Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Snacks & Soups
Scrumptious street snacks include empanadas,
tucumanas, salteñas, tamales
(cornmeal-
dough pockets filled with spiced beef, vegetables, potatoes and/or cheese) and
humintas
(or
humitas;
cornmeal filled with cheese, onion, egg and spices, baked in the oven or
boiled). For a hearty snack, try
anticuchos
(grilled cow heart on skewers), served at mar-
kets or street stalls.
A large bowl of
sopa
(soup) - whether vegetarian or meat-based - is the start of every
great Bolivian meal. The most popular soups are the delicious
maní
(peanut) soup and
chairo
, a hearty soup using many Andean ingredients including
chuños
(freeze-dried pota-
toes), meat and vegetables, and often topped with crispy fried pigskin.
Chupe, cha'que
and
lawa
(aka
lagua
) are the most common thick, stew-like soups. Quinoa and
maní
are
often used to thicken broth.
Meats
Beef is typically
asado
(barbecued) or
parrillada
(grilled) in various cuts, including
lomo
(filet),
brazuelo
(shank) and
churrasco
(skirt steak). Jerked beef, llama or other red meat
is called
charque
. A popular dish is
pique a lo macho,
a plate of chopped grilled beef and
sausage served with po- tatoes, onions, lettuce, to- matoes and
locoto
(chili peppers). On
the Altiplano, beef is often served with
choclo
(corn), corn on the cob, or
mote
(rehyd-
rated dried corn kernels); in the lowlands it's served with yuca or mashed plantain. In the
Beni, beef may be served as
pacumutus,
enormous chunks of grilled meat accompanied by
yuca, onions and other trimmings.
Pollo
(chicken) is either
frito
(fried),
al spiedo
or
a la broaster
(cooked on a spit),
as-
ado
, or
dorado
(broiled). Cheap chicken restaurants are ubiquitous in Bolivia, where a
meal of chicken and potatoes costs around B$7.
On the Altiplano the most deservedly popular
pescado
(fish) are
trucha
(trout) and
pe-
jerrey
(kingfish), introduced species from Lake Titicaca.
Fruits
Many deliciously juicy South American fruits are cultivated in Bolivia. Most notable are
the
chirimoya
(custard apple)
, tuna
(prickly pear cactus) and
maracuya
and
tumbo
pas-
sion fruits.
In the lowlands, the range of exotic tropical fruits defies middle-latitude expectations.
Among the more unusual are the human hand-shaped
ambaiba;
the small, round, green-
and-purple
guaypurú;
the spiny yellow
ocoro;
the lemon-like
guapomo;
the bean-like
