Dessert Memories in Paraguay

Kivevé: squash and maize

Kivevé is built on andai, a traditional Paraguayan squash. The squash is cooked with maize flour and queso Paraguay into a thick, creamy purée, and ABC Color lists squash, maize flour and sugar as its main ingredients. Última Hora notes that it can be served sweet or savoury; Wikipedia describes the sweet version as a dessert, a breakfast or an afternoon snack, eaten warm or cool from a bowl, and records related dishes called quibebé in neighbouring countries.

It is also a dish Paraguay offers its guests. When Paraguay’s hotel and restaurant associations, with the City of Asunción, agreed a traditional courtesy menu for foreign visitors at the new government’s inauguration in 2013, Última Hora reported, kivevé was among the desserts, alongside dulce de mamón with queso Paraguay and peanuts with cane honey.

Arroz con leche (kamby arro): rice and milk

Arroz con leche is known in Guaraní as kamby arro, from kamby, milk, and arro, rice. ABC Color calls it a regional dessert that is never missing from Paraguayan tables. Wikipedia gives the traditional recipe as rice simmered slowly with milk, water, sugar and lemon peel until creamy, then spooned into small dishes, dusted with cinnamon and served cold.

Dulce de mamón: green papaya in syrup

Mamón is the name used in Paraguay for papaya, and dulce de mamón is made from the fruit while it is still green. In the recipe of Josefina “Chichita” Velilla de Aquino, founder of what Portal Guaraní calls the first institute of culinary art, published in her book Tembi’u Paraguái and reproduced by Portal Guaraní, the peeled and seeded fruit is cut into thick slices and cooked slowly with an equal weight of sugar over two days, until the syrup thickens and the fruit turns glossy. Some cooks first soak the fruit in water with bicarbonate; La Nación also mentions ash, and cinnamon or star anise as flavourings.

The dessert is served in its syrup, often with a slice of queso Paraguay. ABC Color describes mamón with queso Paraguay as one of the most traditional desserts of the Paraguayan home.

Maize, peanuts and cane honey

Maize also turns up at the end of the meal. Mbaipy he’ẽ is a sweet polenta of maize flour cooked with milk and sweetened with cane honey or sugar, while mazamorra, also called kaguyjy, is made with locro boiled in water and milk, sweetened and served with cane honey.

Cane honey, miel de caña or miel negra, appears again in the simplest sweets of all. La Nación lists it with peanuts among the classic easy desserts, and ABC Color describes ka’i ladrillo as a sweet of honey and whole or crushed peanuts. La Nación’s list also includes koserevá, a sweet-and-sour preserve of bitter orange peel cooked with sugar and molasses, eaten on its own or with queso Paraguay.

In Emblem World, the Paraguay dessert collection brings together arroz con leche, dulce de mamón and kivevé, where people discover and rate local food, drink and music.