Cali eats like nowhere else in Colombia: Afro-Pacific seafood stews arrive from Buenaventura, the surrounding cane fields sweeten everything from champús to manjar blanco, and the marranitas and empanadas are fried valluno to the core.
Cali's largest working market, Carrera 23 at Calle 44. Open 05:00-17:00 daily. Aisles of chontaduro palm fruit sold with salt and honey, borojó, lulo, zapote and Pacific fish. Breakfast stalls serve tamal valluno with hot chocolate.
Carrera 26 at Calle 8. The upstairs comedor stalls ladle sancocho de gallina simmered with yuca, plantain and cilantro cimarrón, served with rice, avocado and ají. Market open 06:00-17:00; kitchens busiest 11:30-14:00.
Champús is Cali's signature cold drink: maize cooked soft, lulo, pineapple chunks, orange leaf and panela, served over ice. Stands around Peñón and Avenida Sexta pour it all afternoon, alongside lulada made from crushed lulo.
The colonial hill's small shops sell valluno sweets: manjar blanco cooked in copper pots, gelatina de pata, panelitas de leche and cocadas. Several sell aborrajado — ripe plantain stuffed with cheese and fried in batter.
A San Antonio kitchen working traditional valluno recipes: sancocho de gallina, sudado de pescado and arroz atollado — a soupy rice with pork, chorizo and chicken that is the valley's Sunday dish. Open from 11:00.
Chef Vicky Acosta's long-running kitchen in Granada, Avenida 3 Norte No 7-19. Pacific-leaning cooking — encocado de camarón, corvina in coconut milk, chontaduro and borojó desserts — with a set almuerzo and a full à la carte card.
Cali's Afro-Pacific restaurants cook the coast's repertoire: encocado de jaiba, cazuela de mariscos thick with coconut milk, and piangua clams from Buenaventura mangroves, seasoned with poleo and chillangua herbs.
A courtyard restaurant devoted to Valle del Cauca cooking — pandebono baked in-house, marranitas, chuleta valluna (breaded pork loin) and desserts of manjar blanco. Open evenings until around 22:00; live music some nights.
Morning street eating: empanadas vallunas of yellow corn dough filled with potato and shredded beef, dipped in ají de aguacate; pandebono and almojábana from bakeries, eaten with hot chocolate or agua de panela con queso.
Avenida Sexta's kerbside fryers turn out marranitas — green plantain balls stuffed with chicharrón — plus aborrajados, papas rellenas and chorizo santarrosano with arepa. Stands run from late morning into the early hours.
San Antonio's cafés pour single-origin Valle and Cauca coffee, roasted regionally and served as filter or tinto. Many pair it with pandebono or torta de brevas. Terraces look down over the city towards Cerro de las Tres Cruces.
The valley's anise spirit, distilled from local sugarcane, is drunk in shots from a shared bottle with soda and lime. Neighbourhood cantinas serve it alongside chicharrón and chontaduro while salsa records play from the corner.