“Donde Riaño”, a taste of the altiplano Cundiboyacense—the high plateau in the central Colombian Andes

After a short walk from Guayatá’s town center, a small village in Boyacá, Colombia, you get to a tiny, unpaved road from which you can see the towns in the neighboring mountains. At the end of this block, there is a bar & restaurant with no name, but the locals call it “Donde Riaño” which literally translates  “Riaño’s”, (Riaño is the last name of the owner), an open air space with two levels that looks like many other casual countryside Colombian restaurants: wooden tables, earthen floors, plants all around. There is a wooden staircase that leads to a more polished area, a shiny wooden platform that is covered with a hay ceiling, which is also the material used for the cushions of the benches.

We sat down in a table that was right next to an orchard that had lettuce, cabbage, onions, peas and beans. The server arrived promptly to talk about the options for the day, as there is no printed menu. The first option was cuchuco con espinazo, a traditional soup made with barley, pork spine, different types of beans, and potatoes. It is an earthy, rich, nutritious soup that is a staple in the region. The server also offered fried tilapia and grilled trout, both served with fried plantains, rice and salad. Their fourth option is picada, a combination of three different types of meat: carne al caldero(beef stewed in beer and guarapo–a fermented corn and sugar cane drink), carne al barril (cooked for several hours in a barrel) and costilla (grilled pork rib) as well as boiled yucca, two types of boiled potato, and plantain chips made with plátano popocho—which translates chubby plantain. For drinks, it’s either local beer, or a cocktail made with guarapo, beer, and Sprite, which is served in a big totuma, a natural container made with the fruit of a tree called totumo. This container holds about 1L of the beverage, and it’s supposed to be passed around and shared among the diners who are sitting at the table.

The carne al caldero was moist, slightly sweet, tender and flavorful, and so were the ribs. The carne al barril, although a litte dry, was well seasoned. The sides went perfectly well with the meats: soft, and not seasoned with anything other than salt, so their natural flavors are the main characters, and don’t overpower the more seasoned meats. The ají, hot salsa served on the side, was bright and flavorful, and surprisingly spicy for Colombian standards. The cocktail was very refreshing, and the sweetness, sourness and alcohol content was perfectly balanced—which is hard to achieve, considering that every day that passes, guarapo becomes more fermented, hence more acidic.

Donde Riaño is a great, no-frills spot to taste some of the flavors of the countryside of the altiplano cundiboyacense, the region where Boyaca and Cundinamarca (departments, comparable to states), and Bogota, the capital of Colombia, are located. It is especially interesting to go there while the ferias y fiestas are going on, the annual celebrations of Guayatá.