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The Cuisine of Asunción refers to the cuisine and restaurants of the city of
Asunción
Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay.
The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay o ...
,
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
. Compared to most of the Latin American capitals, the city has comparatively few European restaurants and influences in cuisine.
However, international (including Italian, Chinese, Mexican and others) and traditional Paraguayan cuisines are available in various restaurants and hotels.
Restaurant cuisine
Meat, especially
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...
, is a
staple food of the Paraguayan diet. However, Asunción is different in some respects compared to the rest of Paraguay in that its top
restaurants are more sophisticated and broader in culinary influences than in rural areas and smaller towns, where often only
snack bar
A snack bar usually refers to an inexpensive food counter that is part of a permanent structure where snack foods and light meals are sold.
Description
A beach snack bar is often a small building situated high on the sand. Besides soft dri ...
s are available.
Bradt Travel Guides
Bradt Travel Guides is a publisher of travel guides founded in 1974 by Hilary Bradt and her husband George, who co-wrote the first Bradt Guide on a river barge on a tributary of the Amazon.
Since then Bradt has grown into a leading independent tr ...
says of the eatery situation: "You can eat very well in Asuncion, and even vegetarians will find plenty of good salads to fill their plates, even in the churrasquerias (restaurants serving roast meals). But most restaurants and bars in the interior of the country are very basic. Most ordinary restaurants serve a small variety of meat dishes, accompanied by chips, rice salad, potato salad or a mixed salad (lettuce, tomato, onion). It is common to skip dessert entirely".
In Asunción, a special dish served in parillada, an upscale restaurant, is made of grilled meat served with manioc.
Many of restaurants in the city serve Paraguayan cuisine, and many bars such as ''Bohemia'', ''Bambuddha'', ''Cafe Literarui'', ''La Cubana'' and ''Coyote'' feature live music during the evenings.
However, in recent years the city has seen a marked increase in
Asian influences to cater to the many immigrants from the
Pacific-Rim countries, such as
Japan,
China and
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
.
Some restaurant such as ''La Vide Verde'' offer a stark alternative to the Paraguayan
carvery tradition by serving Chinese vegetarians dishes.
Although compared to the capital cities of many of the other Latin American cities the diversity of cuisines on offer are less apparent, the European influence is clear restaurants such as ''Talleyrand'' which serves International cuisine and the ''Britannia Pub'', a
British pub serving British cuisine and alcohol.
''La Flor de la Canela'' serves
Peruvian cuisine
Peruvian cuisine reflects local practices and ingredients including influences mainly from the indigenous population, including the Inca, and cuisines brought by immigrants from Europe (Spanish cuisine, Italian cuisine); Asia (Japanese cuisine an ...
, mainly fish and seafood dishes and
ceviche
Ceviche () is a Peruvian dish typically made from fresh raw fish cured in fresh citrus juices, most commonly lime or lemon. It is also spiced with '' ají'', chili peppers or other seasonings, and julienned red onions, salt, and cilantro are ...
(marinated raw seafood).
Some of the more upmarket restaurants with international cuisine available are located in some of the city's top hotels or in close proximity to them. The
Excelsior Hotel for instance has a restaurant catering in
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine (, ) is a Mediterranean cuisine David 1988, Introduction, pp.101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across the Italian Peninsula and later spread around the world together with wave ...
,
and the ''Quebrancho'' restaurant near
La Misión Hotel matches the hotel in being one of the city's most expensive.
A few very expensive restaurants serve
river fish surubi in various combinations; one such is with a bed of broad beans and tomatoes.
Asparagus
Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus '' Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
It was once classified in ...
soup with shredded
carrot and
onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onio ...
sprinkled with
Parmesan cheese
Parmesan ( it, Parmigiano Reggiano; ) is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cows’ milk and aged at least 12 months.
It is named after two of the areas which produce it, the provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia (''Parmigiano'' ...
,
tilapia
Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...
in
escargot
Snails are considered edible in many areas such as the Mediterranean region, Africa, or Southeast Asia, while in other cultures, snails are seen as a taboo food. In American English, edible land snails are also called escargot, taken from the Fre ...
sauce and
filet steak with fresh
mushroom
A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans.
The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...
and baby
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es are also popular in these restaurants.
Some specific dishes served in popular restaurants are sandwiches, curried
rabbit, garlic
pizza, surubí casa nostra (many types of different pasta in one dish),
sopa paraguaya (a combination with cheese and onion), Lebanese swamis (meat and spice wrapped in bread) in Monte Libano and
ceviche
Ceviche () is a Peruvian dish typically made from fresh raw fish cured in fresh citrus juices, most commonly lime or lemon. It is also spiced with '' ají'', chili peppers or other seasonings, and julienned red onions, salt, and cilantro are ...
.
See also
*
Paraguayan cuisine
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuisine of Asuncion
Asuncion
Paraguayan cuisine
Culture in Asunción