Bolivia Corazón Vegeteriano Estricto: Guide to eating vegan in Cochabamba

My friend Lauren sums up cuisine in Argentina succinctly here. After my experience in that country I had low expectations about the kind of food that would be on offer in Bolivia. Having now lived here for a period I can say without exaggeration that this is a vegan friendly country in terms of food. It is possibly easier to maintain a vegan diet here than back in New Zealand.

What follows is a somewhat dispassionate overview of what I have found so far. For non-vegans this may be a good article to read just before you hit-the-hay.


Dining

If I want to go out to eat I can go to a bunch of places. There is a vegetarian buffet on the main drag: Avienda Heroinas, fourth floor of the Dumbo’s building. The best almuerzo in town is at Gopel; a Hare Krishna place that provides a four course vegan meal/buffet for 15 bolivianos. There is a second Gopel in close proximity that also does a range of dinner meals including Chinese style dishes that use seitan. Across town (north-east) in Recoleta there is an up market Chinese place called Lai Lai’s that serves two tofu dishes (picante and normal) which are both adequate for two people per portion and always reliably prepared.

The pasta in Cochabamba is not too bad either. Most restaurants do basic plates of tomato sauce with pasta. My personal favourite is the Aglio from El Caracol; a very minimal recipe with chilli, seasoning, pasta and olive oil but cooked perfectly every time (nb. it is not easy to cook rice and pasta well at altitude).

Produce

After the disgrace of Argentina I can only describe the availability of fresh produce in Bolivia as ridiculous. In my neighbourhood of Cruce Tequina there is a market half a block away. This market is representative of all the produce markets in Bolivia.



At this small-medium sized market I can purchase carrots, spinach, white and red onions (white is more expensive in Bolivia for some reason), avocado, potatoes (literally dozens of varieties are available), chili, capsicum, pumpkin, radishes, tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli, corn, maize, and yams. In terms of fruit there is banana, apples, oranges, mandarins, mango, papaya, pineapple, grapes, peanuts, plums (sometimes), nectarines, pears, limes and grapefruit a plenty. And even when you are getting ripped off with gringo prices you still get a good deal. The best deal in my mind is with spinach and chillis; two bolivianos gives you enough for several meals. I have to note that it is a genuine pleasure to able to walk out your front door into a produce market that is so close at hand and so reasonably priced.

There are also heaps of flowers here and it is not uncommon to just pick some up on the way through. They are so accessible and affordable that it is hard not to have fresh flowers all the time in Cochabamba.


Supermarket & Kioskos

Supermarkets and kioskos are the biggest surprise of all. Both Super Hass and IC Norte are both well equipped to look after me. I would claim that they are as good as, if not better, than what we have back home in New Zealand.


In terms of protein there is carne de soya (or TVP back home) which is found everywhere and in at least three different forms. There is also a wide range of fresh seitan products made by Gouronga (available at IC Norte). In the centre of town (on Calle Sucre, a block from Plaza 14 de Septiembre) there is an unnamed health food store that makes its own tofu. For five bolivianos you get one cube of tofu ten centimetres by ten centimetres. A generous chunk. At IC Norte you can also buy Roland tofu in a can, which is a first for me, but the price is not what I would call agreeable.



There are two other very important types of soya products available in Bolivia. Both I can normally get at a kiosko and always from a supermercado: soya milk and ice cream. Nordland provides a plethora of flavours of icecream (coffee, bubblegum, lemon, vanilla, orange, coconut) and sizes (petite pots, 1 litre and 3 litre buckets). Nordland also does soya milk, and although it is competitively priced, the Soy Leche De Soya is far superior and still cheap (only three bolivianos fifty per litre). ‘Soy’ also has the charm of being wordplay on the conjugation of the verb Ser (“to be”).



As a side note all these soya products seem conspicuous to me and warrants looking into. They love meat here (especially chicken) and thus the variety of products to number of non-vegetarians is bewildering. I look forward to finding out why this is at a later stage.

Finally, there are lentejes and frijoles in galore. Supermarkets usually have a whole aisle of dried products and while they only have one type of lentil in Bolivia they have at least half a dozen different types of beans to choose from.

And so

That is it in a nutshell. While the Happy Cow will always be able to look after vegans when they are travelling the world I still had concerns before I arrived in Bolivia. I do not want to have to eat out the whole time (or even regularly). Hopefully this overview of what they have in Cochabamba will be of use to someone who is planning on swinging by Bolivia but is not confidant about their dietary needs being met.

In my opinion this is a great country to eat if you are a vegan.