Hola,
I'm Carolina
and I love being able to share one of the things I like the most: food.
In this blog you will find delicious recipes with a Latin touch; that one that connects me being far from my land with my roots. I would love for people to be motivated to cook, to try and realize that if they do it with love and patience, the recipes they prepare will get better and better.
I have always been a foodie, I love to eat but I didn't cook ANYTHING. The turning point was when I arrived in Germany and realized that through food I could feel closer to my roots. And of course by implementing Latin American ingredients and spices and doing it in the most natural way possible.
Thank you for visiting my page and I hope you like the recipes!
A LITTLE MORE OF MY STORY
I was always a foodie but I never liked or was interested in cooking. I have loved eating for as long as I can remember and enjoying food, connecting with different cultures through flavors. Despite this, at a young age I was not curious about cooking or knowing what it was like the process of preparing meals. I am the only child of a single mother who worked all the time to support me, so she didn't have time to cook and she didn't like it either... in Colombia, as in many places in Latin America, it is very normal to have someone not related to the family to help you at home with cooking and cleaning, which is why I didn't have to cook until I entered university.
As a student at Uni, my curiosity about cooking began to arouse and I began to make recipes that I saw in magazines or on television. I actually loved watching cooking shows, I had a fascination with them. At that time, the dishes that I liked to prepare the most were curry with shrimp, ceviche, and a mold with eggplant, tomato, and mozzarella cheese. I took pictures of them and shared them on instagram but without any intention.
In May 2014 I arrived in Berlin, Germany. One of the first jobs I had was at the Mexican embassy in Berlin as a waitress for important events. There I met a chef who cooked spectacularly and always went into the kitchen to see what he was doing. He taught me how to make chicken tinga and chicken mole tacos.
I started cooking and making tacos “from scratch” for my first friends in Berlin, most of them Swedish, and they loved it and from there I started to feel more comfortable and confident with my seasoning. Then I was in Singapore and I remember that I discovered the Pock Choi, a green vegetable that seems simple to many, but with which you can make delicious dishes. I came to Berlin to make directly the recipe that I had seen on that trip to Singapore.
And that's how I kept trying to make different dishes. And here I want to add that the endings are not always happy... there are many attempts in which the food does not turn out well, but you learn from everything.
I remember that pFor the first time I wanted to make some beans, a very common dish that I ate in Colombia but had never made myself. I bought the beans, soaked them and made them in a regular pot, cooking them for 1 hour first but to my frustration they didn't soften. I felt like a total failure, but apparently the beans were “stunned”, a term we use in Colombia for when a food is bad by default. The fact is that now I can look back and laugh about it because after trials and attempts I already have my perfect homemade recipe and my taste for Colombian beans that reminds me and transports me to my grandmother's house. The first time I made lentils - one of the easiest dishes to make - it was a moment to remember, hahaha.
In 2017 I decided to create a blog focused on plant-based recipes, but it gradually became what it is now, a space where I share how I connect with my Latin roots in my kitchen. Where I go combining flavors and allow myself to explore flavors. Where I recreate recipes that remind me of my childhood and make me feel close to the place where I grew up: Colombia.
Thanks for reading this far. I hope you like the recipes. My advice is to allow yourself to experiment as many times as necessary in the kitchen until you find your authentic seasoning.
