José Antonio Galeano · CC BY-SA 3.0Chipa pirú (chipita)
chipa pirú (pirú = flaco, seco)
Tiny, very crunchy rings under two centimetres across: so dry that, people say, “you can’t stop eating them”.
What it is
Chipa pirú is a small biscuit-like ring no more than two centimetres across and very crunchy. In Guaraní, pirú means thin or lean, and here it translates as “dry”: that dryness is exactly what defines its taste. It is used mostly to go with breakfast and the afternoon snack, and also as a cocktail nibble, which is why it is sometimes called “chipita”. It appears on the list of foods that DINAPI declared Paraguayan gastronomic heritage in 2018.
Ingredients
History
It is one of the varieties catalogued in the “chipa family”, which Wikipedia, citing Margarita Miró, estimates at about 70.
Did you know…?
People say the secret of its flavour lies precisely in the crunch: lose the crunch and you lose the charm.
When
Breakfast, afternoon snack and gatherings; all year.
Where
In bakeries and from street sellers across the country.
Researched and reviewed in September 2026 with 3 sources. A second reviewer checked dates, coordinates and lodging. Hours and prices may change.