Colombian chefs aim to decolonize national diet – with the coca leaf
Friday lunchtime at Mini-Mal, a Bogotá restaurant of modern Colombian cuisine housed in a pretty, two-story Victorian edifice, was buzzing with a crowd in suits and heels.
In the back, Antonuela Ariza, the chef, readied the day’s special: the Color of the Andes. It is composed of purple, pink, and yellow tubers, native crops of the South American highlands, and the plate’s highlight was a crispy pastry, wrapping bright, smoky trout in a casing crafted out of coca powder.
On any given day, hundreds of coca plants, the raw source of cocaine,
