Where to get great Colombian food in Jackson Heights, Queens

Farideh Sadeghin is a chef and video host based in Brooklyn. In this series, she explores New York City neighborhoods through their food and histories.

I traveled to Cartagena, Colombia, for my birthday seven years ago. It was there that I discovered arepas, had some of the best ceviche of my life, and celebrated by dining on fresh grilled fish on the beach.

At the time, I had no idea that I could have saved myself a lot of time and money and eaten the same foods by just biking to Little Colombia in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Step off the 7 train and walk along Roosevelt Avenue from 79th to 84th streets, where you’ll hear Latin music blaring, smell foods frying and feel as though you’ve been transported directly to Colombia.

According to the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute, Queens is one of the top counties in the United States where Colombians live. The nonpartisan think tank says violence, economic instability and drugs drove many Colombians to leave for the United States, with momentum in the 1980s through the 2000s.

My friend Edwin Santacruz, a graphic designer and animator who’s also the bassist for Brooklyn-based punk band Make War, moved to the United States from Cali, Colombia with his mom in 2001 to escape the violence of the cartels. They followed his dad and brother, who arrived several years earlier.

Santacruz now lives in Queens and is always on the lookout for good Colombian food, but hasn’t spent much time in Little Colombia specifically. We were both excited to explore and eat in the area.

Our first stop was the Arepa Lady, a sit-down restaurant on the corner of 37th Avenue and 78th Street. It was started by Maria Cano, a former lawyer and judge in Colombia, who said she moved to New York in the 1980s with three of her four sons to flee violence in the country.

According to her son Alejandro Osorio, who now runs the business, Cano was a single mom, and their hometown of Medellin just wasn’t…