Colombian Pacific Foodways

El Pacífico

Regional

⚠ ONE OF THE WETTEST PLACES ON EARTH AND ONE OF THE MOST NEGLECTED. The Pacific littoral — Chocó and the coastal strips of Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Nariño — is rainforest cut by rivers, with no road along most of it, a majority AFRO-DESCENDANT population and Emberá, Wounaan and Eperara Siapidara communities. The kitchen is COCONUT MILK and seafood: ENCOCADO de camarón, de jaiba, de piangua; TAPAO; the ARROZ CLAVADO and arroz atollado; SANCOCHO DE PESCADO; SUDADO. Plantain, yuca, chontaduro, borojó, the forest fruits. And the AROMATIC HERBS — poleo, chiyangua (cimarrón), chirarán, oregano — that are the signature and are grown in the AZOTEA, a raised garden built above the flood on a wooden platform. ⚠ THE PIANGUA is gathered from mangrove mud by women, the piangüeras, and the resource is in documented decline.