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Traditional Bolivian Food

Bolivia is well known for its gastronomy. Bolivian cuisine is filled with rich flavors, spices, and herbs that you can only
find in Bolivia. The cuisine has very earthy flavors as almost every dish consists of traditional components such as potato, mote,
choclo, chuño, and rice. The country is landlocked so seafood is not as popular but Bolivia has many rivers and lakes that have tiny fish
which are very popular in Bolivian cuisine. The most popular is known as "trucha" which is trout. This fish is deep fried and served with
french fries, salad, and white rice. Every dish, regardless of where you are in the country, will always be accompanied with a spicy sauce called
"llajua" which is blended tomato and locoto with the option to add other things like onion or cilantro. Bolivia is also home to 300 different types
of potatoes and since the country has a lot of mountains, terrace farming is also very popular and farmers sell their crops in nearby cities.




Salteñas


Salteñas are Bolivia's most typical and popular food and you can only find these in
Bolivia. They are essentially similar to an empanada and many people actually
refer to them as empanadas with broth. This dish comes in either chicken, beef or
"fricase" and you have the option to either make them sweet (but are not actually
sweet) or spicy. What makes these "empanadas" special is the broth that is inside.
In order to eat this, you need to shake it and sip on the broth. The red sauce that
is in the picture is Bolivia's traditional spicy sauce called "llajua."


                               
                                                                            Pastel y Api                                                                                                                                                 Trancapecho
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pastele's are basically just cheese empanadas but the difference                                                                        In Bolivia there is a very typical dish called "Silpancho" and
                                            is that the empanada dough is rolled out really flat so that when                                                                        it consists of rice, boiled potato that is then lightly pan-fried
                                             it's done being fried, they come out really crunchy. These are                                                                          and served with breaded beef and a fried egg over it with a
                                            also typically sprinkled with powder sugar over them and served                                                                  tomato, onion, and beet salad. This popular dish was transformed
                                            with a drink called api which can only be found in Bolivia. The                                                                        into a sandwich where essentially all the dishes components
                                            drink is made from a purple maize and boiled with sugar, water,                                                                    simply put in between bread. The name "trancapecho" translates
                                            and cinnamon. This combination is very traditional during                                                                            to "stuck in your chest" meaning that the sandwich has so much that
                                                                               Christmas time.                                                                                                               it'll get stuck in your chest when eating but it's merely a joke.

     
                                             

                                                                                    Sopa de Mani                                                                                            Pique Macho                      
                                                                              
                                   This soup is a peanut-based soup and really rich with flavor. It is made by                                                     Pique Macho has a very famous origin story. A really long time ago, a man came
                                  soaking peeled peanuts in water and then blending it. In a separate pot you have                                            in to a restaurant and asked the owner to make him something to snack on and to 
                                 a bunch of different ingredients like onion, garlic, and carrots sauteing along with                                        make it for brave men, hinting to add some spicy elements. The woman who owned
                                   some chopped beef and macarroni. You then add the peanut sauce that was made                                    the restaurant soon brought out a really big plate of random foods she whipped together.
                                 in the blender and all of this cooks together, creating a creamy thick soup. Once it                                     The plate consisted of french fries, fried sausage, beef, boiled egg, cheese, bell peppers,
                                 is finished, you top it off with really thin homemade french fries and cilantro.                                           onions, and locoto (really spicy pepper) and drizzled a beer sauce over it. The name itself
                                                                                                                                                                                                          "pique macho" is short for "piquar para machos" which mean "snack for brave people."