Las Papas De Bolivia

Tonight, the third night of Passover, seems like an appropriate time to display some of the produce found in the markets here in Sucre, Bolivia. Each year the Jewish people commemorate the deliverance of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt by, amongst other things, engaging in a traditional week-long diet free of grains. To make a long story short, the brothers and sisters of the tribe are eating a whole lot of  potatoes this week. Luckily for myself and the nine other Hebrews in Sucre,  there’s quite a variety of potatoes to choose from! 

Pictured in the gallery below are a few of the more exotic potatoes that are common in this part of Bolivia. Tonight, we cooked up a traditional Bolivian Passover meal of semi-sweet “oca” potatoes, quinoa, locoto peppers, and a few achochas thrown in there for fun. Achochas have the shape and texture of a pepper but are a type of squash with a zucchini-like taste. Our information comes directly from the women selling vegetables in the Mercado Central in downtown Sucre. Tomorrow, we head for the larger Mercado de Campesinos, where all of Sucre will be stocking up on sundries for their Easter meal. Depending on who you ask, the Easter meal consists of either 12 or 14 different dishes, so it should be a busy and exciting day at the market.

We are staying in Recoleta district, where the oldest church in town is located. Tomorrow night, there will be a procession through the streets of our erstwhile neighborhood, while on Friday, everybody gathers together for the traditional family chow-down. The best part for us is that after Easter Sunday, the following four Fridays are meat-free. These are perhaps the only four days of the year people go veggie in Sucre, and we are looking forward to sampling the fare. This weekend, Lex and I are taking a cooking class and in the days to come, we will post pictures and recipes from Easter in Sucre.

We are not sure if the photos of our kitchen are as impressive as we feel they are, but, suffice to say, our current digs are far more conducive to home cooking than most of the places we have stayed. If you’ve been on the road as long as we have, you get pretty tired of scaggy hostal kitchens. As for dining out, there are only so many weird, greasy orbs claiming to be a pizza that one can eat before vegetable-withdrawal hits full-force. Absent the use of shared kitchens, we’ve created a few culinary rituals of necessity such as “Salad In A Bag” and “Cold Mush.”  I’m not sure I’m prepared to talk about these things, but I can say the Swiss Army knife I’ve been toting has been one the Most Valuable Items (MVI’s) of our trip. (Thank you, Burlings!) A comprehensive list of MVI’s, along with the much-debated Chile v. Argentina Smackdown Nacional shall be coming in future posts. In the meanwhile, let’s hear it for the Passover Papas Of Bolivia!

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