There are three simple rules when planning a trip to Pike Pizza (which doesn’t actually serve pizza) on Columbia Pike in Arlington: Arrive hungry; Arrive early; Hog the salteñas.

Usually available right when the restaurant opens and only in limited supply, salteñas are a version of empanadas, turnovers with your choice of meat combined with potatoes, peas, olives, and a hard-boiled egg. The chicken tends to complement the other ingredients better than the beef, but both are worth trying if you can your hands on one of each. One quirk with the salteña: its ingredients are not well-distributed inside of the bread, thus any one bite may contain some chicken and another the whole olive (thankfully pitted). Essentially, every bite contains a surprise.

As for other choices, Pike Pizza’s menu yields no shortage of proteins, which are cooked in traditional Bolivian fashion (pounded thin and fried or roasted) and served with rice or potatoes. Potatoes are one of the biggest crops grown in Bolivia (well, after a certain leaf) and local cuisine is known for its various methods of potato preparation. The most popular preparation on the menu is the chuno, which is an Andean freeze-dried potato and served as a side to most of the meat dishes.