Dinner at El Gobernador

A hard day of touristing called for a big, delicious, upscale, gourmet supper to satisfy my big, upscale, gourmet tastes. The situation called for El Gobernador, the restaurant in the Bastion Luxury Hotel.

This is a definitely an upscale, "European" style restaurant, the type you would expect to find in a European capital. But unlike the upscale gourmet room in European capitals, there were a few Colombian influenced dishes on the inventive menu. For example, the "pulpo a la parrilla," or "grilled octopus."

Yes, I have been eating a LOT of octopus on this trip> And has all been awesome. Except for the mediocre octopus I had the night before at a restaurant called "El Pulpo," which means "The Octopus," where ironically I had my worst octopus of the trip. It was an octopus "ceviche" serve in a greasy paprika sauce. This was much better.

The pieces of grilled octopus are served with delicious cherry tomatoes -- yes, I am eating my tomatoes -- I must be outside the USA -- what I think were parmesan "crackers" all served on a bed of mashed potatoes. Where are the mashed potatoes, you may ask? They are the black on the plate. Black mashed potatoes? It's from the squid ink. It may not sound like all of those ingredients work together, but trust me. And the chef. They do.

For my main course:

Posta negra. Braised beef in a tamarind sauce with sides of plantains and coconut rice. The beef tastes like a delicious perfect prepared pot roast. The plantains are cooked in a cola-based sauce that ends up making them taste (and take on the color of) strawberries. And coconut rice is a tasty combination of rice and toasted coconut.

I was stuffed. But since dessert uses a different portion of the stomach, I ordered the strudel with nutella:

Again, wheat flour and all that. I shouldn't be eating it. So let's look at this from a different perspective:

I am so totally eating that.

Great meal. Thank you Oscar and Javier/Andrew

And when you come to El Gobernador in Cartagena, check out the basement floor for some way-cool photos of Cartagena from about several decades ago. These were a few of my favorite:

And, of course, a few of Torre del Reloj, the clock tower: