Street Food!

Jeff and I love to eat and some of the best food we´ve had in Peru and Bolivia has been from street vendors. Below is a list of some of the goodies we´ve tried so far (and what country we found the treat in).

• Emoliente (Peru)- A hot digestive herbal drink. You can choose the sweet flavors that the vendor adds to this herbal drink. Ladies sell this at night to help with digestion after a big or greasy meal. Digestion in high altitudes is supposedly very slow.

Me having emoliente. The small bottles on the side of the cart hold the flavored syrups. The metal pot in the middle is where the boling water and herbs/ leaves are kept.

• Anticuchos (Both)- cow heart and potato skewers. These are grilled up on small mobile coal barbecues and served with a spicy sauce. You can also find regular beef and occasionally alpaca meat instead of "corazon".
  
  
• Salchipapa (Both)- Diced potatoes grilled in oil (similar to large french fries) topped with sauteed pieces of a hot-dog like sausage. Then the whole pile of carbs/ fat is covered in mayo, mustard, ketchup, and hot sauce and served with a toothpick.
  


• Cake of all varieties (Both)- plain chocolate bundt cake, vanilla cake with frosting, etc., is sold from little carts or just from plates that women carry around. Jeff´s in heaven and wishes their were people selling cake on the street and at the BART stations at home. It usually costs less than a quarter so he´s been getting his fill while we´re here.
  


• Popcorn (Both)- There are so many varieties of popcorn (due to the many varieties of corn grown here)! Some are giant soft puffs swetened with sugar, some are indentical to our popcorn, and there are plenty of others in between. We also tried popped noodles (giant tube shaped pastas dried and puffed/ popped then coated with a light sugar topping). Jeff liked the popped noodles, I thought they were pretty dry. I tried roasted fava beans and didn´t like those as much as I expected I would. All of thos things can usually be found from one vendor who has a table with heaping piles of all of the above plus roasted nuts, seeds, and other popped/ puffed things we haven´t tried yet.

A street that we dubbed "P0pcorn Alley", Copacabana, Peru

• Conos (Peru)- cone shapped puff pastry filled with manjar (dulce de leche) and coverd in powdered sugar. Jeff has also had his fair share of these and may son be a cono expert.
  
  
• Alfajores (Peru)- cookies (some varieties are thick and buttery, others are thin and crispy) stacked on top of each other with manjar in between.
  
• Salteñas (Bolivia)- baked pastries usuallly filled with chicken, cinnamon, and raisins for a mid morning snack.
  
• Tucumanas (Bolivia)- Similar to salteñas but they are fried. The stand we got ours at had six different sauces and a cabbage salad for topping the pastry.


• Sacumbe (Bolivia)- A bolivian drink made with hot milk, cinnamon, and singani, a local alcohol distiled from grapes.
  
• Sopaipillas (Bolivia)- fried whole wheat dough, cooled then dipped in sweet syrup.
  
• Fresh squeezed OJ (Both)- I´ve had more than my fair share of this! It is good and they squeeze the juice straight from the oranges into your cup. Delish!


• Corn on the cob with cheese (Peru)- The varieties of corn are different here and the kernels on the cob we tried were giant, not very sweet and very starch. It was almost more like little tiny potato kernels than what we think of as corn. It´s served with a little piece of hard cheese and you are supposed to take a small bite of each and the flavors mix in your mouth.