Typical and traditional food from Cali: 10 caleño dishes, fruits, and desserts that you must try

The cholado is a mixture of fruits, with condensed milk, and fruit syrup, in some parts they add ice cream but the way I like it the most is with cocada. In Jamundí, which is one of the towns that are close to Cali, you can find a park where they only sell cholado, in Cali you can eat cholado in the Pan-American courts located on the ninth street or in the sugar mill park. All the places sell a good cholado but I like it better at the Parque del Ingenio because it comes with cocada.

Honestly, I don't know how the shampoo is made, but I do know that it is made from corn, pineapple, and lulo. You can find it in many typical food restaurants but the ones I recommend are the ones sold by the mazamorreros, they are people who ride a tricycle through the neighborhoods between 10 and 3 in the afternoon, I have seen many in the southern neighborhoods.

They say that chontaduro is also an aphrodisiac fruit, the only thing I know is that it is very tasty. You can eat it with salt or honey, but you can also combine it with other things, for example, I also like to eat it with coffee. You can find it almost anywhere but mainly in the center, some women sell it on the street in small bags.

Something that can become an addiction is the roasted corn on the cob with butter, be careful because it is extremely delicious. You can find it in many places like downtown, on 14 de Calima, and San Antonio Hill, but my favorite is on Avenida Circunvalar before reaching Carrera 4 in the west, there are four corn vendor stalls on the road, they park the car for a moment on the road, they go to the car, take their order and in less than 30 seconds they bring them their corn on the cob, they beat the automac.

Knowing the origin of the gelatin or seeing how they make it may not be very comfortable (when I have told foreigners how they make it they decide not to eat it) but its flavor is very rich. One of the best jellies can be found in Andalusia, when you go through the roads of the valley there is an exclusive parador in Andalusia where they are sold.

I think the pandebono is something that already identifies us Vallunos, it is something as common as the “ve”. You can find it in any neighborhood bakery and the way to identify it is that it comes in the form of a bagel. I have seen that other regions sell pandebono but they do it very similarly to the almojábana.

A good fritanga comes with empanada, marranita, stuffed potato, fried yucca, arepa, and chunculo. In the San Antonio neighborhood in Cali, many neighborhood stores sell them.

The aborrajado is a fried plantain stuffed with mozzarella cheese, just like the pandebono they sell it in almost any bakery but one that I liked is in front of the obelisk hotel.

Buying manjar blanco as a souvenir to take away is a tradition when you go to Cali. The best place to buy it, with many years of tradition, is in the north at the roundabout on Calle 52 with Carrera Primera. Also in towns like Restrepo, La Paila, or Zarzal many small companies sell and preserve the original recipes of their grandparents.

Lulada is very similar to shampoo, but it doesn't contain corn and unlike lulo juice, you can eat the lulo pieces while taking it.

Its gastronomy is a mixture of indigenous, Afro-American, and Spanish roots, which the people of Cali and Valle del Cauca proudly adopted many years ago and which have been transmitted from generation to generation to the point that we can see much of this gastronomy in other regions of Colombia. and even in the world, I found through networks that there are caleños who sell manjar blanco in Paris.

Finally, if you're planning to do some different and fun activities in the city, then I recommend trying some of these fun things to do in Cali.