Just Arrived: Feast on Colombian Food in Southern Utah
A Different Taste for You to Try
I was drawn to the bright colors of the Mekatos food truck sitting kiddy corner from Lins in Washington. It features street food from Colombia and I was excited to try something different. I have had some food from South America and have wanted to try more.
It did not disappoint. My wife had the chicken arepa and I had the beef. This is kind of like a sandwich with meat, corn and cheese. I really enjoyed the beef. It was seasoned well and the corn and cheese were great.
South American Cuisine is Different Than Mexican Foods
If you are expecting spicy, sometimes hot food because it comes from south of the border, that is not what you will find. Colombian food is sweeter and milder with a lot of corn based textures.
The cheese empenada was sweet kind of like a pancake, though the texture was more like fried ground up corn. Surprisingly, the cheese worked well with it.
I also had the salchipapa fries with mayo, mustard and ketchup. It looks like loaded fries, but the blend was different than I expected. There's some cheese in there and the hotdogs are not like you would expect in the U.S.
How Does Colombian Food Get to Southern Utah?
Diana and Jose are the owners of Mekatos and have been open for about a year. Diana was a chef in Colombia and met Jose when she came to Southern Utah eight years ago. He is from Mexico.
Diana decided Jose would need to learn what Colombian food was all about, so she shipped him off to Colombia for several months where he could learn it first hand. They have now opened their food truck and hope to add new dishes to the menu.
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It is time you learned what Colombian cuisine tastes like. And lucky for you, you don't have to go live there like Jose did.
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Gallery Credit: Joni Sweet