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Published: August 8th 2012
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We´ve been in Bolivia for almost 3 months and wanted to share our opinions on Bolivian grub. Despite being a farmers son I´m a little bit of a whimp when it comes to food and was more than a bit worried about what we´d get served up.
Breakfast (Desayuno) A good place to start. Usually consists of bread and jam with tea or coffee, nothing exciting really but can´t complain.
Lunch (Almuerzo) Lunch is a little different than back in sunny Bolton as this seems to be the main meal of the day. It usually consists of soup (Sopa) followed by a main meal. Cafes usually offer set price menus for muchas cheapness (from Bs10 - a quid). The soups are generally quality, Sopa de Mani (peanut soup) being our favorito, Rosemary did a mean Sopa de Mani and a top notch Carnival soup as well. Generally the soup is a little brothy with a bit of everything chucked in, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, quinoa, rice etc... only downside is that more often than not they tend to chuck in unidentifiable pieces of meat and bone, even in vegetable soup! One piece of meat kept reappearing, we named
it the chickens bum, no idea what is was but it looked wrong!!
The main Course (Segundo) . When you are staying at someone elses house you generally have to eat what you´re given, thankfully for us Rosemary was a decent cook and in general it was good stuff. (Rice and chicken or A.N. Other). If you are in a cafe you generally get a choice of 2-4 different dishes. Again usually rice and chicken or A.N. Other. We did have a few issues here due to our lack of Spanish and our bravery/stupidity to try dishes which we had no idea what they were. One time I ordered Panza without knowing what it was only to be fed cow´s stomach, I do not recommended it! At Rosemary´s we also tried lengua (tongue), not the sliced stuff that they sell on Bolton market to old folks but proper steak sized stuff. I managed to swallow 3 pieces before I almost puked it back up, I hid the rest under the salad, Katherine like it! (I could make an age related joke here but I´ll refrain!) She also tried cow´s feet but struggled, why would you!?¿
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Tea (Cena) Was generally the same as lunch but smaller portions. We found a place in La Paz that did a set menu for BS5 (50p)!! Bargain The hardest thing we've gone through with regards to food was at a volunteer place where we worked, basically the kids go 4 days per week and on Saturdays they get food, we were kindly fed too! All was fine until the last week when we got rice and chicken. That's fine, we thought, we like rice and we like chicken! We've eaten rice and chicken almost every day for the past 2 1/2 months but hey...bring it on! Now I have been really brave and eaten legs and wings recently, usually I'm just a breast man, I can't be dong with all the mess and bones, but when in Rome!! This time, it was just a step too far, I got chicken's feet, nails and all in my rice. Mrs P had the same, no idea what you were supposed to do with it until the little lad at the side of us stuck the whole thing in his gob and chewed away and spat out just the
bones! Dirty mucker!! I left mine and the worse was to come when little Daniella, real cutie pie who gave us a kiss every morning started on her piece of chicken - the neck! She picked at the slimiest, greasiest piece of skin and then devoured it. We felt sick! She then put the remains in her mouth and chomped away, god knows what she was eating as I didn't see anything that resembled meat. When we had finished for the day, we went for a long lie down!
All in all it's not been as bad as I had feared. We had trout with it's head on but I'm over it now. Pizza has saved us a few times as well. We're going over to Peru now where the local delicacy is fried Guinea Pig (Sorry Nic H)!!
Bonuses:- Popcorn as big as your hand, Sopa de Mani, Chips like your mum made when you were young.
Bolivia Grub - part 2 As a footnote, we must mention the begging that happens in cafes and restaurants etc. not only in Bolivia but in Peru too. It's both a pitiful sight and an uplifting one. Firstly because it's sad seeing kids walking round the city with plastic bags begging for leftovers and scraps of food but it's uplifting because lots of people do actually give. Many times we have seen people ask for an extra glass and invited the kids to sit at their table and share their food. It's a much better option than giving them money. It's not just the kids, a grown man asked KP for the remains of her chicken leg and we saw a woman buying food for an old lady in Cochabamba. The public give to the beggars because they truly believe that if they don´t, these poor hungry people will literally not eat! We helped when possible.
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