Gourmet carimañola served with suero costeño, a sour cream from the Northern Caribbean coast

Carimañola is THE delicacy of the Northern Caribbean coast. It’s Colombian as well as Panamanian (by the way I only found out today that things from Panama are Panamanian..!!). Like pan de yuca, carimañola is made of yuca flour.

But it tastes nothing like pan de yuca. Rather, it’s similar to buñuelo because of its deep-fried nature. However, whilst buñuelo is a snack that is eaten any time during the day, in Bogotá at least, carimañola is more often eaten warm as breakfast or a starter. And typically you’ll find them with fillings of beef, cheese or chicken.

My Hongkongese friends – if you want to understand what it is, just think of 咸水角！

NB – translation – 咸水角 is a kind of Cantonese dim sum. A meat filling is wrapped in glutinous rice flour dough, and then deep-fried, which gives you a kind of dumpling that tastes like carimañola!