[ Dec.2016 ] On the way back from Guatape where we went from Medellin in Colombia, our guide and driver took us to a BBQ restaurant.
In Colombia, they grill big skewered meats by sticking them around the fire for many hours, which is quite different from Korean BBQ.
Apparently this is not the cooking of this region but somewhere south, but it seemed popular everywhere in this country.
The restaurant we went was called El Llanerito and it looked like a chain restaurant.
The meat was very good.
Because the fat was removed, it was light so I could eat a lot.
Also there was a kind of potato called Yuca they served with the meat, which was very nice and sweet.
Our guide, Maria said that the original area of this cooking is famous for their harp music.
We had the meal here with Maria and the driver.
Because it was at the end of the year, we asked what they do at this time of the year.
One noticeable thing was that there were a lot of life size human dummies by the side of the road.
We saw many of them during our journey.
Each doll has some explosives in it and at night of New Year’s Eve, they will explode.
So those dolls were supposed to be the people they do not like, for example some politicians.
It is dangerous, so it is banned officially, but many people still enjoy doing it.
Another tradition is that people believe that if you wear yellow underwear on the New Year’s Eve, you will be lucky in the New Year.
That sounded good, so I looked for some the next day in a shopping centre, but the only yellow pants I found had an exaggerated design, so I gave up.
As for foods, we had learned that at Christmas they eat rice cooked in Coca Cola, but on New Year’s Eve, they eat pork with their family.
And they swing the Thurible, the sort of thing that you see in the churches in their houses.
For Colombian people, ‘New Year’s’ means the whole of December and the young people work during the day and have parties at night nearly everyday.
