Cartagena Street Food & Ceviche

Cartagena's street food is Caribbean Colombia at its most flavourful — a cuisine built on seafood, coconut, plantain, and the African-influenced cooking traditions that distinguish the Caribbean coast from the rest of Colombia. The arepas de huevo (deep-fried corn cakes filled with egg), the ceviche (served from plastic cups by vendors who circulate through the streets), and the fresh fruit juices (mango, lulo, corozo, tamarindo) that are sold from carts throughout the old city represent a street food culture that is cheap, ubiquitous, and excellent.

The seafood is the star — Cartagena's fish market (Mercado de Bazurto, chaotic and authentic, or the tourist-friendly La Cevichería in the walled city) serves the catch from the Caribbean coast: red snapper, shrimp, lobster, and the octopus that is prepared as ceviche, grilled, or in the coconut-based soups (sancocho de pescado) that are the Caribbean coast's comfort food.

The palenquera fruit sellers — women from San Basilio de Palenque who carry bowls of cut fruit on their heads and sell them through the streets in colourful traditional dress — are both a food source and a cultural icon, connecting Cartagena's tourist district to its African heritage with every slice of mango and papaya.