Salteña

A salteña is a Bolivian type of baked empanada. Salteñas are savory pastries filled with beef, pork or chicken mixed in a sweet, slightly spicy sauce containing olives, raisins, potatoes and sometimes egg. Vegetarian salteñas are sometimes available at certain restaurants. Salteñas are filled with a juicy gelatin-based stew that is solid when prepared, but melts when they are baked.

Typically salteñas can be found in any town or city throughout the country, but each area has its variations; Cochabamba and Sucre claim to have the best version of this snack, and many will go out of their way to try the variation from Potosí. In La Paz and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, it is a tradition to enjoy salteñas as a mid-morning snack especially on sundays, although vendors often start selling salteñas very early in the morning. The pastries are sold anywhere from 7 am to noon; most vendors sell out by mid-morning.

History
Historian Antonio Paredes Candia states that during the early 19th century, Juana Manuela Gorriti was the first person to create the current version of this dish. This lady later married President Manuel Isidoro Belzu. Gorriti was born in Salta, Argentina, and was exiled to Potosí, Bolivia, during the Juan Manuel de Rosas dictatorship. The Gorriti family endured extreme poverty, and they came up with the recipe in the early 19th century in order to make a living. A variation of these pastries was known at the time throughout most of Europe.

The product, nicknamed salteña, became very popular. Candia states that it was common to say to kids: "Ve y recoge una empanada de la salteña" ("go and pick up an empanada from the woman from Salta"). In time most forgot the name Juana Manuela Gorriti, but not the nickname of her tasty snack, which eventually became a Bolivian tradition.

Brazil
The salteña is popular in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, and Acre, a former Brazilian territory that was part of Bolivia until 1903, where is known as a saltenha. Other names for the pastry include empanada caldosa, empanada da saltenha, pastelzinho recheado, pastel assado, and empanada boliviana. The saltenha is especially popular in Corumbá, a city in Mato Grosso do Sul that borders Bolivia, where the Ardaya family of Bolivian descent opened the city's first saltenharia (place where saltenhas are sold) in 1978 on the corner of Rua Sete de Setembro and Delamare. Saltenhas have been sold in Rio Branco, the capital of Acre, since at least 1979 when the Cantinho Lanche do Pastor was opened by Pastor Mugramy, who is of Syrian and Bolivian descent. The store is still open as of 2021 and is operated by his children and grandchildren.

Today, saltenhas can be found alongside other Brazilian salgadinhos in dining establishments throughout the country.