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FijiFlavors · Nariño
Cuy seasoned with salt, garlic and onion and roasted whole over coals, turning on a spit. A festive dish in families from Nariño, served with potatoes and a peanut chili sauce.
Traditional dish from Nariño
Also known as: cuy, cuy a la brasa
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Cuy asado — Nariño, Colombia
The cuy, the guinea pig, is raised for consumption in the Andes of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and southern Colombia. In Nariño, cuy asado is made with animals raised at home: after being cleaned, it is seasoned with salt, garlic and onion, rested until the next day and roasted whole on a spit, turning over a wood fire for about an hour.
Radio Nacional de Colombia, in reports made in Pasto, describes it as one of Nariño’s most representative dishes and notes that raising cuy is part of the knowledge of the Pastos and Quillacingas peoples. Domestication of the animal in the Andes is ancient, and 16th‑century Spanish chroniclers already recorded it.
Cuy asado is a celebratory dish: weddings, baptisms, first communions, graduations and birthdays. The family gathers around the wood stove, called a tulpa in Nariño, and everyone comments on the doneness and flavor. At parties it is often served with hervido, a hot drink of fruit, cinnamon and sugar, sometimes with aguardiente.
The cuy arrives at the table with golden, crispy skin, accompanied by boiled potatoes, ají de maní and sometimes the fried offal as a starter. In Pasto, typical food restaurants serve it year‑round.
Cuy (guinea pig), salt, garlic and onion. Served with potatoes, peanut chili sauce (ají de maní) and sometimes corn.
Whole or in pieces, with crispy skin; served with potatoes and ají de maní.
Weddings, baptisms, first communions, graduations, birthdays and family celebrations.
Your questions
It is the guinea pig, raised for consumption in the Andes. In Nariño, cuy asado is a festive dish.
The cuy is seasoned with salt, garlic and onion, rested until the next day and roasted whole on a spit, turning over a wood fire for about an hour.
Boiled potatoes and ají de maní, a peanut chili sauce. At celebrations it is often served with hervido, a hot fruit-and-cinnamon drink.
Flavors of Colombia
Hearty dish from the paisa region: red beans, rice, ground beef, chicharrón (pork crackling), chorizo, fried egg, ripe plantain, arepa and avocado, served on a large platter. It is the dish most associated with Antioquia.
Thick soup of shredded chicken, three types of potato and corn, scented with guascas. It is the dish most associated with Bogotá and is served with capers, cream, and avocado.
Thick hot chocolate, made with water or milk, served with fresh cheese placed inside the cup to melt, and with almojábana or bread. It is part of Bogotá’s onces.
Meat stew with native Andean tubers such as cubios, chuguas and ibias, as well as potatoes, corn, fava beans and peas. Radio Nacional calls it an emblematic dish of Boyacá.
Iced lulo refresher made with chopped and mashed lulo, lime, sugar, water and ice. The Cali city government calls it the city’s emblematic drink; it’s served with fried snacks from the Valle del Cauca.
Beef slowly cooked in a dark, slightly sweet sauce with spices and a mild heat. Cartagena’s press calls it an emblematic flavor of the city; it comes with coconut rice and patacones.
Pork marinated for at least a day in bitter orange, beer, onion, garlic and herbs, then roasted in a clay oven. It’s the dish of the San Pedro festivities in Huila, served with insulso, arepa and cassava.
Meat and offal from young goat cooked with salt and then fried until golden, sometimes with the animal’s blood. A dish of Wayuu tradition, offered to visitors who arrive at the rancherías of La Guajira.
Mashed green guineo banana with butter and costeño cheese, sometimes topped with a sauté of tomato and onion. It is the typical breakfast of the banana-growing area of Magdalena and of Santa Marta.
Milk-fed steer slowly roasted on stakes around the fire, seasoned only with salt. It is the dish of the Llanos Orientales and the best-known specialty of Meta, served with cassava, plantain, and potato.
Stew in coconut milk with fish or conch, salted pig tail, green plantain, cassava, yam, breadfruit and dumplings. The ICBF calls it a traditional dish of the islands of San Andrés and Providencia.
A whole pig stuffed with its own seasoned meat and dried yellow peas, roasted for hours until the skin becomes crispy. It is Tolima’s proudest dish, served with insulso.
