What to Eat in Sucre: Chorizos Chuquisaqueños, Mondongo, Salteñas & Chocolates

Blessed with fertile surrounding valleys that produce fragrant red ají chillies, stone fruits, peanuts, corn, and sugarcane alongside high-quality Amazonian cacao brought up from Beni and Alto Beni since the nineteenth century, Sucre is widely regarded by Bolivians as one of the country's richest culinary capitals. Remember one golden rule of Chuquisaqueño dining: traditional spicy pork and chilli dishes are strictly mid-morning and lunchtime feasts, while evenings are reserved for lighter plates, cafés, and hot chocolate.

1. Signature Savoury Dishes: Chorizos, Mondongo & Morning Salteñas

• Chorizos Chuquisaqueños (The Iconic Midday Sausage Platter): Tracing their recipe back since the 1870s to the legendary kitchen of Las 7 Lunares and the stalwart market stalls of Mercado Central, Sucre's famous spiced pork sausages are seasoned with cumin, oregano, garlic, and red chilli, fried until crisp in their own juices, and served before noon alongsideslices of country bread dipped in sausage gravy, boiled potatoes, fresh lettuce-tomato-and-onion salad, pickled locoto chilli pods, and a cold glass of dark, sweet fermented tumbo or malt beer (cerveza negra).
• Mondongo Chuquisaqueño: Despite its name (which elsewhere in Latin America refers to tripe), in Sucre mondongo is a celebratory feast dish of slow-braised pork ribs and tender pork chunks bathed in a deep crimson sauce of roasted red ají chillies from Padilla, garlic, and cumin, served over white hominy corn (mote) cooked with crispy pork skin (cuerito) and turmeric-tinted potatoes, traditionally prepared for the fiesta of the Virgen de Guadalupe and All Saints' Day.
• Morning Salteñas (Strictly 09:00 to Noon): Across Bolivia, the juiciest baked empanadas, filled with a rich, slightly sweet and mildly spicy gelatine-set stew of diced beef or chicken, potatoes, peas, raisins, and olive that turns into steaming soup inside the braided pastry crust as it bakes, are eaten as a sajra hora (mid-morning snack) around Plaza 25 de Mayo. Hold the salteña vertically and nibble the top corner first so you can sip the hot broth without spilling a drop.
• Ckocko de Pollo, Picante de Pollo & Sulka: Other beloved Chuquisaqueño classics include ckocko de pollo (chicken simmered in a clay pot with chicha corn beer, almonds, raisins, and herbs), fiery picante de pollo, and charcoal-grilled beef sulka with mote corn.

2. Capital of Bolivian Artisan Chocolate & Singani Cocktails

Since the late nineteenth century, Sucre has been Bolivia's undisputed capital of artisanal confectionery. Flagship chocolatiers Chocolates Para Ti (operating a popular café-balcony and chocolate fountain right off Plaza 25 de Mayo on Calle Arenales) and Chocolates Taboada craft bars, truffles, and dragées from wild-harvested Bolivian Amazon cacao infused with toasted royal quinoa, Maras salt, dried mango, chili, and liquid centres of Singani (Bolivia's national Muscat of Alexandria grape spirit, also served every evening as a crisp Chuflay with ginger ale and lime).