That said, when I was first offered cow eye (which is also eaten in the United States but much less commonly than in Colombia) I did make a bit of a face. Thankfully, my host family understood my hesitation and there are plenty of Colombians who don’t like that dish too much either.
Every once in a while, I do miss traditional American foods or foods from other places in the world. Thankfully, Colombians like American food too, so I can find pizza, hamburgers and chicken wings at my site, although these items are a bit more expensive than if I were to buy them in the USA. In the big cities, I always feel excited to eat some sushi or, if I'm lucky, find an Indian restaurant. There are some foods in Colombia that also remind me of flavors back home: for example, when I first tried agua de panela, it reminded me of sweet tea, something from home I often miss.
In my experience, food in Colombia is prepared incredibly fresh. It is most common for lunches to be the primary meal of the day and to be made and eaten in people’s homes with their family. This means that lunch is often an hour or two-hour long experience. Even most jobs and schools have two-hour blocks built into the middle of the day just for lunch!
Street food is also common for either breakfast, midday snacks, or smaller dinners. One of my favorite activities is to order a fruit juice from one of my favorite stands in the town plaza and settle down to read a book with my drink. When I first arrived, I loved to watch how the street vendors set up their stands and how they would cook the foods over grills or fry their various fritos.
