Bolivia in a nutshell - traditions and tasty treats
Unfortunately, I didn't write that much about food during my trip around Bolivia last year, so am now writing with a somewhat hazy memory and no delicious pictures of my food!
The Bolivian food culture feels to be in a transitional period, and your experience depends highly on whether you give in to the temptations of the increasing expanse of western restaurants catering for tourists, or whether you try and seek out the traditional. And I have to say, the latter is much more gluten-free friendly!
The traditional Bolivian diet mainly revolves around the staple crops of quinoa and choclo (looks like sweetcorn but the kernals are much bigger and not sweet - it also comes in purple!!). Both are conveniently gluten-free! A lot of soups are produced using maize flour rather than wheat, and if you're going to be spending long in Bolivia, you better get used to sopa!
As myself and my partner were mainly staying in hostels and homestays, we would usually go and buy a big bag of quinoa and cook it up with various different fresh vegetables, which are cheap and plentiful in the awesome Bolivian mercados. If you are a meat eater you could brave the butcher section, I won't go into detail on here as I don't want to put you off your food, but safe to say you will be very much in touch with the animal in your meal after that experience!
So with our main meals mostly being cooked at home, there were a few tasty snacks and treats that I discovered on our days out:
Cunapes - made using Yucca root flour and cheese. Came across these freshly made in restaurants and cafes. They are basically like really soft & springy cheese dough balls.
Humintas - either a la olla (boiled) or al horno (baked). A sweet but savoury maize mixture with stringy white cheese in the middle, and wrapped in the husks from the cobbed corn. They are best served hot, and can be bought in cafes and delis.
Toasted Quinoa cereal bars - these can be found in most supermercados and convenience shops; toasted quinoa mixed with honey and sometimes dried fruit, dried into a bar shape. They are light as a feather but do fill a hole. I also tried honey roasted quinoa cereal which can be put with milk for breakfast and taste a bit like sugar puffs!
If you are staying in Sucre, be sure to check out Condor Cafe http://www.condortrekkers.org/condor-cafe/, run by not for profit organisation Condor Trekkers. They also run treks around the area (which I would also highly recommend). They sell delicious vegetarian and gluten free meals, as well as some of the snacks referenced above, and also quinoa beer!
In Sucre I also came across one or two dieteticas (like natural drug stores/health food shops), selling rice-based products like pasta and biscuits. You can find the Drogueria Natural on Plaza 25 de Mayo.
Buen Provecho!
