On our last trip to Chicago we had the chance to eat at Las Tablas for my sister’s birthday, easily one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. It made me a little sad to know that the Colombian restaurant here in KC is kind of in limbo. We have been back and the food is good, but we are not sure if it is going to stay open or not.
Having lunch at one of our friends house this weekend, the conversation turned to our countries of origin. They are from Peru and told us about a store we did not know anything about. There is a store that carries South American products here in our neighborhood and we did not know anything about it. After we left our friend`s house, we headed over to check it out.
Sure enough, the store did carry products from Colombia. Most of it was frozen stuff, but it is still very tasty. They also carry Colombian pop which is nice to have close. It was a nice feeling to find a little piece of home so close to our house.
This had me really excited and thinking that KC had hopes to support its Colombian community. Then a bigger surprise came. I walked into one of the local Mexican restaurants where I get a kind of Tamales that are very similar to the Colombian ones because they are wrapped in plantain leaves instead of corn husk. I was very surprised to see Colombian products all over, flour to make pandebonos, masamorra, and other native dishes.
I immediately asked about the products and was surprised by the response. We have a lot of Colombians that come over to eat here so we are in the process of turning half of the restaurant into a Colombian restaurant. As karma would have it, a Mexican restaurant will start serving Colombian food. So KC is getting a little more Colombian.