Peruvian Food

This is just about 3 months (by which I mean I have no idea when I said I would do this but it was awhile ago) after I promised a food of Peru post. I’m sure that in was an agonizing wait to read the word delicious over and over since that is how I tend to describe food rather than with synonyms or the flavors of the dish. I promise not to shortchange on the use of delicious.

Let’s just say that the food is scrumptious here. In the land of beans and rice, I couldn’t be happier. Most of my experiences come from eating at the Albergue and it has mainly all been great except for the days that they make soup (who wants to eat soup when it’s hot) and a dish with government issued tuna. Best and the rest from the Albergue cooks:

Lomo Saltado: It does not get better than lomo saltado. I would compare it to a stir fry except 10 times more delicious. Strips of beef fried with onions and tomatoes in a delicious marinade mixed with papas fritas and thrown on top of rice. I really hope they make it tomorrow, being it my last day and all.

Aji de Gallina: A spicy, creamy, cheesy sauce with shredded chicken on top of rice. If you put spicy and cheesy together in the same description, you’ve won me over.

Ceviche: Always fantastic and something I looked forward to before coming down here. Not as good as I remember it being in Costa Rica, but fish cooked with nothing but lime juice cannot be bad. Plus it’s spicy.

Arroz con frijoles: A staple at the albergue and I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. The beans change from lentils to black eyed peas to red beans to pinto beans. And I almost always throw aji on top, which I haven’t yet described as the sauce that will make just about any dish better. The aji pepper, native to Peru, makes a fantastic spicy sauce that I coat my food with.

Papas Rellanas: A stuffed and fried mashed potato ball. Stuffed with a little meat and egg with aji of course.

Tamales: They make a mean tamale here. The last one I had contained so much flavor in the corn meal section that I didn’t need to get to the stuffing.

Sopa: The one thing (besides the government tuna) that I don’t really eat here. I just haven’t felt like soup when its 80 with an intense sun.

Food from the outside – The food is just as good on the outside as well, especially the street food.

The Terminator: Almost as bad for you as the greasy five meat and cheese sandwich I would make when working at the Pizza Pub in high school. Three layers of meat/protein on this. Regular hamburger patty, a scrambled egg patty with sausage mixed in, and a chorizo sausage topping. This is rare for me to say, but it doesn’t even need cheese (although it would make it better). $2 for a complete meal (which of course means that it fills you up not that you get all of your necessary food groups, although there are tomatoes on it).

Cow heart and chicken skewers: A fantastic street food. Tender meat with a savory marinade with an aji topping.

Fresh squeezed orange juice: One of the things I will miss every Sunday. There are lots of stands on the street offering squeezed in front of you juice. The oranges down here are a lot more citrus, not so sweet, and I love it. That lady next to the bakery is going to miss my business.

Pollo a la brasa: This is a Peruvian staple as there are about 5 pollo a la brasa restaurants for every other kind of restaurant. Roasted chicken with a delicious marinade. They really do roasted chicken quite well.

Chicha morada and other things they let rot in the ground: I unfortunately (unfortunately for the experience, probably fortunate for my stomach health) never got to try chicha morada. It is a beer made from corn. The corn is chewed and then spit out. It ferments from the spit and the bacteria in your mouth. I have seen pictures of it and it does not look right. I didn’t get any because it is mainly a mountain thing and I never was able to find any when I was up in the mountains. They think it helps with stomach ailments. Like producing said stomach ailments. They also think that eating potatoes that they have let rot in the ground until they have fermented is good for that as well. I have smelled those and it was not pleasant.

Cuy: Your favorite pet rodent served roasted and with the paws and head still attach, no fur. The guinea pig is a culinary favorite and while not tasting that bad, it was actually difficult for me to get over the fact that I was eating guinea pig. There was nothing super good or super bad about it. It was like any other chicken tasting animal.

And that’s the food of Peru. I feel a little bit like Homer Simpson, I like everything (which would have been an absurd statement for me to say probably just 3 years ago). So the moral is that if you go to Peru, EAT.

Anabel Visit

Anthony and I visited Anabel (I’ll spell it correctly now and not the previous gringo way) on Saturday in her new home in Pacanga. It turned out to be one of the most rewarding days that I have had in Peru. I knew the day that she left, that it was a happy day but this confirmed it. To see the love she was receiving and how perfectly content she is was incredibly uplifting.

We had quite the 2 and a half hour journey up there, complete with multiple vague directions from Peruvians and a mototaxi ride that took us through field roads and had Anthony telling the driver at the end, “Thanks for not robbing us.” Anabel’s parents have a nice, modest home in a community of about 5,000 and have a small tienda at the front of their home. Anabel had one of her new friends over when we arrived and despite hoping for a running hug, I got what I expected; the same shy little girl that I remembered. It took her a few minutes to warm up and then she gave me a hug and even if I had been hoping for an immediate reaction, looking back on it I would not have it any other way.

Her father showed us the house and showed us the new bedroom he was building for Anabel. In every word he said, even if I couldn’t understand the exact meaning, you could sense how happy he was to have Anabel in his life. The father and mother told us about the adoption process. They had started it two years ago and only in the last two weeks of the process did any of it involve Anabel. The whole thing happened very quickly for them once they were approved.

They served us flan and I broke out the presents that I had for her. The first present came from the house that she had lived at here. The madre and the children all wrote her a little something and she teared up after reading that. I broke out the camera and she went nuts with it again, remembering exactly how to use it. They showed us her first marks from her first week of school (perfect), told us how she never watches TV and just wants to read (which is why I brought her books), and told us how she’s always asking to help in the shop or help her new father with his work. They were beaming new parents.

Towards the end of our stay, the father asked me multiple times when I was going to return and was truly happy that we had come to visit. I think that those words may be the tipping point in getting me to return to Peru someday, at least for a short period. Seeing Anabel off this time was quite different from the first time. I was not nearly as sad and instead I was extremely happy. I could leave knowing she could live happily in a loving home. It’s strange how such a short visit can leave such a lasting good feeling. Short visits with my family feel the same way and they certainly made me feel like family. As I said, an uplifting day.

P.S. I know it looks as though the parents aren't happy in the photo. Peruvians have a difficult time with the whole smiling in photos. Think of your great grandparents wedding photos.