Chipa

Chipa

Specialised

Cassava starch, cheese, egg and fat, baked — traditionally in a TATAKUA, the domed clay oven fired with wood. ⚠ NOT ONE THING: chipa almidón, chipa mestiza (with cornmeal), chipa so’o (filled with meat), chipa manduvi (with peanut), chipa piru, chipa guasu — which is a different dish entirely. Sold from baskets on buses, in the street and at bus terminals; Coronel Bogado in Itapúa styles itself the capital of it. ⚠ ITS HOLY WEEK ROLE IS CENTRAL: households bake it together on Holy Wednesday for the days when no cooking is done, which is a religious calendar expressed as a bread.