Dawn Cart · Purple Corn Drink & Fried Pastry

Api con Pastel

📷 Closely related photo — Photo via Pexels/Unsplash — free for commercial use

Vendors start ladling api as early as 5 a.m. — arrive late and the pot is already scraped clean.

Api is a thick, hot drink made by simmering ground purple corn with cinnamon, cloves, and sugar until it turns a deep violet. It's ladled into a cup and sold alongside pastel, a thin disc of dough deep-fried until it puffs and blisters, then stuffed with melted cheese and dusted with sugar for dunking.

Why it's made this way: The purple corn (maíz morado) used for api is an Andean variety cultivated since pre-Columbian times, and the piping-hot drink was designed specifically to fight the cold mornings of La Paz's high-altitude streets.