Markets and foods

It was very early Sunday morning in the amazing city of 'El Alto' in Bolivia. The sun was coming out, the sky was blue, the air transparent, the mountains impressive, and the streets were full of people walking fast, all of them going in the same direction: the 'Feria 16 de julio', considered one of the biggest street markets of the world, and surely one of the highest at 4,100 meters over the sea level. People buying and selling all over, speaking Spanish or Aymara. And as it often happens there, the wind was blowing hard.

El Alto was built as a suburb of La Paz (+ - 3,700 meters), a city lying in a valley that looks like a hole when seen from the market. But this was also the fastest growing urban settlement in the world, and now the suburb is a big city in itself, with more people living there than in La Paz, according to some recent data. It looks like a half finished city, full of buildings made of raw brick walls and dirt roads all over. However it is full of life, and also full of small buses for transportation that constitute a plague.

Built around the La Paz airport, El Alto is windy and cold. And the sun also hits hard. 'This sun burns, but it is not warm', said one fellow client at a small street cafeteria while we drank coca leaves tea in order to fight the effects of the altitude. This was in the middle of the market, and I was lost. It is said that there are around 18,000 registered sellers in this 'Feria', plus so many other people unregistered. Of course you can find many things, from a lamb head to be cooked in the grill, to a Japanese second hand car in very good shape.

My trip to the Feria 16 de julio started very early. And it took some hours to walk around, very slowly. There are, of course, a set of secret rules governing the market. Or, at least, secret for an outsider like me. My favorite place was on the edge of the market, on Riles street, the area of a very intense flea market full of used goods of a very diverse nature. When you look down from this part of the market, La Paz is there in a valley. And when you look up, to the other side of the sky, the Andes mountains, covered by glaciers. For the people of the market, who live in El Alto, this breathtaking view is what they see everyday. No one else seems to be impressed.

The existence of such a huge street market in El Alto is only natural in a city that is growing so fast in this part of the world. Street markets are a part of life in the highlands of Bolivia. In small towns and cities, it is very common to see people trading goods, or eating. And one of the best examples is La Paz.

There is a favorite walk in La Paz, a city where streets seem to be going up, and up, and up, while the lungs cry for air. On any Saturday turn from the main avenue of El Prado looking for Rodríguez street, and from there just go ahead, finding one market after the other. They have different names, but in real life it looks like it was only one, huge market place. Always organized. Food that way, traditional clothes used by Aymara women,.including the hats, that other way. Furniture over there, meat around the corner, tools one block farther, smuggled clothes and shoes somewhere else, and electronics in an amazing place called 'Miamicito'.

But markets mean also food. And they care a lot about food in this parts of Bolivia. There is a traditional way of cooking, often the meals have indigenous names, and around the market areas there are people eating everywhere, at all times. It is full of street eateries, where people just seat in improvised restaurants. Covered markets always have a special place where these ladies are always cooking and trying to grab you with their offers for the day.

Soup is very common in the menu. Also, stewed of fried os broiled meats with different ingredients. It often happens that visitors to Bolivia are unaware of the importance of the food, and how good it can be. And they just go for the 'safe' food, including hamburgers of well known brands.

However, I did notice that there are less restaurants in La Paz for traditional food now, or that it may not be so easy to find one, specially at night. And there are too many places offering fast food, including suspicious pizza slices and fried chicken, 'pollo a la broaster'. Ok,. it may be far better than fried chicken in the U.S. or elsewhere, but still...

Some of the highlights of the Bolivian food to be found in La Paz and, yes!, Cochabamba:
- 'Picantes', or just 'hot food'. Different meats cooked in hot sauce, served with dried potatoes (chuño), tomato and onions and potatoes. The secret is in the sauce and the mixture of flavours. I remember some years ago when my grandfather José Luis invited me to eat a Picante Mixto. After the first mouthful, my eyes were filled by tears. He said that after the third one it would get much better. This was so true.
- Chicharrón. Or, fried pork meat. But this is the part that has the skin attached to the meat. In La Paz you can find 'chicharronerías' and whatever you may think, they are good. There is obviouslly a technique that makes it so good and, in a sense, light (believe it or not). They also say that because of the altitude, pork meat is good, less greasy. You can try it as 'lechón asado', roasted pork, served here with corn, baked plantain, sweet potato and normal potato.
- Llajua. This is the hot sauce that you get in a small dish in every table. It is made with tomatoes. And the heat comes from an Andean chili pepper called Locoto in Bolivia, or Rocoto in Perú. There are lots of different chili peppers in Bolivia, but the Locoto is the king. But this Llajua has another, secret, misterous, wonderful ingredient: the Quirquiña. This is an amazing herb, with a unique flavour and a fantastic bouquet. It is so charcteristic, that it cannot be mistaken. I never found it outside Bolivia.
- Roasted lamb. All kinds.
- Cochabamba dishes with suggestive names as Sillpancho or Lapping. Or the spicy ground meat called Saice, but I am not sure about its origin.
- And then the 'Salteñas', the local version of the 'empanada', which is often translated as 'pie', but it is not really a 'pie'. In many Latin American countries people seem to have their own version of the empanadas. But for those who have tried several kinds, the Bolivian salteña is at the top of the list. And La Paz is the place where you find them everywhere. This is a midmorning food. By 12, there are no more salteñas. Usually spicy, they are filled with a stew that has meat and potatoes. It is very tasty, and covered by a dough that has some kind of sweetness as a quality. At 10 or 11 am you go around plaza Avaroa in the neighborhood of Sopocachi in la Paz, and will find it full of groups of people gathered around salteña vendors.

There is more, there is always more. But I am writing this from Lima already. The trip to Bolivia had amazing moments. On my last day there, I went to Sopocachi, to the house in Cervantes Street 2970 where we lived with my grandmother. I was 9-10 years old. Of course, everything seems to be smaller now, the square where we played, the 'huge' mountains where we did some trekking. At that time the Bolivian episode ended when the Government was overthrown, and we had to leave.
(Luis Córdova, from Lima)