Bandeja paisa, (Spanish for "Paisa platter") also known as bandeja de arriero, bandeja montañera, or bandeja antioqueña, is a typical fusion cuisine Colombian dish. It is very popular, especially in the Paisa Region departments (Antioquia, the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis, (Caldas Department, Quindío, Risaralda) and part of Valle del Cauca.
The main characteristic of this dish is the oversized amount of food and the wide variety of ingredients, which prevent it from being served on a single regular plate, so it must be served in a platter or a tray[1]
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The origin of the bandeja paisa was influenced by several different cultures that inhabited Colombia throughout the centuries, including the indigenous peoples of Colombia, as well as colonial Spaniards and Africans. In the 19th century, French and British colonialists also brought their cuisine with them.[2]
The current form and presentation of the Paisa platter is relatively recent. There are no references in the food writing about this dish before 1950. It is probably an interpretation of the local restaurants of simpler peasant dishes. One of its most prominent features is the juxtaposition of native American and European ingredients, which is also observed in other mestizo dishes of Latin American cuisine, such as Venezuelan pabellón criollo or Costa Rican gallo pinto.
A Paisa platter must be served in a large, oval-shaped tray. Thirteen main ingredients must be present for the dish to be considered a canonical bandeja paisa: red beans cooked with pork, white rice, ground meat, pork rind, fried eggs, plantain (patacones), sausage with lemon, arepa, hogao sauce, black pudding, and avocado.
Side dishes include mazamorra (a maize-derived beverage similar to atole) with milk and ground panela. There are several variants of the dish all over the country with deletion or addition of ingredients, which cannot be recognized as bandeja paisa in the strictest sense. Some Antioquian restaurants offer an "extended" bandeja paisa, also known as "seven meats platter", which contains, besides the aforementioned ingredients, grilled steak, grilled pork and liver. A diet- friendly version of the dish is very popular in Bogotá, which replaces pork with grilled chicken breast, black pudding with salad and chorizo with a wiener.[3]
In 2005, the Colombian government planned to make bandeja paisa the national dish, with name changed to "bandeja montañera" (mountain tray) to avoid the exclusion of people outside the Paisa Region.[4] A number of people opposed this designation, arguing that only a small percentage of the Colombian population consumes it in regular basis, that it is originated in a single region of Colombia (Antioquia) and so on.[5] However, the suggested alternative, sancocho, is not a distinctively Colombian dish, as it is known and enjoyed in many other countries, such as Cuba, Venezuela, the Canary Islands, the Dominican Republic and Panama.[6] Due to the widespread ubiquity of sancocho, often Colombian ajiaco is instead considered the most indicative Colombian dish.
Nonetheless, the commercial Colombian tourism industry has pushed ahead without official government sanction by emblazening ads, menus, and brochure information with imagery of the bandeja paisa as the single most typical Colombian dish.[7] On his release from an eight-year kidnap ordeal, Oscar Tulio Lizcano said the meal he wanted to eat was the bandeja paisa.