Larry Memmott's Blog

Well, the blog is basically about anything I want to write about, right?  And I’ve never written about food, but that’s no reason not to start now.  Bolivian food, or at least Bolivian ingredients, seem to be a bit in vogue right now.  Quinoa is all the rage in the U.S.  The New York Times is sharing its quinoa recepies.  And now we have Gustu, a high-flying La Paz restaurant by the co-owner of the number one ranked restaurant in the world!  Gustu, which uses exclusively Bolivian ingredients (you won’t find French wine there, as a result) has been reviewed on Bloomberg, as well as in the Times.

So, I’m going to make a nomination for Next Bolivian Breakthrough Ingredient.  My proposal is the ulupica!

Ulupika

The ulupica looks like a berry, but be wary.  It is actually a tiny, round chili pepper.  Quite likely it is the granddaddy of all chili peppers, the original pepper from which all others evolved (or were developed).  The ulupica (from the Aymara ulupika, latin Capsicum cardenasii) grows wild in Bolivia.  Whether picked green or allowed to mature to orange or red, it is a tiny ball of fire.  In Bolivia it is often used with kirkiña, a Bolivian herb, and tomatoes to create llajua, a hot sauce for use on meats, bread, and anything else.  Gustu is serving an interesting cocktail based on llajua and the Bolivian grape-based spirit, Singani, but they are (incomprehensibly) using locoto peppers (Capsicum pubescens) for the drink, rather than ulupica, a big mistake in my view.

With my finger, to give an idea how small these fireballs are.