Archive for the ‘Food’ Tag
A Bolivia Food Guide
Here’s the collection of posts on Bolivian food I did while I lived there:
and some street food:
Bolivia Food Blogging: Empanadas
Empanadas are an ubiquitous food in Bolivia. They vary from the very simple, baked bread with a simple cheese filling, to the complicated, bread pastry with chicken or meat along with raisins, olives, hard-boiled egg, perhaps some vegetables, and a salsa. Some are spicy, while others, simple cheese-filled ones, border on the sweet. Two basic methods of cooking them exist as well. They can be fried in oil or baked in an oven.
Bolivia Food Blogging: Mani
Mani is the word for peanut in Bolivia. It’s also the name of a soup. Unsurprisingly, the soup has a base of peanut puré and usually has some vegetables and potatoes as well. The peanut puré gives the broth it’s cream-like appearance. It’s one of my favorite soups here and doesn’t have an overwhelming peanut flavor. It’s more a vegetable soup with some peanut hints.
Bolivians have a thing for putting french fries in their soups. I don’t really like it and would prefer some regular old chunks of potato instead of french fries. Luckily, in this shot we were in Torotoro, a small town in the country, where they served mani without french fries. It was good.
Bolivia Food Blogging: Apí
Apí is a traditional breakfast drink. It’s made from purple maíz (I didn’t know such a thing existed either) that is liquified with lots of sugar and some cinnamon. It has a thick texture and a sweet taste. A lot of my friends don’t like it, but when done right it’s a pleasant, although not breathtaking, way to start the day.
Bolivia Food Blogging: Menudito
Filed under: Bolivia, Food | Tags: Bolivia, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, Food, Menudito
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Menudito is a great dish. My co-worker Sergio brought me to this Chuquisaqueño restaurant to try it out, as it’s one of his favorites. It’s a stew with three types of meat, chicken, beef, and pork, and some very small potatoes and some other veggies. Everything was chopped up real small. This version also had ají which gives the broth that deep red hue and a bit of a spicy kick. It reminded me almost of a gumbo and was delicious.
Sergio explained to me as we ate, that despite being in a Chuquisaqueño restaurant, I would not find menudito in Chuquisaca. It’s a dish that Cochabambinos believe is from Chuquisaca, and so is served in Cocha at Chuquisaqueño restaurants, but is really just a Cochabamba adaptation of a style of stew from Chuquisaca. It doesn’t have to make sense.
In case all this talk of Chuquisaca is confusing you, here’s a map of Bolivia. Cochabamba is the department in the center of the country and Chuquisaca shares a southeast border. The judicial capital of the country, Sucre, is also the capital of the Chuquisaca department.
Bolivia Food Blogging: Silpancho
Filed under: Bolivia, Food | Tags: Bolivia, Food, Silpancho, Tranchapecho
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Silpancho is pretty much just a deconstructed tranchapecho. It’s quick dish that’s kind of in-between street food and a real restaurant dish. It has the same protein as tranchapecho with a fried egg on top, and is served with rice, potatoes, and a salad. The one corner place by me has a real simple menu, highlighting the affinity between silpancha and tranchapecho:
At about 7 bolivianos to the dollar, either one is a good deal for lunch.
Bolivia Food Bloggine: Picante Mixto
Filed under: Bolivia, Food | Tags: Bolivia, Food, Picante de Lengua, Picante de Pollo, Picante Mixto
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Picante Mixto is one of my favorite dishes here in Bolivia. It’s a combination of two different Picante dishes, usually Picante de Pollo, chicken, and Picante de Lengua, cow tongue, in a spicy sauce (as pictured here.) Tongue scares a lot of people, but I really like it. It has a good beef flavor and slightly smooth texture. The spice in the sauce comes from ají, a pepper spice similar to cayenne but made with peppers from Andean region. Here the dish came with boiled potatoes, rice, salad, and chuño, all typical sides. Chuño is a dish of dehydrated, aged potatoes, and reflect the Bolivian love for potatoes. They are typically dried in the sun.
Bolivia Food Blogging: Salteñas
Salteñas may be the visible Bolivian treat. All the guide books talk about them, and they are pretty much everywhere. A salteña is just a different take on the empanada. They usually have chicken or beef, onions, potatoes, olives, and raisins (along with a whole bunch of other things that I can’t tell), and are usually gushing with liquid. The trick is to bit off a tip and suck a bit of the liquid out before forging ahead. Many a gringo has ended up with half the filling of a salteña on his jeans. The burnt edge is a defining feature.
Bolivia Food Blogging: Tranchapecho
This is the king of street food here, or just my favorite. Anyways, el tranchapecho is a sandwich of a thin slice of beef, a fried egg, rice, a potato or two, and a salad of carrots, onions, tomatoes and sometimes something green. It’s good in a fast food way and very filling. You can get them spicy or not.
Bolivia Food Blogging: Chicharrón
Unsurprisingly, there’s a serious dearth of information about Bolivia in English on the internet. With that in mind, I’m going to be posting about some of the food down here. Today we start off with chicharrón.
Chicharrón is a bit different down in Bolivia. In Mexico and a bunch of other Latin American countries, chicharrón refers to seasoned pork rinds.In Bolivia, chicharrón is dish of seasoned pork ribs, cooked in fat and beer. It’s served here over mote, two purple potatoes, and llajwa (the tomato salsa), which I believe is the traditional preparation. Mote are the big corn kernels sitting underneath the pork ribs. They have a starchier bite and are less sweet than your typical corn on the cob. Llajwa is a traditional tomato salsa that has a kick with the addition of some Bolivian peppers and herbs. All in all, it was a very tasty lunch.
