Bolivian cuisine was a bit of a mixed bag for us. Some things were great, but others were total fails! Food tended to look good but the taste was underwhelming. Some places we were just too scared to eat at for reasons of hygiene, and at other times it was almost impossible to even find local cuisine. In general, Bolivian food is hearty and cheap, here is our summary of what food to eat in Bolivia.
Tea.
Yes, cups of tea! From what we affectionately started calling tea-erias, we enjoyed warming herbal infusions called mates and also hot cocoa. When it’s so cold at night these were very welcome. Bolivians put a lot of faith in herbal and plant remedies. Typical mates are coca (for altitude sickness and the stomach) and chamomile (calming and good for sleep).
Anticuchos.
Anticuchos are grilled meat skewers. They are not unique to Bolivia but are a commonly found street food. Heart is the most popular, but quite a strong flavour.
Salteñas.
Bolivia’s number 1 mid morning snack, that often sells out by midday. It took us a couple of days to be quick enough to get some. A salteña is like an empanada. You can get various tasty meat or veggie fillings, always with an egg and olive inside.
Puffed up cereals.
Think sugar puffs, but sugar puffed cereals of all shapes, sizes and varieties. A common street party snack. As there always seems to be a party of some sort going on in Bolivia, these puffed sugary cereals are everywhere! We didn’t buy any as the stalls were often just blankets on the road open to dust and contamination. Also common were peanuts and giant beans.
Trout.
Although Bolivia is now landlocked after the conflict with Chile, it does have fresh water in Lake Titicaca. Trout are not native, they were introduced in the last century, and are an important part of the diet in the surrounding areas. Trout is cooked in a variety of ways; steamed, breaded and fried, stuffed and baked with sauces and so on.
International food in La Paz.
We found it genuinely hard to eat Bolivian food in La Paz! We had Cuban, Mexican, pizza, and even Indian, but not really anything Bolivian!
Beer.
Each city in Bolivia seems to have its own decent refreshing lager. Paceña and Huari from La Paz, Sureña from Sucre, Potosina from Potosi, Cordillera, bicervecina El Inca to name a few. I liked the Huari, mostly because the bottle looks really cool.
Wine.
We did manage to try a nice Reisling white wine, and were quite impressed. The one time we had some red wine however, it was terribly sweet and sickly.
Juices.
The Jugerias that we enjoyed in Peru continued into Bolivia, with the notable addition of orange and grapefruit trolleys that could be found in the squares and on street corners. Bolivia has many different climates and altitudes so the array of fresh fruit is stunning. Our favourite combination is carrot, pineapple and orange juice. Always remember to ask for your juice to be pure or without water to minimise the risk of an upset stomach. Other juices are made with milk, eggs or bicevercina (weak malty beer) and various additions can be ordered such as bee pollen, alfalfa or maca powder. These places are also amazingly cheap, a basic juice could cost as little as 30p. We always only ordered 1 as it would invariably be enough for both of us, and the juice ladies were quite willing to top you up until all the mixture was gone.
Soup mixes.
In the markets there are stalls selling ingredients for soups. All the veggies are already chopped and mixed into handy little multi coloured packets. For example, cabbage, carrots, peas and squash. We loved these stalls and cooked many a homemade soup, making sure to add the obligatory potato and egg!
Steak.
In Sucre we had the best steaks ever, as big as your head! An Argentinian influenced churrasqueria or steakhouse called Nouvelle Cuisine was so good that we had to go 3 times. The steaks were well seasoned and cooked and must have been 500g plus.
Typical Bolivian dishes.
- In Sucre we went to a top rated restaurant serving Bolivian food called El Huerto. It looked really nice, but we weren’t too impressed. It was very uninteresting and stewy and part of it was cows tongue which freaked me out a little bit! This was a recurring theme, markets had such a lovely array of produce, but when translated into cooked food, it became homogenous and bland.
- Pique Macho is a strange dish of chips, beef, tomatoes, chilli pepper, frankfurter, olives and egg. It is a monumental pile of food and I guess that you are “macho” if you can finish it! We tried one in Potosi after our tour of the mine and certainly felt like it was the right choice for hard-working miner. It was not unpleasant, but I’m sure that my arteries didn’t agree!
- Various meats alla “Pobre” are breaded meat escalopes served with a fried egg on top and potatoes and veg on the side. These dishes were simple and nice. We had steak, chicken and llama and various points.
To conclude, the fresh produce in Bolivia is plentiful and therefore offers the opportunity for economical self catering. When eating out, dishes are likely to be heavily meat based and quite soupy or stewy. There is food everywhere in Bolivia due to a lively street scene, but caution is advised when choosing where eat due to issues of hygiene. I must say that the winner for us was the steak because it was so simple and well done. Shame we only got to go 3 times!
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