Mi Bolivia, aka International Restaurant

Wow. we were finally here. I miss the taste of home so much. The closest thing I got to Bolivian food in LA is Peruvian and that is totally different because Peruvian cuisine is seafood heavy (ceviche, etc.) while Bolivian food is meat and potato and large white corn and plantains heavy (we are landlocked and live in the Andes mt’s or the tropical plains).

I really hope that they change the name of their restaurant sign and menu so that it says the same thing or else people will overlook this place!

Once we found our way in, the familiar aroma of saltenas and meat filled the air. I was so elated!! I sat down and opened the menu. A really friendly Bolivian girl, transplanted from Virginia (VA has the highest population of Bolivians in the U.S.) came and helped us out (I am assuming that she was the only English speaker and we were the only Asians there – another sign of authenticity).

She told us that the owner of this restaurant is from La Paz (the active capital of Bolivia) and how back at home, he was known for having the best salteneria (a specialty house dedicated to making the saltenas, a juicy version of an empanada that is so filling and full of meat, potatoes, eggs, spices, raisins, olives, etc that you literally feel full for three plus hours).

We ordered two saltenas (one beef, one chicken), and I absolutely loved the beef one because they used ground beef instead of beef chunks. This made it really tender and easy to bite into. However, the chicken is still my favorite. I think it combines better with all the other stuff inside and seems less fatty.

We also ordered a mocochinchi and a maracuya (no pic) for drinks (first one is a drink made from dehydrated peaches, cinnamon, sugar, and the second one is pureed passion fruit), my favorite childhood drink was the mocochinchi but i did not like this version too much because they didn’t give me a bolita (no dehydrated peach in there). It was a bit too sweet here.

My mocochinchi without the bolita.

We also got a humintas, a dessert type corn concoction, which is basically a sweet tamale (like the elote) with no filling. instead, it’s made with sweet corn, raisins, cinnamon, and there is a layer of burnt cheese on top, all wrapped in a corn husk.

Then came the sopa de mani. This soup is made of ground peanuts, usually with beef broth, vegetables, french fries, and meat -usually leftover chicken feet but in this case, it was just beef chunks.

One of our entrees was the pique a lo macho. This dish is basically a mixture of french fries, beef chunks, onions, peppers, cheese, sausage, all sauteed together with a delicious sauce. It’s really all about the sauce.

The “pique”, pronounced Ppeeh-kkeh.

Our last entree was the chicharron de cerdo, fried pig skin with carbs. The meat is usually attached, along with the bones. However, people order this because of the skin. The best part of this dish is that it came with choclo – hominy – and purple potatoes, which is native to the andes.

The best part of this meal was definitely the saltenas. The other dishes were good, too, but if you’re Bolivian, you just CRAVE the saltenas. You can’t find anything like that here. The other dishes you can try to make it on your own and come close to it in your own kitchen but dayam, the saltenas are hard to get right and right it got in this restaurant.