Paraguay Dinner Food and Dining Paraguay – What to eat in Paraguay? This is an important question for many people
Many people like to think that Paraguay food is nothing special.
Paraguay, because of its trade in cattle, is of course a country where there is a lot of meat. Thus, one of the traditional foods here is mandioca (manihot esculenta – a type of root potato) and meat served at barbecues (Asados). However, Paraguay food has much more to offer!
Paraguayans divide the term “meat” (sp.: carne) into beef, lamb and pork. The meat from Paraguay has a high qualitative value and is very popular. Paraguay is the fourth largest exporter with the best beef. Pork is rather rare and eaten only occasionally. Poultry and chicken (sp.: pollo), for example, are not meat, but rather “vegetarian meat”, i.e. it is not real meat at all for the locals. So if you order a vegetarian salad as a Paraguay meal, you have to expect that chicken will also be mixed in.
Mandioca is mostly used to make French fries or offered as a kind of potato bar. Mandioca is quite similar in taste to a potato. For this purpose, the root is taken from the mandioca plant (Manihot esculenta), peeled and then boiled or fried in fat like fries. Paraguayans love this stuff and prefer to eat it every day. It is very nutritious and rich in carbohydrates.
Really good restaurants of the higher standard are quite rare in Paraguay and mostly to be discovered in the capital Asunción. But this does not mean that Paraguayan food does not offer culinary delights. Paraguayans dine very well and especially delicious!
Asado – The Barbecue
The Asado at El Paraiso Verde is usually held monthly and on such days many of the regular settlers participate to welcome new settlers who are planning to come to El Paraiso Verde.
The buffet is very large and in addition to 1 kg of meat, for each participant, there is a 3-course menu with chicken, fish, lamb, salads of all kinds, fresh vegetables, fruit, potatoes, mandioca and a successful dessert buffet with chocolate cakes, tiramisu, passion fruit pudding, chocolate and vanilla pudding, among many other cakes and cake rolls of various kinds (see below).
The Asado buffet at El Paraiso Verde is very well known and popular with both meat eaters and vegans. Then there is a local band that plays traditional songs live on site.
The Gala Dinner
As a farewell to the visit of the new settlers, within the so-called information week, there is also usually a monthly Gala Dinner. Here Paraguay and the El Paraiso Verde shows what refinements in delicacies it offers. In addition to legs of lamb, fish, chicken, beef (prepared in a variety of ways) and real sophisticated gourmet feasts of the most imaginable kind, you discover at the Gala Dinner simply everything you can imagine and spoil the palate to the extreme.
Café Bambambo
The café “Bambambo” is a popular meeting place for the settlers in El Paraiso Verde. There you can also get everything your heart desires. This includes passion fruit and chocolate cakes for dessert or the most tender beef steak (sp.: Lomiton), vegetable and meat skewers as well as the legendary El Paraiso Verde Burger, which is so popularly ordered.
They also serve homemade ice cream (helado), soups of various kinds (sopas), omelets, wraps (rapiditas), classic apple strudel and also mulled wine (vino caliente). The coffee is also extremely sought after at Bambambo and even the most seasoned espresso connoisseurs love it. The café is currently administrated by Daniela, the daughter of the founders of El Paraiso Verde.
The Asado Restaurant
El Paraiso Verde also has its own restaurant with regular hours and a lunch and dinner buffet. Breakfast is daily in the morning from 8-9 am, lunch from 12:30-13:30 and dinner from 18-19 pm. Here, in addition to the traditional dishes of Paraguay, you can often get dishes that are also known in Germany.
Very popular, especially among the younger generation, is the Saturday pizza night. The pizza in El Paraiso Verde is very tasty and there you always meet many settlers who love to participate. It doesn’t take long to eat a whole pizza.
Note: Since July 1, 2024, a French 5-star chef has taken over the asado restaurant, much to the delight of many settlers. The food is better than ever!
Bakery
Next to the Asado restaurant you can also discover the bakery, where you can find many breads, cookies, doughnuts, croissaint and other products of this kind. Especially the croissaint is very popular. It is huge and lovingly prepared in the kitchen, it can definitely compete with a real French croissaint. This fantastic pastry is also offered daily in the café.
Settlers offers
Some of the settlers also offer their own homemade dishes. Some settlers have decided to cook for themselves and demonstrate their art as cooks. Therefore, it is possible to stop by these settlers’ homes and simply dine there.
The beauty of Paraguay is the freedom it offers. Those who can cook well can start and offer their trade at the same moment without having to run to a trade office and register this activity. Those who really know how to cook will also like to be visited and so the really good cooks will filter out.
What does El Paraiso Verde serve from its own gardens?
The Comedor uses most of the vegetables, fruit and meat from El Paraiso Verde. Only the items that are not yet produced at El Paraiso Verde are sourced from outside, such as salt (iodine-free and fluoride-free), olive oil, butter, pasta and the like. We make our own ghee and clarified butter. All sauces, puddings and ice cream come from our own production, without the use of ready-made powders. The pies and cakes are baked and made according to original recipes, without the addition of chemicals. All salads are freshly harvested and prepared daily.
Here is a list of the foods we source from El Paraiso Verde:
Spinach, green onion, broccoli, lettuce, parsley, tomato, spicy red locote, spicy yellow locote, corn, leek, cassava, green locote, yellow red locote, chard, squash, pumpkin, eggplant, pak choi, beet, radish, sweet potato, basil, carrot, celery, turnip, grapefruit, cucumber, coriander, purple cabbage, white cabbage, lemon, air potatoes, watercress, raspberry, quinoto, carambola, mandarin, papaya, banana.
In this ever-growing gallery you get a little insight:
Photos of food at El Paraiso Verde
See also:
Website of Reljuv S.A.
Our Mini Mercado in the EPV