Nice!
Hm, I’m not familiar with that Colombian thing (or much Colombian food at all, really). If you have any links or even just the name of a recipe where that happens I’d love to learn a little more about it!
I was just talking with Mrs. WireMonkey about the use of alliums to bump up savoriness. It seems really common but I haven’t heard a ton of explanations about it (certainly not in the same way people talk about how glutamate-heavy ingredients increase umami). When I looked it up a while back it didn’t seem like onions naturally contained higher instances of glutamates than any other vegetable.
Mrs. WireMonkey had the idea that rather than being a high concentration of straight glutamates from the fermentation or other breakdown of amino acids it was the presence of similar broken down proteins and sugar-protein bonded compounds resulting from the Maillard reaction when you brown things. Put another way, both types of savoriness have more freely available glutamates but maybe browned alliums are savory the way that browned bread or seared meat is savory rather than something that’s straight glutamate like soy sauce or parm.
We were just spitballing but it seemed to make some intuitive sense and would also be consistent with your use of aromatics in this dish.
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Sounds like a sofrito - many Spanish speaking countries have there own version. If you have the bestia cookbook there’s a version in there
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Oh, right! Some time ago I looked up different versions of sofrito and recaito and they all looked good but without a reference point I wasn’t sure what exactly it was supposed to taste like. Thanks for the Bestia reference!
This. I’m not a science person but I think the way @nemroz did it caramelizes the aromatics and creates an affect like browning meat and adds the savoriness soy sauce and parm (parmesan?) doesn’t. I use a lot of butter (PSTOB) in my vegetarian beans, but you can’t do it for vegans. I’m definitely doing his method for my vegans - the bean gravy looks delicious. I’d maybe add a bit of vegan butter too… because I’m a butter junky. 
@WireMonkey yea it’s definitely a version of sofrito, i just did it in 2 stages and way heavier than before… Came out great.
I do urge you to visit this restaurant
how much guilt do i feel about adding some chicken stock? non at all
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Omg! @Nemroz You devil!
I’m surprised they didn’t taste it. My vedge sister can spot chicken broth & fish sauce immediately. So not necessary to cheat… your dish seemed delicious without it.
That looks amazing, it’s on the list now! Thanks!
It wAs already a flavor bomb to which we were dumping Marie Sharps hot sauce. No way they’d notice
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Love love Marie Sharps! So much flavor
Is it found in stores? Not that I need more condiments!
It’s not that unusual. It’s a habanero based hot sauce from Belize. The hot is not to spicy but very flavorful
Sometimes you’ll see it in regular markets
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They have a variety of heat levels. I miss having it at our local Ralphs but it’s been gone for a good year now
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They might have it at the Hot Sauce store at the Farmers Market if they’re still open. Is Hot Sauce considered an essential item? 
It is to me.
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They definitely do.
I was there yesterday, it’s open but I don’t go in anymore. Their or Daves was triple that at World Market
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They do have Marie Sharps in the Hot Sauce place in the Farmers Market the complete selection… but we get at Rancho Market on Redondo and Adams. They have really good house tortilla chips for chilaquilles. 
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