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Street Fritanga · Fried Pork Belly

Chicharrón

Chicharrón — street food from Antioquia, Colombia
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Missvain / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Antioqueños favor the 'carnudo' style: a thick strip with a generous layer of meat still attached under the crackling skin, often scored so it opens into ridged 'fingers' as it fries.

Squares of pork belly are fried low and slow until the fat turns brittle-crisp and the meat underneath stays tender, then piled hot onto a paper plate or banana leaf at street-side fritanga carts. Vendors sell it by weight straight off a sizzling griddle, usually alongside arepa and avocado.

Why it's made this way: Antioquia's mountain cattle-and-pig ranching economy made pork the region's everyday protein, and chicharrón became the anchor of the Paisa fritanga plate found on nearly every Medellín street corner.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.