Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In smarter restaurants, you may find yourself paying Bs50 or more for a main course, but
for this you should expect a pretty good meal, and even in the best restaurants in La Paz or
Santa Cruz few dishes cost more than about Bs70.
Tipping
is not generally expected, but is
always welcome. No additional tax is charged on meals, but there is often a cover charge in
restaurants with live music performances, known as
peñas
.
WHERE TO EAT LIKE THE LOCALS
La Coca
La Paz.
Kota Kahuaña
Copacabana.
Paso del Los Abuelos
Sucre.
Casa de Campo
Cochabamba.
Casa del Camba
Santa Cruz.
Markets
Wherever you are in Bolivia, the cheapest place to eat is invariably the
market
. Here you'll
find rows of stalls selling juices, soups, snacks and meals that can satisfy most appetites for
less than Bs10. Markets, which open for business much earlier than most restaurants and
cafés, are also often the best places to try out regional specialities. From around 6am you
can find stalls selling coffee and tea with bread, sandwiches and pastries, and - more popular
with the locals -
api
, a hot, sweet, thick maize drink flavoured with cloves and cinnamon and
served with deep-fried pancakes known as
buñuelos
. Markets are also the place to go to stock
up for a trek, a
picnic
, or if you just feel the urge to prepare your own food.
The standard of
hygiene
at market stalls is often not the highest, however, and you should
probably avoid eating at them until your stomach has adjusted to local bacteria. In general,
food cooked in front of your eyes is probably safe; food that's been left sitting around for a
while may not be.
Snacks
The most popular snack throughout Bolivia is the
salteña
, a pasty filled with a spicy, juicy
stew of meat or chicken with chopped vegetables, olives and hard-boiled egg. Named after
the city of Salta in Argentina,
salteñas
are sold from street stalls and eaten in the mid-morn-
ing accompanied by a cold drink and a spoonful or two of chilli sauce if desired. The best
salteñas
are found in Sucre, where they're also sold in specialist cafés called
salteñerias
,
which open only in the mid-morning and serve nothing else.
Salteñas potosinas
, made in Po-
tosí, are less juicy (making them easier to eat in the mines) and are more likely to be meat-
free.
