Flo on Food - Part 2: Bolivia

Sharing the same Andean antiplano as Peru, Bolivia also shares many of the same dishes, but here´s a few I hadn´t mentioned or seen before...

Bon bon bum
OK, so I´ve only really inculded this as an excuse to share their brilliant website address: www.bum-world.com! But you can keep your ChupaChups, these 5p lollies come in scores of wicked flavours with bubble gum in the middle to bring out your inner kid. Current top 3 are sour apple, grape and cherry :)

Charque
If I say air dried meat I´m sure most people will retch, but this is actually quite good. A staple in the jungle where there´s no refridgeration, charque (which is where our word jerky comes from) is usually dried beef (although our guide was making dried monkey jokes...I hope it was a joke anyway :P) and is served with plantain and mashed yuca (a potato-like root...the best we had was made into rosti patties with cheese). In the high plains it´ll be dried llama and served with corn and potatoes. Not the best meal in the world, but not the worst either.

Dulce de leche
Mmmmmm sweet sweet goodness! This is like caramelised condensed milk...gooey toffee-like stuff which is just heaven dolloped on a breakfast pancake with some banana...but only on days where you´re about to trek for 8 hours in the jungle and sweat your own body weight...otherwise it´d be a lifetime membership at Fat Fighters.

Llajhua
Tangy, spicy salsa made with tomatoes, onions and locotos peppers (so named coz they´re crazy hot!) This gets used with everything in Bolivia...spice up your sandwiches, empanadas, main meals and season your soup. The best thing is the look of happy surprise when requested by a gringa.

Mate de Coca
The coca plant...most controversial of them all, but totally misused by the 'West´. In it´s pure plant form it is the most sacred plant of the indigenous people and totally legal. Served as mate (tea) at every breakfast, it has a very mild stimulant effect similar to caffeine. It´s proven health benefits are countless, from soothing altitude sickness, to beneficial dental properties due to ridiculously high calcium levels and just about every other vitamin and mineral you could mention.

Pasankalla
The Bolivian version of Butterkist popcorn. The minute you cross the border there are women selling the stuff from mountains of it piled up on carts. Simply caramelised puffed maize, sometimes dyed day-glo green and pink, it´s horribly sweet and disappointingly chewy with none of the promised crunch. The smallest portion you can buy is served in a potato-sack...we only manage a few bites before passing it on to some very happy kids.

Saltenas
These take over from the empanada in Bolivia. Made with a much heavier pastry they´re stuffed full with veg, half a boiled egg, olives, raisins and a bit of chicken if you´re lucky. Plus loads of gravy that runs down your arm and all over your clothes. I´m not a fan as the juice is really sweet when I´m looking for spice, but everyone else seems to love them with saltenarias dispensing thousands of them every mid-morning in every town.

Soup
I have never eaten as much soup as I have been in the Andes. It´s served to begin every meal and is usually delicious and so filling that you don´t need the next course. Full of veg and usually thickened with the super nutritious quinoa which grows everywhere here, it sorts you right out after a day hiking at altitude.

Tamales
These spicy cornmeal doughballs are really light and fluffy...stuffed full with spiced meat and veg (the best we had were stuffed with llama charque) they´re then wrapped in a maize husk and steamed. Eaten with some llajhua salsa they´re the best lunch you´ll find at market.

Tawa-tawas
Nothing nutritious about these...a kind of deep fried donut fritter best served with a splodge of dulce de leche...but not often, unless you aspire to the physique of Homer Simpson...doh-nuts mmmm :)

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