Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Bolivia Diaries: Day 8, Part 5 - Festival in Cochabamba: Street Food

This diary is part of a series describing my trip to Bolivia to study food sovereignty, agroecology, and climate change. This diary is a photo diary from a festival in Cochabamba, the Festividad de Urkupiña. This week was the big opening day, and we had excellent seats at the parade, which was a magnificent display of traditional Bolivian dancing. This diary covers the street food at the event.

The street food at the Festividad de Urkupiña was a mix of traditional Bolivian street food (which is awesome) and traditional U.S. street food (which was likely even worse versions of the crap we eat at home). I didn't get a picture of it, but the Paceña beer was totally flowing. And the place was plastered in Pepsi ads, which was an interesting change for the city because most of Cochabamba is entirely covered in Coca-Cola ads (you can see one behind the Pepsi ad here):


Pepsi banner over the parade, just in front of a Coke ad.

Typical Bolivian fare includes salteñas (these amazing little empanada-like things that are typically made with chicken, full of juice, and difficult to eat without dripping - although they say you are a good kisser if you can eat one without making a mess), mocochinchi (a drink made from dried peaches, sugar, and cinnamon), and pasankalla, a sweetened Andean type of popcorn that pre-dates the Spanish conquest.

I did not see any salteñas at the festival, but as those are typically eaten mid-morning and we were there in the evening, that's no surprise. I did see quite a bit of passionfruit juice for sale, some heavily frosted pastries, and coconuts with straws sticking out of them.


Something Andean that I think is wrapped in corn husks like a tamale


Not a good pic but I think it's pasankalla


Very frosted pastry


Refrescos - Orange, Pineapple, Lemon, and Lime

And, the non-Bolivian total crap that was for sale:


Cotton candy


Candy


Another view of candy


Burgers


Chips... but at least the potato is a native food!


A cholita selling something, probably soda. Notice that her clothes are different than the cholitas in La Paz and the Altiplano. This is how Cochabambino cholitas dress.


Soda - or beer.


Candy and soda


Coca-Cola


More Coke... they even have these guys standing in the road near tollbooths so cars stopped in traffic can buy bottles of Coke.


One of the many loads of cheap crappy toys

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