Foods!
Eating in Bolivia has been a bit of an adventure, as I usually have no idea what I’m ordering. Sometimes that means I get the same dish three times, even though I’ve ordered different things, and sometimes that means an tastey discovery like peanut soup or saltenas. I think I could probably write about food for a good long while, especially when there are FIVE different meal times. Obviously not everyone actually eats 5 meals a day, but the option is there. Breakfast (bread and coffee and maybe juice), mid-morning snack (a couple saltenas and coke), lunch (at least 3 courses), platos de la tarde (a mini-lunch) and dinner (soup and maybe a main dish). Oh and the sweets are out of control here. Not that they are spectacular or anything, they’re just everywhere and people eat them constantly.
Some foody highlights.
LUNCH
The two hour lunch break leaves a lot of time open for eating. Lots of people (including school kids) go home and have lunch with the fam and relax a bit. People go out for lunch too and most places offer a similar style of lunch, with different foods. ,ah yes, i've been meaning to write about food in general. Lunch usually consists of a salady bit (often a salad bar with all sorts of items from potato salads to fried plantains to raw veggies and what I think of as typical salad bar fare), a soup, a main dish (invariably meat based), a refresco (drink) and a dessert. Most places charge about $1.50, no joke. There are a few veggie places in town which include a giant salad bar with the soups and second courses.
SNACKS
There are so many fried things to eat on the street that it’s hard to say which is best. I'm pretty partial to saltenas, which are a corn dough wrapped around some sort of meat or chicken, with olives, potatoes, peas, tiny egg, and lots of green savory bits. I think they're baked, or maybe fried and then baked? Sometimes they are very juicy and you can sip the liquid out one side. The thing about saltenas is that places only make a certain amount, so you have to work up an appetite for a snack (or plan ahead and skip breakfast) before 11 or so, otherwise you will miss the saltena window of opportunity and have to get empanadas.
There are also papas rellenos which are mashed potatoes with meat and potatoes and veggies inside, then fried. Those are fun to eat because you stand next to the little cart and spoon any of the 6 or 7 sauces on to them as you eat.
Empanadas are everywhere, usually with just cheese but some are chicken or meat. I has a really gross charque empanada one time, charque is like jerked meat and really doesn’t belong in a empanada. The best ones I've found are at Carmelitas and are much greasier than normal empanadas. The velveeta like cheese is abundant and has onions mixed in.
Cunapes are another little round doughy thing but they’re not my favorite. I think they have egg and cheese in them and maybe yuca, but usually they just taste bready.
My favorite new juice, so far, is tumbo - which is unripe passion fruit. It’s also awesome as ice cream. Ice cream is pretty big around here.
Its summer time so you see lots of folks selling watermelon and pineapple slices on the street as well as all sorts of way too sweet looking desserty items.
You can find the best super salty popcorn ever (not including when I make it at home) on the street. People have little carts, they usually seem to be blue, with a glass box to pour the popcorn in and a deep pot in which they pop the pipocas. I still think palomitas is a better popcorn word, like little white doves flying all around the pot. For the record, I also prefer cacahuete over mani (peanut) – its just so much more pleasing to say.
There are a few corners in town that host little night time fast food courts. People pull up their carts and cook up all sorts of sandwiches and meals in a bag. Hamburgers, fries, mini-pizzas, and chicken sandwiches all seem to be pretty popular.
MEAT
People eat so much meat here, its amazing. Or maybe it isn’t amazing but I’ve been sort of sheltered from the meat eating world for 11 years, so it all seems new and intriguing to me.
There are many many many “meat-on-a-stick” places, as I like to call them. My favorite is right around the corner from my house. They’re only open for dinner and you can get grilled chicken on a stick or grilled beef on a stick (5 bs/60 cents) or one of each (8 bs/$1). It comes with cheesey rice and boiled yuca.
There are also some interesting international/gringotastic places in town. I’m a bit fan of Kebab which is an Iranian meat-on-a-stick place, only they take the meat off the stick for you and put it in a tastey sandwich. The décor is really nice and they always have some good Iranian tunes bumping. They have a sandwich called “A thousand and one nights” but I haven’t tried it yet. They also have coffee of the super strong and sweet Turkish variety.
I went to Kebab for dinner the other day and got into a conversation with a nice old man about politics. He started talking about the polar ice caps melting and I tried to make a joke about how maybe if we keep up our oil consumption, Bolivia will finally have some ocean front property. He didn’t laugh, maybe because of my Spanish or maybe it’s just too touchy of a subject. I never can seem to make a good joke in Spanish. Evo is still trying to negotiate with Batchelet on the sea access issue, it’s in the papers a lot but I haven’t been paying attention. Regardless, people really do feel slighted over the losing the ocean issue and still plan on getting a little coast back. Hence the existence of the Bolivian navy, still.
I haven’t tried anticuchos yet, which is grilled beef heart-on-a-stick. There is a little stand on the corner near my work that I walk by if I leave in the evening. It always smells great.
