Horacio Cambeiro · CC BY-SA 3.0Chipa almidón
chipa aramirõ
Paraguay’s daily bread: a ring or roll of cassava starch, cheese and anise, best eaten warm.
What it is
Classic chipa is a dough of cassava (mandioca) starch, queso Paraguay, eggs, fat (traditionally pork) or butter, milk and anise, baked in a tatakua (a traditional clay-and-brick oven) or a regular oven. It is firm outside and slightly chewy inside, and at its very best fresh from the oven. You buy it from women selling from baskets, at roadside chiperías and in bakeries, and it goes with the morning cocido (toasted yerba mate tea) or a tereré round.
Ingredients
History
It descends from mbuyapé, the Cario-Guaraní bread of corn or cassava with fat mentioned by 16th-century chroniclers, and took its present form once cheese, eggs and milk were added. Some seventy varieties have been recorded. Law 5267/2014 declared it a traditional food of Paraguay, and since 2015 the second Friday of August has been National Chipa Day. In 2017 the national intellectual property office (DINAPI) recognized Coronel Bogado as the Chipa Capital.
Did you know…?
The chipera, the vendor carrying her basket on her head, is such an Asunción icon that she has her own mural in the Loma San Jerónimo neighborhood.
When
Every day, especially at breakfast and afternoon tea; it multiplies during Holy Week and on National Chipa Day (second Friday of August).
Where
Coronel Bogado (Itapúa), the National Chipa Capital, and Eusebio Ayala (Cordillera); street vendors all over the country.
Researched and reviewed in September 2026 with 6 sources. A second reviewer checked dates, coordinates and lodging. Hours and prices may change.