Market tour, cooking class and creative lunch with food-loving friends

Explore Plaza Guarín with Diego and Yarol. Plaza Guarín is located on one of Bucaramanga’s main streets and so it is frequented by local cooks, restaurants and home-cooks alike. Like all good markets in Colombia, Plaza Guarín offers products that are fresh and delicious, like exotic fruits and verdant vegetables.

The area around the market is home to many traditional restaurants that Diego and Yarol will tell you about as you explore the neighborhood.

Once back at Yarol’s apartment, you will enter the kitchen to prepare lunch. All of the ingredients in today’s menu are purchased at Plaza Guarín, the closest market to the apartment, to ensure that they are as fresh as possible. Diego and Yarol will teach you how to make the main dish and as you cook together you’ll snack on appetizers and sip on a drink.

You will cook together for about 1 to 2 hour before sitting down to lunch.

Diego and Yarol look forward to introducing you to traditional foods from Santander. This region of Colombia has its own special gastronomy, including dishes like pepitoria with cabro, traditional drinks like refajo, a dessert called bocadillo veleño, and, for the adventurous, hormigas culonas (large ants which are toasted and eaten as a snack food).

Your meal will start with an appetizer, followed by a main dish, such as garlic trout, chicken with rice, or a Colombian stew. You’ll also taste side dishes like potatoes with hogao (Colombian sofrito sauce made of slow cooked tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, and spices), plantain chips, or avocado salad. To wash it down you will taste one of Diego’s creative drinks, made with fruit juice and unusual Colombian ingredients. The meal will end with dessert and a hot cup of aromática (hot herbal tea made of herbs) or Colombian coffee.