GUIDE TO EATING CHEAP IN CARTAGENA

Lots of people arrive to Cartagena with the expectation that, as part of not-quite first-world Colombia, things are going to be cheap. 'Fraid not. Depending upon where you are coming from and how strong the currency you're converting is, things will be, for the most part, about the same price as in your first-world country (eating, drinking etc) or, even more expensive (accommodation, boating etc).

BUT if you know where to look there are still some choice options to eat on the cheap. I've made up a bit of a list of my favourites (in no particular order) HERE, but first here are some general tips to eating cheap:

1. Lunch like a King.
   

For most Colombians, lunch is the biggest meal of the day. So if you want to save money, take advantage of the competitive corriente pricing around town (more on corrientes next) and fill up at midday. The servings are so large you'll only need the lightest of dinners.

1. Keep things current.
   

Corrientes are the daily meal option. At lunch they will usually consist of a soup to start; hueso (bone) or costilla (rib) are the most common and are made with potato and/or yuca, a chunk of bone with or without some meat attached (depending upon the generosity of your server) cilantro and maybe some other vegetables. You may also find pollo (chicken), pescado (fish) and patacones (plantain) options. If you're really lucky there might be mote de queso (a specialty soup with chunks of cheese and yam) or Modongo (hmm.. the less you know the better.. basically stomache lining/offal.. but mighty flavoursome).

The main plate will include your selected meat (carne [beef], cerdo [pork], pollo [chicken], lingua [tongue], higado [liver] or pescado [fish] being the main offerings) plus a varying combination of rice, lentils, beans, salad (always very basic - lettuce, tomato, onion), patacones and banana.

To drink, the usual offering will be aguapanela (brown sugar dissolved in water with lime juice), chicha (rice-based fruity cordial) or jugo (juice of the day). Corrientes are usually a lunch time thing, but a handful of places serve them up all night long too. Expect to pay from around COP$6,000 up to $15,000 depending upon the place and whether you choose the more expensive fish option.

1. More the merrier.
   

Go to where the people are and you're more likely to find a better variety of good-valued meal options. Ludicrously high rental prices within the walled city makes it more difficult to find food for cheap, so head a little further out. Getsemani has a good offering of cheap eating to target both locals and backpackers. There's some good options around La Matuna aiming to capture the commercial/professional crowd of employees and even upmarket Bocagrande has some good lunch-time deals as the restaurants fight it out for tourist lunchtime trade.

1. Eat street.
   

Don't be scared to grab some food from the many street vendors, plonk yourself down on a bench and eat al fresco. After more than a year of living here and eating EVERYTHING offered on the street, I have never been sick once. You can pick up a styrofoam tray filled with lunch (rice, beans, salad, meat) for 4000 pesos from 12-2pm daily (popular options run out quickly so for more choice, eat earlier!) otherwise you can get all the street snacks I write about HERE throughout the day. Remember! You can also book in for my Street Food Tour!

• When in Rome...

I love Asian food and I cook a lot of it at home, paying a premium for my imported Oyster sauce because sometimes I just want those oriental flavours. But if you want to eat cheap you can't expect to eat the same way you do at home. People here don't really eat fresh, healthy protein-based salads, for example, so if that's what you are hankering for, you can find it, but expect to pay more. Eat what the locals eat and it will be cheaper. And apologies vegetarians - for the most part, Cartagena is very bad value for you.

OK! You're now ready for my list of cheap(er) restaurants. Go here.

Do you have any other tips to eat cheap around Cartagena?

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