Local Dishes

1. Apthapi

   Apthapi (communal pot-luck meal)

   Usage

   Everyone brings what their own plot grew and what their own animals gave, spreads it on a cloth (awayu) and eats with the hands. Common in the highlands after meetings and at village or school gatherings. If you are invited, bring one thing to add; there are no plates and you take food by hand

   Grammar Note

   Apthapi is the noun form of the verb apthapiña 'to gather, to collect', meaning 'a gathering'. In the valleys (qhirwa) the same event is called wayk'asi

2. Wallaqi

   Wallaqi (lakeside fish soup)

   Usage

   ⚠ A fish soup made on the shore of Lake Titicaca (quta thiya). You measure the water for the number of eaters, bring it up first with q'uwa (an Andean herb) and garlic, cut in potatoes, and slide the fish in last. Served with ch'uñu, qhati (boiled potatoes) or phiri. The fish used are qarachi, qhisi, trout, pijiriya, sawalu

   Grammar Note

   Wallaqi is a fish dish, well known by this name along the lakeshore. It is said that without q'uwa it would not be a true wallaqi

3. Kaya phuthi

   Kaya phuthi (steamed freeze-dried oca)

   Usage

   Kaya is apilla (oca, Oxalis tuberosa) frozen in the night frost and dried in the sun. Steamed in an unglazed clay pot (phukhu), it becomes this dish. Served alongside a broth (kaltu) or fish soup; it is also eaten with ch'arki (dried meat)

   Grammar Note

   Kaya phuthi is a dish simmered in an earthenware pot. Dishes of the phuthi type include Ch'uñu phuthi, Tunta phuthi, Muray phuthi, Musq'u phuthi, Kaya phuthi and Umakay phuthi

4. Ch'uñu phuthi

   Ch'uñu phuthi (steamed freeze-dried potato)

   Usage

   Ch'uñu is potato frozen in the night frost, trodden underfoot to press the water out, and sun-dried until black. It is soaked, then steamed in a pot. A staple side to meat or eggs in altiplano eating houses. ⚠ Spell it ch'uñu — dropping the ejective mark gives a different word

   Grammar Note

   Ch'uñu phuthi heads the phuthi-type dishes. Ch'uñu is made by freezing (juyphsuyaña), trampling (takiña), drying (wañayaña) and rehydrating in water (chulluchiña). It is also spelled without the h, ch'uñu phuti

5. Tunta phuthi

   Tunta phuthi (steamed white freeze-dried potato)

   Usage

   Tunta (chuño blanco) is the same frozen-dried potato as ch'uñu, but it is sunk in running water for four to five weeks after freezing, so it comes out white. It costs more than ch'uñu and is sold at the market (qhathu); the best is made from luk'i or waka laxra potatoes

6. K'ispiña

   K'ispiña (steamed quinoa cakes)

   Usage

   Small cakes of quinoa (jupha / jiwra) dough steamed over a qhiri, the traditional clay stove. They keep well and travel well, standing in for bread, and are a regular sight on the apthapi cloth

   Grammar Note

   K'ispiña is a quinoa dish. Quinoa is first taken and warmed over a qhiri fire. Other quinoa dishes include p'isqi, jiwra and jupha

7. P'isqi

   P'isqi (cooked quinoa dish)

   Usage

   Quinoa cooked soft. It heads the list of local dishes for Los Andes province in La Paz, served either as a side to meat or on its own — an easy dish to ask for if you are avoiding meat

   Grammar Note

   P'isqi is the best-known dish made from quinoa and is recognized as a regional dish. ⚠ It shares its origin with Quechua phisi / pesque, but the Aymara spelling writes the ejective: p'isqi

8. Allpi

   Allpi (thick grain-flour soup)

   Usage

   A warm, thickened dish of dried grain flour stirred into water — commonly cooked in the city of La Paz too. It warms you through, which suits the cold highlands. Made as jupha allpi (quinoa), tunku allpi (maize) or siwar allpi (barley); salt and chilli (wayk'a) are added to taste

