Plaza Minorista Market and Bandeja Paisa Cooked in My Apartment

Plaza Minorista José María Villa is one of the largest indoor markets in Latin America and essentially no tourists visit it. It is where Medellín buys food. I go on weekday mornings to shop for the week — the fruit vendors who stack mamoncillo and lulo in pyramids, the butchers who know how to cut for bandeja paisa, the cheese stalls selling quesito and cuajada. We spend an hour walking through with me explaining what Antioqueño cooking actually is and why Paisas cook the way they do (mountains, altitude, hard physical labour — the food reflects all of it). Then we go to my apartment in Laureles where I cook a proper bandeja paisa: Camellia red beans soaked overnight, ground beef with tomato and cumin, fresh chicharrón, fried egg, sweet plantain, white rice and an arepa made from scratch. You help with the parts you want to help with. We eat at the table and I talk about how this city has changed since I was young. It has changed enormously.