Where should I eat in Salar de Uyuni, and which local food or drink is worth trying?

That bulletin, published by Bolivia's Ministry of Productive Development around the close of the International Year of Quinoa in December 2013, breaks the crop down by department: Oruro 51 percent, Potosí 38 percent, La Paz 10 percent, and Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Tarija together 0.4 percent. It singles out "quinua real" as a variety grown only in Bolivia and sets it against conventional quinoa. On exports, it reports the United States taking 60 percent of Bolivian shipments that year, with France and the Netherlands each on 7 percent.

The drink to ask for is singani, and the United States has written its definition into federal regulation. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's standard of identity, effective 13 February 2023, requires singani to be a product of Bolivia manufactured under Bolivian law for consumption in Bolivia, bottled at a minimum of 40 percent alcohol by volume, 80 proof. Anything weaker must be labeled "Diluted" singani or sold as a distilled spirits specialty product. The Bolivian standard behind it, NB 324001, requires Vitis vinifera grapes, specifies Muscat of Alexandria for some categories, and sets a minimum altitude of 1,600 m (5,250 ft) for growing the grapes and for preparing, distilling and bottling the spirit.

Supply on the altiplano is the practical issue. FAO's GIEWS brief for Bolivia, reference date 9 September 2026, reports cereal imports of about 441,000 tonnes in 2025/26, roughly 65 percent above the 5-year average, wheat production below average with the planted area at a record low, and diesel shortages slowing harvest work. Wheat flour prices were running up to 30 percent below June 2025 levels and rice prices mostly lower year on year, while retail chicken prices strengthened between March and July 2026.

Singani is not a salar product, and the regulation says so arithmetically. Its 1,600 m minimum altitude is a floor, not a ceiling, but the spirit's traditional zones of origin are valley country far below the 4,200 m-plus lagoons of the southern circuit. Quinoa is the altiplano crop; singani travels up to meet it.

• Bottled, sealed, wiped — The CDC's advice is commercially bottled water in a factory-sealed container, with the outside of cans and bottles wiped clean and dry before opening.
• Hot drinks over cold ones — Beverages made with water that has just been boiled, such as tea or coffee, are generally safe, and at this altitude they are the easy default.
• No ice — Ask for drinks without it unless the water behind it is known to be safe; the CDC is explicit that a spirit poured over bad ice does not disinfect it.

The CDC's higher-risk list is awkward on the altiplano: raw or undercooked meat, fish, shellfish and eggs, unpasteurized milk and dairy, salads, uncooked vegetables, raw or unpeeled fruit and unpasteurized juice. Against that, the safer side of the chapter is a short list: food cooked through and served hot, and fruit you peel for yourself. Vendors and kitchens without reliable refrigeration push the risk the other way. The CDC also warns that water which is cloudy or discolored may carry chemicals that boiling and disinfection will not fix. Away from the towns, FAO's recorded diesel shortages matter more than any menu: a 3-day 4-wheel-drive circuit carries its own fuel and its own food, and the departmental production figures above are from 2013, so they describe where quinoa comes from rather than what this year's crop was.

The Salar de Uyuni when-to-visit answer in this group covers the altitude acclimatization schedule, which has more effect on appetite than anything on a menu, and the things-to-do answer covers the lagoon circuit the food has to travel with you on.