NAMASTE - a gourmet vegetarian restaurant in La Paz, Bolivia
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010I am a confirmed vegetarian (90% vegan) and health nut. I occasionally eat dark chocolate (70% or more cacao), eat egg whites and once every two months, I have a veggie cheese pizza; that puts me in the category of being a quasi vegan.
As I travel overseas a lot, I usually do some research to scope out some dedicated vegetarian/vegan or vegetarian friendly restaurants in the area. Most of the time, I am usually have some modicum of success by searching online or asking the concierge or somebody at the hotel front desk. Some destinations are definitely not very vegetarian friendly as I found out on my recent trip to Brazil and Bolivia in South America (Brazil is not the most veggie friendly place) – but I usually am able to find at least a couple of suitable places.
When I was in La Paz, Bolivia’s capital city I came across a wonderful Vegetarian restaurant & Art gallery called Namaste. A family owned business, Namaste is relatively new, having opened up only 2 ½ years ago. The menu features a variety of vegetarians entrees and like many restaurants in la Paz, Namaste’s specialty is a set lunch or “plato del dia” (plate of the day). The lunch fare is very cheap, serving sizes are ample and the food is very tasty.
I had the opportunity to have dinner there one night – the food was outstanding (muy sabroso) and very affordable. I had quinoa soup as well as two other plates. The bill amounted to about $6.00USD or so including hot tea.
Scattered around the restaurant, there are some very beautiful and eclectic paintings on display as well as alfresco murals and other artwork. Gonz, the very affable co-owner of Namaste, is an accomplished sculpturer and painter in his own right in addition to being a restaurateur.
I had an opportunity to sit down and interview Gonz about the history of Namaste and how he morphed into Vegetarian Restaurateur after working for many years in mid-level mangement in Corperate America. See video below….
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