When walking around Copacabana, Bolivia and walking up to the stands along the sidewalk to see what was on sale and may be yummy to eat I wandered upon the below.
“Popcorn!” My stomach exalted in reply. Then I got a bit closer. “Oh… it’s just corn”, was the minds thought in return trying to discern what was visually before me from visions of the puffed corn cereals of my American childhood.
Not exactly the buttery salted version I had anticipated, but a fun photo op and interesting to learn what is one South American version of many of the favorite treat to eat the world over: heated to the point of explosion (or just puffed up) corn kernels.
Out of curiosity I did a Google check, and came up with this:
“The modern process of making puffed grains was invented by Dr. Alexander P. Anderson in 1901”
“The oldest puffed grain was found in west central New Mexico in 1948 and 1950”.
Interesting facts. For more information on the history of popped corn read the full article: Wikipedia
To save you another disappointing ‘I’m going to get to eat popcorn!‘ experience that we had a couple of times during our travels and time on the continent I’ll explain what you will be sold when you go to a movie theater.
Want a big tub of buttery goodness, even though it’s going to stick in your arterys for decades to come? Tough luck. You are going to get a big tub of sugary popped corn, what is called ‘tutucas’ in Latin America.
But take heart; in the grains and legumes sections of many markets you can find kernels of corn, take it to your hostal or apartment kitchen, add a little oil and pop up to your hearts content ready to be drenched in sweet sunshine (to my taste buds), yellow, wholesome butter.