offer it at an affordable price to diners all across the world.  screw the french model and embrace what the spaniards have been doing all along. 

9 courses and cocktails at the chefs table.   an hour and a half for food.  an hour and a half for drinks.   and then 4 hours at a dive bar around the corner where i drank a shit ton of aguardiente aka "guardo"  the local anise liquor...kind of like arak.   it's like in china....when u're scared of fake alcohol...drink the local stuff. 

No.40

Villanos en Bermudas

Bogotá, Colombia

On the pass:

Nicolás López y Sergio Meza

Style of food:

Eclectic Colombian

Standout dish:

Langoustine, spicy banana broth and mature goat’s cheese

Contact:

Calle 56 #5-21, Bogotá

+57 1 2111259
http://villanosenbermudas.com/

No.40

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Creative Argentinian and Mexican chefs join forces for an imaginative daily-changing menu

Chief reason to visit: The dynamic duo formed of Mexican Sergio Meza and Argentinian Nicolás López is shaking up Bogotá’s gastronomic offer with a daring daily-changing menu inspired by surprising combinations of local ingredients.

A few words on the chefs: Meza worked in Europe at the likes of Noma in Copenhagen and In De Wulf in Belgium, and headed the research and development laboratory of Boragó under Rodolfo Guzmán. López, one of the co-founders of 99 in Santiago, has had a similarly international training including stints in Sydney and Norway. The two met in Chile and opened Villanos en Bermudas together in 2016.

The concept: Villanos en Bermudas is only open in the evening, as Meza and López spend the day in their kitchens preparing the seven-course menu for dinner. They are committed to using only the freshest local products – if there are more diners than there is produce available, they make different versions of dishes. Expect combinations like langoustine, spicy banana broth and mature goat’s cheese; or stuffed zucchini with Jerusalem artichoke ice cream, burnt white chocolate and green apple.

What’s the space like? A converted three-floor house in the Chapinero neighbourhood. The first floor hosts the main dining room, decorated with large comic-style portraits, and the pantry, featuring a disco ball. On the second floor is a spacious lounge where imaginative cocktails are served. On the third floor is a mirror-covered bathroom and the open kitchen in front of a long bar, as well as a small dining room with only one table.