From Cali, Colombia, with Cuisine & Culture and Salsa with delegates and stakeholders attending the Ninth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing locked in intense negotiations for a legally binding protocol on access to and benefit-sharing of genetic resources and the associated traditional knowledge under the Convention of Biological Diversity/CBD/for which, Colombia, a great enthusiast, has been host to many of its events on regular basis, notably in Cartagena.

Whether or not this session will reach the intended outcome for it to be presented for adoption at the CBD Conference of the Parties in Nagoya, Japan, coming October, Cali, and Colombia to a greater degree, must have left the meeting participants with indelible impression with their hospitality, their friendliness, their eagerness to help, their cheerfulness and positive energy and, of course, their cuisine and culture upon which Cuisine & Culture is delighted to present this special issue to you, colleagues and friends.

Cali is not known as origin of any special cuisine, although the Valley of the Cauca River in whose heart lies Cali, is a cradle for traditional cuisine and food, often a lure to visitors to Cali. With its relative proximity to the Pacific, Cali strongly associates itself with seafood and throw in the traditional staple of rice and potatoes you have a attempting mix of plate that’s both delicious and nutritious as this editor and some of his colleagues sampled at Granada Faro, a chic fusion restaurant whose chef is not shy of using ingredients from cheese to soy sauce.

The sweet recipes are the most famous treats Cali offers with the Valley of Cauca as the lead region of Colombia in producing sugar cane. The melcocha, a sticky sweet composed of honey, sugar and panela, is so delicious that it won’t melt in your mouth. You must have strong teeth to handle it. Another traditional Cali sweet treat with the first letter also as M is the manjarblanco which is a candy made with milk, white sugar and flour, hence the color blanco/white, which often is mixed with raisins and served in a container called totuma.

Enough of cuisine and food for now to which Cuisine & Culture will return below with specific recipes and let’s switch to culture with the first and a must to present coming to mind being Salsa and its music considered as lifeblood to Cali which boasts the best Salsa dancers on earth outshining their counterparts anywhere in the world  you name, Havana, Miami, or Caracas. This editor along with all the meeting participants were treated to a Salsa feast on the opening night that’ll forever be a favorable topic of our life.

With that, colleagues and friends, Cuisine & Culture can’t wait to present you with Cali specialties from delicious recipes to delightful Salsa tunes, Salsa first, of course. Enjoy!

SALSA CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

Cali calls itself the "Salsa Capital, of the World," a title wrenched from post-Fidel Cuba and often shared with New York City. But even those who might take exception to "World Capital" will agree that Cali is certainly the "Salsa Capital of South America." There is Salsa in the air with the sensuous, tropical rhythms of Salsa pervading the lives of the two million plus Caleños. On every bus you'll hear Salsa. Go for a walk, to school or shopping there's salsa in the air. And, of course there's Salsa on almost all of the more than two dozen local radio stations. All over town, 24-hours a day, Salsa blasts from speakers on the streets, in parks, in stores, from cars, portable radios and private homes. Cali lives and breathes Salsa.

Larry M. Lynch, an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, describes it well:

‘You step through the darkened entranceway, leaving the tropical night behind. Suddenly, waves of sound crash over you like ocean surf. Breaking out in a sweat, your heart pounds to the rhythm of bass, bongos, bells and brass. The walls seem to pulsate. The pungent smell of perspiration mixed with perfume assaults you. As your eyes adjust to the dark, broken by hypnotic flashes of the multi-colored strobes, you realize it's not walls that enclose you, but dancers-- scores of dancers gyrating, weaving and swirling, limbs flashing, hips thrusting in quarter--time beat. You fill your lungs with the spicy aroma, tighten your belt a notch and plunge in. Welcome to Chango's in Cali, Colombia - one of Latin America's hottest Salsa night clubs.’

Why has the Salsa style ingrained itself so deeply into the culture? To aficionados the answer is simple: "I love salsa music." Whatever the reason for it's universal popularity in Cali, Salsa is more than just music, more than a dance. It's an indispensable social skill explains my friend, Carmenza, "No salsa--no dates." You can't meet others if you can't dance." And that's why there are salsa dance schools throughout the city. You pay for lessons by the hour. Prices range from $2 up to $6 per hour for more private, one-on-one instruction. Group classes fu up fast. Salsa classes are not just the place to go for learning, but to practice and perfect your moves or pick up some new ones. They're a good "meeting place" for neighborhood residents. "It's important to dance very well or you're boring,"

Back to Cali’s specialties of its cuisine and food again now and Cuisine Culture is happy to hand you over the following menu.

The sancocho is popular and well known in Cali, which is a traditional chicken soup whose main ingredient is either potato or banana often mixed with meat depending on taste with hen often the choicest meat. Garlic or cilantro is added to the soup with pepper spicing it up with more flavor.

With its strong association with sea and ocean, Cali serves in its restaurants a multitude of fish soup or fish sancochos with fish ranging from red snapper, tilapia, nato (ñato in Spanish) and bocachico. Seafood, soup of piangua and rice with shrimp are the most ordered food.

Bocadillos or sandwiches are quite popular in the gastronomic culture of Cali, which are not necessarily served on restaurant menus, but offered throughout the city. Cali marks on June 29 each year "Dia de los Ahijados", the Day of the Godchildren when kids are given a long wooden stick called maceta with candies embedded on all sides.

Other bocadillos include the melcocha, a sticky sweet composed of honey, sugar and panela, so delicious that it won’t melt in mouth, requiring strong teeth to handle it. Another traditional Cali sweet treat is the manjarblanco which is a candy made with milk, white sugar and flour, which often is mixed with raisins and served in a container called totuma.

Definitely there are many other delights Cali offers to its residents and visitors. The mango biche (raw mango) with salt is very popular in the city and a fruit called chontaduro is more famous with biche mango. The chontaduro is enjoyed with lemon or honey.

One should not miss out the freshly delicious juices and drinks. Borojo juice, made from the fruit of a tropical tree, is quite popular. The champus, very delicious, made from maize, cinnamon, pineapple and lulo, allegedly named after the Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is a great delicacy only available in Cali and the Valley of Cauca.

And of course go for the fritanga during the feria de Cali , the most important carnival of the city or regular fairs on the weekends and gentlemen who are single are welcome to bring along Colombian female companions, perhaps the most beautiful Latin girls or Latinas.

From the Editor: Cuisine & Culture obtains its materials both online and off line with sources omitted for reason of simplicity but can be provided upon request. Certain materials come in languages other than English which Cuisine & Culture renders into English to the best of its ability. Cuisine & Culture is not in a position to verify the veracity of the materials provided herein. Reader’s discretion is kindly advised.

A Special Acknowledgement of Thanks from Cuisine & Culture

Cuisine & Culture wishes to express its heartfelt thanks to Kevin Wambura of the ITS team here at UNON in Nairobi and Yawtsong Lee, a veteran interpreter at UN headquarters, now retired, for their technical advice and assistance and is hereby extremely pleased to retain them  as Technical Advisors to Cuisine & Culture.