Cochabamba Valley

If La Paz feeds salteñas, Cochabamba feeds excess. The valley at 2,500 meters has the most fertile farmland in Bolivia and the longest lunch tradition — Cochabambinos eat five meals a day, and silpancho is the centerpiece of the largest one. A pounded-thin breaded beef cutlet so wide it drapes off the plate, laid over a bed of rice and fried potato rounds, topped with two sunny-side-up fried eggs and llajwa (the Bolivian tomato-locoto chili salsa). When you want it portable, you stuff the entire silpancho into a marraqueta bread roll — that's trancapecho, the meal that walks. Pique macho is the late-night dish: cubed beef and french fries piled with onion, tomato, hard-boiled egg, locoto chilies, sausage, and llajwa, served in a single mountain on a platter to share. The cuisine is maximalist, generous, and famous across Bolivia for the most-elaborate cooking in the country.