Bolivia Gastronomy:
salteña, chicha & singani

Altiplano

Bolivia's most iconic snack. A baked sweet-dough empanada filled with thick broth, chicken or beef, olives, raisin, carrot and potato. Only eaten in the morning. The dough is sealed with the 'repulgue' braid — a genuine culinary art.

Beef heart marinated in ají panka, garlic and spices, grilled on skewers. La Paz's most popular night street food — anticucho stalls appear at dusk in markets and on El Alto street corners.

Hearty pork soup with hominy (white cooked corn), potato and yellow chilli. The post-carnival recovery dish — restorative and festive. Served with chuño and llajwa.

La Paz's fried empanada — larger and juicier than the salteña. Filled with chicken, potato and egg. Sold from street stalls from 4pm. The most famous: Av. 6 de Agosto tucumanas.

The most warming altiplano breakfast. Api: thick hot purple corn drink with cinnamon and clove. Pastel: fried flour fritter. Standard breakfast at La Paz, Oruro and Potosí markets from dawn.

Dehydrated potato through cycles of nocturnal freezing and solar drying — a 2,000-year Andean preservation technique. Dry and spongy texture. Accompanies soups, stews and classic fried chuño. Black chuño and white tunta are the two varieties.

Valleys — Cochabamba (gastronomic capital)

Cochabamba's everyday dish. Extra-thin breaded beef fillet on rice and potato, topped with raw tomato, onion and fried egg. At every Cochabamba pension and market. Hearty and balanced.

Born in Cochabamba. French fries with beef and sausage pieces, pickled red onion, locoto chilli, hard-boiled egg and mayonnaise. The shared-plate dish of gatherings — served in a huge tray for sharing. Now found across all of Bolivia.

Pork ribs fried in their own fat with hominy corn and llajwa. The Sunday family dish of Cochabamba. Juicier and more tender than the La Paz version. Best: at the km 7 locales on the Quillacollo road.

Fermented sprouted corn drink. Cochabamba's social drink since pre-Columbian times. Served at chicherías (white flag on door = fresh chicha). Slightly alcoholic, nutritious, sour flavour. The gathering place of an entire neighbourhood.

Muscat of Alexandria grape brandy distilled above 1,600m altitude. Bolivia's own denomination of origin. The national spirit. The chuflay (singani + ginger ale + lemon) is Bolivia's national cocktail.

Very light fried dough empanada filled with fresh cheese that 'puffs up' when fried. The mid-afternoon snack of Cochabamba markets. Crispy outside, melting inside. Must be eaten straight from the oil.

East — Santa Cruz · Chiquitanía

Rice cooked with charque (dried beef), ripe plantain and fried egg. Santa Cruz and Beni's most beloved Sunday dish. Simple, hearty and perfect.

Thick corn soup with charque or fresh beef and yuca. The lowland plains dish — comforting and nutritious. Every family has their recipe. Santa Cruz locro is thicker and more colourful than the valley version.

Surubí (Mamoré and Beni catfish, up to 90cm and 25kg) baked with plantain, lemon and tropical spices. Trinidad's most celebrated festive dish. Only available fresh in Beni riverbank cities.

Roasted and pounded plantain or yuca with chicharrón or charque. The Beni and East snack — cooked over fire, served hot. Yuca version is more neutral; plantain version is sweeter and softer.

Santa Cruz's cheese bread — balls of yuca starch and fresh cheese, baked. Crispy outside, melting inside. The breakfast and snack of the eastern region. At every bakery and market in SCZ.

Beef broth soup with a baked corn dough 'lid' on top. Typical of the Chiquitanía. A Jesuit missions dish — European technique and American ingredient in one festive plate.