YUMMY
sensation: the minute it is over I want to go again. And I would, were it not for the small matter of getting the coca leaves we painstakingly harvested to La Paz before they wilt. show The Fearless Chef and we are in Bolivia. My tour of the country
am introduced to the delights of a traditional bull penis broth. The crew of course waits until I am halfway through my bowl before telling me what it is I am eating. Despite the shock of knowing I have just tucked into the reproductive organ of a dead promise myself to try my hand at it meal of the episode. The main purpose of our trip to caleros who harvest coca leaves from there one must embark on a breathtaking four-hour journey over the edge of the Andes to a valley which is crisscrossed by an intricate spider web of precarious zip lines. Upon my arrival, I am introduced to Eddy and Don Ignacio, the ingenious and arguably crazy pioneers of the aptly named Yungus Skyway. The zip line consists of a harness— basically a kikoy you wrap around your waist, a pulley fashioned from old car bearings, a safety pin and a bit of old electrical wire, all hooked up to a precarious zip line that spans a 500 meter-wide valley with 300 meter drops. Needless to say the whole getup is not 100% safe and over the years not everyone has survived the ride. To get back to La Paz after our coca harvesting session on the near vertical drops of Eddy’s plantation, we must use ‘the road of death’, one of the most dangerous roads on the planet. Imagine the Mahi Mahiu escarpment road, with drops three times the height, a road half the size and no tarmac. After a terrifying and
My fear becomes elation as I experience one of the biggest rushes of my life. and emotionally draining trip with what feels like countless near death experiences, we eventually arrive back to La Paz. Following a quick trip to the local coca market where “campesinas” (peasant ladies) in pretty bowler hats sell their wares displayed on colourful stripey blankets, we reward our toils with a meal at an upmarket restaurant that has coca leaf on the menu. A delicious meal of Llama meat (widely eaten in this part of the world and very similar to beef dumplings) and roasted vegetables is the perfect end to our dangerous day. Our trip concludes with a laborious cooking sequence shoot on a rooftop overlooking La Paz. Cooking sequences are some of the most like me who is used to moving fast, it is excruciating crew mess with your rhythm. Six hours later the is sun is setting on a picturesque La Paz and I am serve my meal of bull penis soup cooked in a giant pumpkin, coca marinated grilled Llama and a charred jalapeño salsa with coca dumplings. My Bolivian friends who join me to eat assure me it is all delicious. Which is of course the greatest praise of all and the only one that really matters.
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