"Colombia" news and stories

Talk about an after-dinner pick me up.

Students at the Colombia's Quindio cooking school have created a dessert made with Viagra for a food fair in Bogota, the Associated Press reports.

The dessert is a pudding garnished with whipped cream and chocolate. Students said the recipe tells you how to use the "little blue pill" as an ingredient.

What do you think of the Viagra dessert? Let us know in the comments below.

I've loved experimenting with drinking chocolates this winter. Swirling shaved chocolate into a saucepan of milk produces a far better result than anything I achieve with hot cocoa mix. I usually use dark chocolate, and sometimes add sugar until the mixture reaches my desired sweetness. That is, until recently -- the mother of my close friend is Colombian, and she brought us a bar of Colombian chocolate designed for melting into hot beverages. I can't get enough of it.

The bar is already sweetened perfectly, so you just add it to hot milk and allow it to melt. Once melted, you beat the mixture with a molinillo -- a chocolate whisker with designs native to Colombia, Mexico and other Latin American countries. The result is a deliciously foamy drink with a great chocolate kick. The product I used is called Sweet Chocolate, and the brand is Sol. I found the cheapest bar ($3.99) at Latin Pantry. But I'm sure there are others out there from Colombia as well as from other countries, so please share your favorites!

If you don't have a molinillo, you can use a normal whisk to achieve ideal foaminess. Feel free to add cinnamon as they do in Colombia, or syrups and extracts of your choice.

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We talked about chocolate-covered ants once before, but when we did, I got the impression that we were considering the tiny little guys that crawl around the patio and that end up in movies, not the so-called big-butt queen ants that are making an entry onto the gourmet foods market. "The first loud crackle tastes and feels like popcorn, but by the time the juices spray wildly in your mouth and the filament-like legs slide down your throat, there's no mistaking this toasted ant queen."

Filament-like legs? Spraying juices? Thanks - but no thanks.

These insects, called hormiga culona, are popular in Colombia, where they are gathered, and thought to have medicinal properties, including acting as an aphrodisiac and as a defense against cancer. There, they are often toasted and salted, though restaurants in the area they are harvested offer ant-spreads and ant-based sauces for their dishes. They are often given away, as the ants are not only a traditional food, but a part of the culture.

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In Colombia, the image of Jesus has been seen on the side of a mug of hot chocolate. Specifically, the face appeared on the side of the mug in a pattern of drips. Because this week, the week before Easter, is known as "holy week" by the Catholic Church, the are rumored to be investigating the appearance. In the meantime, a shrine has been set up for visitors to view the cup in the kitchen where it was discovered.

This isn't the first, nor probably the last, time that religious icons have been found in food.

[Image WKYC]

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A small company in southern Colombia has recently started manufacturing a carbonated soda made with the extract of coca, the stimulating shrub from which cocaine is made. The company, Empresa Colombiana de la Coca, is owned and operated by a group of Nasa Indians, an indigenous people that have used coca leaves for centuries. The soda, called Coca-Sek, has apparently won the approval of local tasters and the "tea-like" flavor is supposedly somewhere between 7-Up and ginger ale, according to a recent AP story. The name is Nasa for "coca of the sun."

The soda's release is also a political statement, as area stores have refused to sell Coca-Cola in protest of the company's treatment of local union leaders. While the soda is legal to distribute in some areas in South America, its producers are doubtful that it will reach the U.S. anytime soon. They currently have a limited distribution outfit and are in the process of acquiring a truck of their own.

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