Overall I spent seven days in Colombia, during which time I consumed six soups which merited discussion, information on which will follow below. The Sopa de Pescado - not to be confused with the heavier Sancocho de Pescado or the similar Caldo de Pescado - was not my favorite, but it provided a good reminder of how seamlessly foreign cuisine can combine the foreign and the familiar in one little bowl. It also had an eyeball floating in it, which not only granted a perky anthropomorphic quality but assured the broth’s rustic homemade quantity.
Originally from Andalusia, ‘puchero,’ indicates a specific type of cooking vessel from that region, in which a similar stew was originally prepared. Leaving Spain along with countless other contributions, it made the move to South America and beyond, seemingly taking root in any country that has a profusion of tubers and starchy vegetables. Alternate versions exist both in the Yucatan and the Philippines. In some sense, this variety feels like the city’s answer to Medellin’s immense Bandeja Paisa, and while it’s never taken on the same ubiquity at home or abroad, the stew benefits from its sense of unity, combining disparate ingredients into a swirling maelstrom of veggie-supplemented meat. As seen in this recipe, the Colombian iteration frequently cites a “Santafereño” root, which would nominally indicate some origin in the eastern locality of the city known as Santa Fe. This is complicated by the fact, however, that this locality represents the historic center of the city, and that Santa Fe was the original name given to it at its founding in 1538, before eventually reverting back to a Hispanicized corruption of the name Bacata (“planted fields”) used by the native Muisca people. “Santafereño” thus seems to indicate a more general ‘Bogotá-style’ cuisine, as seen by many other local foods with the same appellation attached.