South America has a vast menu of culinary traditions and tastes – this continent is big on braai meats, rice and beans, along with some more unconventional dishes. Here are 9 weird and wonderful meals to try while travelling.
Think haggis, but Brazilian style. A staple in the northern state of Ceara, Buchada isn’t for the faint of heart (or stomach). Buchada is a goat stomach, stuffed with other goat intestines, liver, lungs and heart. And then mixed with blood before it’s cooked…yum?
You’ll need to channel your inner cowboy – or gaucho – as they’re called in Argentina, to make and eat this epic dish: it’s an entire cow (in one piece), hung up over a bonfire and left to slow cook overnight. Vaca entera is an Argentinian version of the braai; good friends, good food and a good glass of Argentinian wine.
In Peru, guinea pigs aren’t pets – they’re called “cuy “ and raised specially to be roasted and served whole on a spit with a side of vegetables. Some say they taste like a richly-spiced rabbit; try this dish in the Andean capital, Cusco.
This classic dish from Chile called ubre asada literally means “chargrilled udder”. According to those who have sampled the squishy dish, a cow’s udder minus the milk has a spongy texture and subtle flavour.
Looking for a lean meat to put in your stew? Try llama. In Argentina, these woolly animals are a foodie favourite – in cazuela de llama, traditional meats like beef, pork or chicken are swapped for llama.
This drink brings a whole new meaning to “craft beer”! Corn beer is made of just two ingredients (which can be difficult to stomach): corn and saliva. It’s made by chewing up a mouthful of corn and spitting it into a container. The soggy kernels are then left to ferment until they can be used to brew a batch of corn beer.
In Bolivia’s semi-arid highlands, potatoes play an essential role in nutrition due to a lack of other vegetation. Andeans in La Paz add these “chuños” to soups and stews with llama.
But they’re not first boiled, baked or mashed as you’d expect in other parts of the world. Here, they’re left to freeze in sub-zero temperatures during the night, then thawed with the morning sun (a process that is repeated the following nights). Then, rather than peeling the potatoes, they’re stomped on, and then frozen and thawed one last time before being added to food.
Want a crunchy, salty snack? Colombians will serve up hormigas culona ants. Yes, you heard that right. Feeling squeamish? Take comfort in the fact that at least the heads, wings and pincers have been removed!
Chileans have another name for “escargot” – they call them locos or “crazies”. Does that mean you’d have to be crazy to eat them? You might not even notice; snails are in season during the summer and are usually found served in a salad, slathered in mayonnaise.
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