Eating my way through Santa Cruz’s food scene at the fair.
It’s not just during the sweltering summer months of February and March when Carnaval celebrations are in full swing that Bolivia’s eastern lowlands put on their party faces. All throughout September, the tropical metropolis of Santa Cruz de la Sierra springs to life with yet another full month of block parties and citywide festivities, all in honor of their roots.
This year marks Santa Cruz’s 204th year celebrating their first victory in the quest for independence from the Spanish and to commemorate, the modern city is paying respect to their culture’s past with festivals full of traditional flair and beginning with a fair.
While Santa Cruz locals, known as cruceños, kicked off the month enjoying their 26th fair in honor of Día de la Tradición Cruceña (Cruceña Tradition Day) with regional games and dances, I focused on sampling the city’s local cuisine from one food cart after another. As they say after all, one way to reconstruct social history is through a culture’s recipes.
Bolivian cuisine revolves around the country’s main staples: potatoes, rice, corn and beans. They’re big meat eaters and incorporate barbecues into nearly every event. While the food is a mix of Spanish and native flavors, cooking styles vary greatly from region to region, even within the cities. Cambas, referring to those born in the eastern lowlands, are fans of full, hearty meals comprised of ingredients growing in the tropics. Let’s take a look at the most common dishes of Santa Cruz.
The Menu
Chicha
To start, nothing beats the tropical heat like somó frío, a white-corn juice flavored with cove and cinnamon, or mocochinchi, a sweet, dehydrated peach cider also flavored with cinnamon. These beverages are typically sold out of large clay pots. Another traditional beverage of both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties includes chicha, a fermented corn drink popular throughout much of Central and South America.
The making of sucumbé, a fiery Bolivian beverage.
Sucumbé is a foamy, milk and egg-based beverage spiked with Singani, a variety of grape brandy deemed Bolivia’s national liquor as it’s only produced here in the Andes. The beverage is traditionally served warm as it’s a popular drink during the festival of San Juan (summer solstice and Aymara New Year), a celebration of the coldest day of the year in the southern hemisphere.
Majao, a Santa Cruz specialty
When it comes to cruceño cusine, majao is the neighborhood dish and local favorite. Also referred to as majadito, this Santa Cruz specialty is prepared with either dehydrated chicken, duck, beef or shredded jerky mixed in a bed of seasoned rice and topped with a fried egg and garnished with fried plantains. Some prefer a drier version with toasted rice while others opt for a soup-like version, as pictured above.
A local woman prepares beef anticuchos in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.
Anticuchos are the Quechua equivalent of kebabs popular throughout the Andes of Peru and Bolivia. Skewered meat, most often beef or pork, is marinated in vinegar, seasoned with ají pepper, and grilled over street carts and throughout market stalls. Cow’s heart served with yucca (cassava root much like a potato) is a common variant of this dish in Santa Cruz.
Cuerillo de Chancho, marinated pig skin.
Very traditional to Santa Cruz, cuerillo de chancho is thinly sliced pig skin marinated in vinegar, cut into squares, and served with an onion and tomato salad. As you may tell through the photos, it’s a juicy, rubbery-textured dish definitely worth a try.
Chancho al palo, pig on a stick.
While not a typical dish in the traditional sense, chancho al palo (literally meaning pig on a stick) is a fair main attraction drawing the attention of crowds eager to enjoy the pork roasting over a giant charcoal pit.
That should about hold me over until the next round of fair food, and there’s plenty more to come!
Mmm…. that food looks yummy, I love trying different things whilst travelling.
These dishes and drink look amazing!! Your pictures are so enticing. I have actually tried cow’s heart- at a Peruvian-Japanese fusion restaurant in Bangkok, of all places- and I loved it!! I’d love to have the real thing, though, right off the streets of Santa Cruz… along with some sucumbé 🙂
Although the food looks super delicious, I’ve never been super adventurous with food. Unfortunately, I have a weak stomach, it sucks! But I love what you shared 🙂 Keep ’em coming!
That looks absolutely amazing! I am definitely having schish-kabobs tonight!
loved this article. the step by step pictures were great and it was very informative. great work!
i spent a day and night in Santa Cruz on my way to Brazil earlier this year. Loved the busy market stalls by the station! And antichuchoa are delicious!
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WOW you must have a strong stomach. I can’t even stand the view of most of those drinks and foods!! The only one i may try is the chancho al palo – we have something similar here in Sardinia.
Mouth watering over the Anticuchos… Though that would probably give me a pork meat overdose lol
Looks delicious, I love trying local dishes on my travels. We tried chicha and anticuchos in Peru, but never heard of the others, must visit one day to give it a go!
All of it looks great! I really want to try the Chicha… I love the look of it. The pork on a pole looks inviting too, love me some roasted pig!
I love food festivals! A great way to try the local specialties and mingle with the locals!!
Yum, that roasted pig looks great!
Those drinks sound really interesting! Nice post 🙂
Mmmm, everything looks great! I also tried everything while in Santa Cruz 2 years ago! I was couchsurfing and my host (from Santa Cruz) took me to a humble place to eat the famous beef heart burger, was pretty good
Those heavily meat based cuisines aren’t really my favourites, but I could be tempted by the corn and beans!
The pig on a stick looks a bit weird, but I think I could handle most everything else. Great post and descriptive pictures!
I’m vegan so I likely wouldn’t try many of those dishes, but give me some rice and beans and I’m a happy camper! 🙂
The food looks so delicious. We love trying local dishes too. Jazza is a lot more adventurous than I. He had Duck foetus the other day. I was nearly sick just watching him eat it. I think I’ll need a lot of grape brandy before I get super duper adventurous.
So well photographed..! Did you try all the comidas? I’m not sure if I could handle the heart or the pigskin..
Very fun story, one of our favorite things to do while traveling is try all the local food, especially in the street markets! Really cool – the pig skin is interesting – in Mexico they eat it as well but boiled and it has some meat on it and you eat it with tortillas and salsa – sounds nasty but it is to die for. We also have tried the cow brain sounded gross but it was actually very tasty. 🙂 thanks for sharing.
Awesome! I love love love going to food festivals and seeing how traditional dishes are cooked. Food is such an important part of a culture, its a great way to chat with locals and learn about a place. This looks like so much fun and awesome photos!
This food journey is driving me crazy! Lovely photos! By the way, I discovered you on twitter. 🙂 Nice to be on your blog!
Thanks, Renuka! Happy to have you over here and look forward to keeping in touch and reading your adventures as well! xo
Hey Jessica! These all look incredibly delicious. But I have to ask: why were so many dishes dehydrated? Is dehydrating food a common thing in Santa Cruz?
I have to admit camba food is definitely superior to that of the highlands.
Hahaha but it’s sooo hot here for all of the soups and stews and heavy meals!! Much better suited for the highlands 🙂