   Grammar Note

   Allpi is a dish made on the highlands, with kinds such as jupha allpi, tunku allpi and siwar allpi. It is also made from barley (siwara) and quinoa (jiwra)

9. Aycha kanka

   Aycha kanka (meat grilled over embers)

   Usage

   Meat rubbed with a paste of garlic (ajusa), chili (wayk'a), cumin (kuminusa) and salt (jayu), then grilled over embers (sansa). It corresponds to the Spanish asado

   Grammar Note

   Aycha kanka (Spanish asado) is meat rubbed with ground ajusa, wayk'a, kuminusa and jayu and roasted over embers (sansa). It is also used as in Iwija aycha kanka sumawa ('roast lamb is delicious')

10. Qarwa kanka

    Qarwa kanka (grilled llama meat)

    Usage

    Grilled llama (qarwa) meat. On the altiplano llama is more everyday than beef — lean, firm and dark. It appears at apthapi and at fiestas; in Oruro the version made with dried ch'arki is a speciality

    Grammar Note

    Qarwa kanka is roast llama meat. In Oruro, ch'arki kanka is well known. It is spelled Qarwa here, though Qawra also occurs

11. Qhati

    Qhati (boiled potatoes)

    Usage

    Potatoes boiled in their skins — the base of a highland meal, heaped on the apthapi cloth. Eaten with fish soup (wallaqi) or chilli sauce, peeled by hand as you go

    Grammar Note

    Qhati is the noun use of the verb qhatiña 'to boil' and refers to something boiled (phukhur qhathiyat has the same root)

12. Chaluna

    Chaluna (salted dried meat)

    Usage

    Meat rubbed with salt and dried in the cold, bright highland air, usually mutton or llama. Very salty on its own, so it is soaked and then cooked into soups and stews. Spanish: chalona

    Grammar Note

    Chaluna corresponds to Spanish chalona and means 'salted, dried meat'. Jayu 'salt' + -ncha 'to make into' + -ta (participle) gives 'salted'

13. Jawas phusphu

    Jawas phusphu (broad beans boiled in the pod)

    Usage

    Boiled broad beans (jawasa) — all but guaranteed on the apthapi cloth. You shell and peel them by hand as you eat. A dish you can ask for if you are avoiding meat

    Grammar Note

    Jawas phusphu is also called jawas mut'i (the two are listed together with jan ukasti 'or' as equivalent names). Jawas means 'bean, broad bean'

14. Ch'iwa phuti

    Ch'iwa phuti (steamed quinoa greens)

    Usage

    The young leaves of the quinoa plant (ch'iwa), steamed. They look like spinach and are rich in iron and phosphorus; only the tender ones count as ch'iwa. There is also a soup version, ch'iwa kaltu. A rare green vegetable dish in the highlands

    Grammar Note

    Ch'iwa is the name of a leaf from which ch'iwa phuti and ch'iwa kaltu are made. Both phuti (without h) and phuthi spellings occur

15. Phiri

    Phiri (steamed grain-flour crumb)

    Usage

    Grain flour sprinkled with a little water, rubbed loose and steamed into a crumb. Barley (siwara) is the usual grain. Served alongside fish soup (wallaqi) and stews

    Grammar Note

    Phiri is one of the dishes made from barley (siwara), listed with allpi, phata kaltu and jamp'i, and it also serves as a side dish, as in Ch'uñumpi, qhatimpi, phirimpi

16. Qhach'u ch'uñu

    Qhach'u ch'uñu (fresh-frozen potato)

    Usage

    Potatoes frozen in the night frost and cooked at once, without the sun-drying that makes black ch'uñu. A seasonal dish eaten fresh, said to be at its best with fried fish (challwa thixi). Only available in the frost season

    Grammar Note

    Qhach'u ch'uñu is ch'uñu frozen by frost and boiled right away, not dried in the sun. In Spanish it is chuño fresco. Both spellings Qhach'u and Qach'u occur

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