“I’m trying to present the richness of Colombian gastronomy to Brazilians, its mystique, its flavor,” says Jair, a cook originally from Bogotá. Not surprisingly, he named his cart where he serves the Picada, a mix of typical dishes from his homeland, Macondo. The name is a tribute to the small village of magical realism from “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” a world-famous classic by Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Márquez. Macondo is a metaphor for South America, where the most surprising things can happen. And so is Jair’s cuisine: magical, able to translate all of his Latin ancestry into flavors. The picada includes arepas (white corn pancakes), patacones (mashed and fried green banana disks), guacamole (the famous Mexican avocado paste is also traditional in Colombia), papa criolla (small yellow potatoes fried whole with the skin), artisanal sausages, and other indigenous recipes. There are also vegetarian versions with soy meat and shiitake mushrooms. For almost ten years in São Paulo, where he came to work at a Colombian restaurant, this former mechatronics engineer prepares everything at home, including the sausages, and keeps the tradition of his country’s street food alive. “All my mixed roots are present here: it’s the union of the heritage of the indigenous people, Africans, and farmers.”