Part Two: La Paz, Bolivia

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Images below are thumbnails. Click on them to see a larger version.

The second-last class of the series was especially popular tonight. Since the high altitude makes cooking legumes especially slow, I borrowed some large pressure cookers to cook the chickpeas and mung dal. This was a good move, and the chickpeas were butter-soft. We folded them with spinach and tomatoes, and since the original Arabic seasoning baharat was unavailable here in Bolivia, we prepared our own, using paprika, pepper, cumin, cassia, cloves, coriander, cardamom and nutmeg. Very delicious!

• Sopa de Mung dal con vegetales ( Mung dal with Vegetables)
  
  
• Asados de panir (Panir Steaks)
  
  
• Garbanzos con espinaca aromatizado con tomate
  (Aromatic Spinach, Chickpeas and Tomato - Hoummos bi Sabanik)
  
  
• Coliflor cremoso con arvejitas y nueces
  (Creamy Cauliflower and Potato Supreme)
  
  
• Rollitos primavera con chutney
  (Fresh Cheese-stuffed Spring Rolls with Green Pea chutney)
  

Day Nine

The markets were so busy today that we could hardly move from stall to stall. Mathuresh explained that Friday was the busiest day of the week for shopping. There seemed to be more stalls than usual, filling up every possible space that made walking quite a challenge. Today, due to the pressure of the crowds, the usually tolerable shoeshine boys (lustrabotes) were downright annoying.

They appear out of nowhere affecting a menacing and anonymous appearance wearing black ski masks and baseball caps pulled down so low you can just make out two eye sockets.
I got to see some more varieties of potatoes today – dozens in fact - including freeze-dried potatoes called chuno – white, gnarled and unappetising looking, but apparently tasty. We had a couple of spare hours, and Mathuresh suggested we do a bit of sight-seeing, since we would be leaving for Cochabamba on the weekend.

Drove 12 kilometres down the canyon of the Rio Choqueyapu to visit the eerie Valle de La Luna (Valley of the Moon) with its surreal moon-like natural landscape. It had no tourists today, which added to its otherworldly atmosphere. It's actually not really a valley, but a bizarrely eroded maze of canyons and pinnacles techically known as badlands. Tried to take a little walk, but noted how badly eroded, slippery and dangerous the path was, so I changed my mind. Wanted to stay alive for my last cooking class tonight.

Mathuresh is a keen golfer, and his children are world-class junior players, so on the way to the convention centre for our last class we stopped at the world's highest golf course - the 18-hole Mallasilla La Paz Golf Club. Located about fifteen minutes outside La Paz centre, it affords breathtaking views of Illimani, 35 kilometres to the north.

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