Salteñas: New Bolivian Food Favorite

Since eating good foods can be a big part an adventure (although it has not been for most of our trip), I thought our new Bolivian food favorite was worth blogging about.

Just the other day, Wilson and I discovered a local (food) favorite in Bolivia – salteñas. We stumbled upon salteñas by accident. While in Potosi, we were looking for a nice joint to dine in for breakfast and stopped at a local shop that served fried chicken and fries. We arrived around 11 am and the waitress told us all they had at that time were salteñas. Not knowing what they were, we decided to dine next door at a local cafe (Cherry's) that, in retrospect, was not very good. Since Wilson was starving by that time, he walked next door to the chicken place to pick up a couple of salteñas before our order came. He shared one with me – and after finishing our salteñas, we both knew we had found our favorite local food in Bolivia.

Salteñas are dough wrapped, empanada-like pastries with a juicy filling of chicken or beef and other vegetables and sauce mixed in.
The difference between salteñas and empanadas is salteñas are unique to Bolivia and have a distinct taste to empanadas, while empanadas, which originated in Argentina, is a general term used for anything that is breaded with a filling and sold throughout Latin American countries. Also, salteñas have a sweeter, corn-like dough covering with a very juicy filling consisting of sauce, meat and some vegetables. And to be honest, in my opinion, salteñas beat empanadas any day.

When we arrived in Sucre on Thursday, I insisted we'd have to have some fresh salteñas for breakfast the next day. After searching for a local “Salteñeria” (store that only made salteñas), we resorted to the expert advice of a local selling stationery. She recommended the salteñeria “El Patio.” We arrived at El Patio to find a line of about 10 people waiting to order. Not knowing how it worked, I went to the kitchen and asked if we can sit down and order. Come to find out, it was like a fast food joint where you had to order everything first and then sit down. We ordered 5 salteñas – 2 chicken and 3 meat. I immediately took note of how the locals ate their salteñas:

1) I noticed some locals held the salteña in their hands and stuffed it into their mouths like a taco, bite by bite. Wilson and I ate them like this, not knowing what the right etiquette was.

2) Upon walking into this shop, I also noticed many young students eating the salteñas by poking a hole in the middle. They would then scoop out the innards like a pot pie and eat the crust last. I tested this method but was quite disappointed since when you got to the end, you only had the crust with no filling left.

3) We also took note that one little Bolivian kid had a salteña broken up into little pieces and ate them like little morsels. Neither of us tried this since his mother might have broken them up for him just to make it easier to put in this mouth.

No matter how you eat them, I must say, they are absolutely delicious. They are an easy, to-go pot pie that can be eaten by hand and by the dozen (only if you are really hungry). Wilson also suggested taking a class on making salteñas but if I do, I just might food poison Wilson once again – so I think I'll leave it to the Bolivian cooking experts to make them.