Our Take on Pique Macho

On June 15, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes, South America6 Comments

As we mentioned previously, Pique Macho seems to be more of a generalized idea than a specific recipe. With that in mind, we took inspiration from the couple of different variations that we had and came up with our own take on it. First of all, we weren’t going to make the enormous portions that we found in Bolivia, so we scaled things down without cutting back on taste. At its core, it is comfort food. Simple, tasty, flavorful, and something that you can eat over and over again. We have to admit that, even though we’re obviously not Bolivian, our dish turned out to be pretty darn delicious. We decided to leave the seeds in since we didn’t have the spicy salsa that was normally served with the dish and it certainly added plenty of heat, but we like things spicy. Feel free to give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients

1 lb Partially Cooked Beef (Steak, Chuck Roast, or any other variety of beef) seasoned with salt, garlic powder, and black pepper
2 Medium Potatoes – par-boiled and sliced into quarter-inch slices
1 Medium Red Pepper – roughly chopped
1/2 Yellow or White Onion – roughly chopped
1 Jalapeno Pepper – sliced, seeds included or removed depending upon your preference
1 Hot Dog – cut into half-inch pieces
1 Tomato – cut into eighths
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook the beef and potatoes and let them cool. Do not over cook them as they will be cooked further when combined with the rest of the ingredients. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the par-boiled potatoes. After five minutes, add the red pepper and onions and continue to cook. After another ten minutes, add the jalapeno pepper, hot dog, and beef. Add salt and pepper and cook for another ten minutes, stirring constantly. Serve on a plate with the tomato, seasoned with salt and pepper. Serve with an ice-cold beer if desired :). Serves two.

The Food of Cochabamba

On June 1, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes, South America6 Comments

We didn’t have any preconceptions about the food of Bolivia or, in this case, specifically of Cochabamba. We had heard about Pique Macho, but didn’t know exactly what it was. What we discovered is that meals in Cochabamba were larger than we expected. Not just the Pique Macho, which is known to be a huge plate of food, but every meal that we were served were huge portions. The other thing we found was that every meal was served with an extremely spicy salsa, which is eaten on garlic bread as well as over top of the meal itself.

We ordered a half order of the Pique Macho to share and still weren’t able to eat the whole meal. Almost every meal included potatoes, usually cooked as French fries, and sometimes it would include both potatoes and rice. We like to share meals anyway, but we found that we couldn’t finish almost any meal while we were in Cochabamba. Later, when we went to La Paz, we found that the size of the meals and the quantity of food eaten in Cochabamba was larger than in other parts of the country. They are extremely proud that all of the food is locally grown and Cochabamba is considered the gastronomical center of Bolivia. Unlike Peru where fusion food is everywhere, Bolivia seemed to just beginning to embrace fusion food to raise the bar of traditional Bolivian food.

We also found that Bolivia produced pretty good local beer and wine. We always want to enjoy as much of local and traditional food and we definitely ate some interesting meals. We did a ton of walking while we were in Bolivia, which probably was good since the meals were so heavy. At some point we’re going to try and make our own version of Pique Macho here at home, but clearly not as large of a portion. It is basically a pretty simple dish of beef, hot dogs (sausages), tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, and in some cases boiled eggs. Despite the fact that it is considered a traditional Bolivian dish, we saw it prepared differently at various restaurants, so it seems that it is more of style than a very specific dish.

Copacabana – Not Typical Bolivia

On May 27, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn South America8 Comments

Of all of the places that we visited while we were in Bolivia, Copacabana felt strangely out of place. It was very much a tourist destination with resorts sitting on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We’re glad that we went to Copacabana towards the end of our trip in Bolivia and not at the beginning because it might have completely changed the way that we viewed the country. It was the only place in Bolivia where we saw other travelers, mostly on their way out of Bolivia and heading into Peru, which is on the other side of the lake, with Cusco and Machu Picchu being within a day’s travel. If they weren’t heading out of Bolivia, they were on their way into Bolivia from Peru and heading to Uyuni Salt Flats, seemingly the only place that people visit in Bolivia. We sat in a café and watched the parade of young people with their backpacks getting into or out of buses as they passed through this idyllic little town.

Like everyplace we visited in Bolivia, it wasn’t easy to get to Copacabana, the roads were horrendous with apparent construction every few thousand feet where it just seemed that the road was torn up for no apparent reason. The only construction workers that we saw were placing rocks on parts of the road that were apparently re-paved, but weren’t ready for traffic yet or they just didn’t want traffic to be able to move smoothly. We also had to take a ferry across part of Lake Titicaca with cars and buses floating back and forth. We know it is a pretty common Latin American attitude, but no one is in a hurry to get anyplace in Bolivia and we got used to sitting and waiting everywhere that we went, including when crossing on the ferry. You wouldn’t know that Lake Titicaca and Copacabana are one of the biggest tourist destinations in Bolivia based upon the road conditions, but apparently thousands of tourists and Bolivians visit Copacabana all of the time.

The resort where we stayed had incredible views of the bay and we were promised a gorgeous sunset over Lake Titicaca and we weren’t disappointed. After days of non-stop running from place to place, it was actually pretty nice to sit and relax in a beach resort, a very different experience than anything else that we did in Bolivia. Instead of Spanish, it seemed that French and German were the dominating languages while we were in Copacabana, a strange change of pace. As with every resort town, there were plenty of restaurants and food stalls along the beach to choose from and a cold cerveza was an absolute must. We ended up having lunch at a place called Manchester United, named after the English Premier Football (Soccer) team, which seemed an odd choice for a name, and had an incredible version of Pollo Macho.

When we first arrived in town we headed to the local church, which is the center of every town in Bolivia. Apparently people from around Bolivia come to Copacabana to have their new cars blessed by the Catholic priest and then they drive it up to the temple on top of the mountain outside of town to have it blessed by a Quechua priest as well. Two blessings, one location. The cars are elaborately adorned with an array of flowers and they looked as though they were being prepared for a parade. In fact, there are so many cars that come to Copacabana to be blessed that there is a very active market across the street from the church taking advantage of all of the people who have come to visit. The church itself was beautiful and is the typical Spanish style church found all over Bolivia, which is an extremely religious country.

The following day we would venture out onto Lake Titicaca to visit the islands and learn about the temples, but our day in Copacabana was completely relaxing. The hotels were some of the nicest that we saw anyplace in Bolivia and the town had a Bolivian flare to a beach resort. If it weren’t for the women dressed in typical Aymara clothing, you wouldn’t even know that you were still in Bolivia. With all of the boats in the bay, hotels, restaurants, and shops, we could have easily been on the coast of the Mediterranean instead of Lake Titicaca. It is certainly worth visiting if you go to Bolivia, but make sure that you visit other parts of Bolivia first so that you have a greater appreciation for the amenities that this resort town has to offer.