There are two variations of a dish which is super popular here which involves piling a bunch of different items onto a plate. First, the pique which comes in a lot of different styles but usually has some sort of meat along with a few peppers, tomatoes and onions on top of a bed of french fries. Second, salchipapas is a plate of french fries covered in fried hotdogs and fried plantains and some other fried meat.
Some foody highlights.
LUNCH
The two hour lunch break leaves a lot of time open for eating. Lots of people (including school kids) go home and have lunch with the fam and relax a bit. People go out for lunch too and most places offer a similar style of lunch, with different foods. ,ah yes, i've been meaning to write about food in general. Lunch usually consists of a salady bit (often a salad bar with all sorts of items from potato salads to fried plantains to raw veggies and what I think of as typical salad bar fare), a soup, a main dish (invariably meat based), a refresco (drink) and a dessert. Most places charge about $1.50, no joke. There are a few veggie places in town which include a giant salad bar with the soups and second courses.
SNACKS
There are so many fried things to eat on the street that it’s hard to say which is best. I'm pretty partial to saltenas, which are a corn dough wrapped around some sort of meat or chicken, with olives, potatoes, peas, tiny egg, and lots of green savory bits. I think they're baked, or maybe fried and then baked? Sometimes they are very juicy and you can sip the liquid out one side. The thing about saltenas is that places only make a certain amount, so you have to work up an appetite for a snack (or plan ahead and skip breakfast) before 11 or so, otherwise you will miss the saltena window of opportunity and have to get empanadas.
There are also papas rellenos which are mashed potatoes with meat and potatoes and veggies inside, then fried. Those are fun to eat because you stand next to the little cart and spoon any of the 6 or 7 sauces on to them as you eat.
Empanadas are everywhere, usually with just cheese but some are chicken or meat. I has a really gross charque empanada one time, charque is like jerked meat and really doesn’t belong in a empanada. The best ones I've found are at Carmelitas and are much greasier than normal empanadas. The velveeta like cheese is abundant and has onions mixed in.
Cunapes are another little round doughy thing but they’re not my favorite. I think they have egg and cheese in them and maybe yuca, but usually they just taste bready.
My favorite new juice, so far, is tumbo - which is unripe passion fruit. It’s also awesome as ice cream. Ice cream is pretty big around here.
Its summer time so you see lots of folks selling watermelon and pineapple slices on the street as well as all sorts of way too sweet looking desserty items.
You can find the best super salty popcorn ever (not including when I make it at home) on the street. People have little carts, they usually seem to be blue, with a glass box to pour the popcorn in and a deep pot in which they pop the pipocas. I still think palomitas is a better popcorn word, like little white doves flying all around the pot. For the record, I also prefer cacahuete over mani (peanut) – its just so much more pleasing to say.
There are a few corners in town that host little night time fast food courts. People pull up their carts and cook up all sorts of sandwiches and meals in a bag. Hamburgers, fries, mini-pizzas, and chicken sandwiches all seem to be pretty popular.
MEAT
People eat so much meat here, its amazing. Or maybe it isn’t amazing but I’ve been sort of sheltered from the meat eating world for 11 years, so it all seems new and intriguing to me.
There are many many many “meat-on-a-stick” places, as I like to call them. My favorite is right around the corner from my house. They’re only open for dinner and you can get grilled chicken on a stick or grilled beef on a stick (5 bs/60 cents) or one of each (8 bs/$1). It comes with cheesey rice and boiled yuca.
There are also some interesting international/gringotastic places in town. I’m a bit fan of Kebab which is an Iranian meat-on-a-stick place, only they take the meat off the stick for you and put it in a tastey sandwich. The décor is really nice and they always have some good Iranian tunes bumping. They have a sandwich called “A thousand and one nights” but I haven’t tried it yet. They also have coffee of the super strong and sweet Turkish variety.
I went to Kebab for dinner the other day and got into a conversation with a nice old man about politics. He started talking about the polar ice caps melting and I tried to make a joke about how maybe if we keep up our oil consumption, Bolivia will finally have some ocean front property. He didn’t laugh, maybe because of my Spanish or maybe it’s just too touchy of a subject. I never can seem to make a good joke in Spanish. Evo is still trying to negotiate with Batchelet on the sea access issue, it’s in the papers a lot but I haven’t been paying attention. Regardless, people really do feel slighted over the losing the ocean issue and still plan on getting a little coast back. Hence the existence of the Bolivian navy, still.
I haven’t tried anticuchos yet, which is grilled beef heart-on-a-stick. There is a little stand on the corner near my work that I walk by if I leave in the evening. It always smells great.
There are two variations of a dish which is super popular here which involves piling a bunch of different items onto a plate. First, the pique which comes in a lot of different styles but usually has some sort of meat along with a few peppers, tomatoes and onions on top of a bed of french fries. Second, salchipapas is a plate of french fries covered in fried hotdogs and fried plantains and some other fried meat.
posted by Emily @ 3:36 PM
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