Well, I may have eaten rice and/or potatoes every day, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. They were done in so many different ways, and even when cooked in the simplest way they still had so much more flavor than plain old rice and potatoes. So, after one month of living in Peru, I feel that I can safely say to anyone, "You'll love the food!"
As I've mentioned in my earlier posts, I stayed with a host mother in Cusco and really lucked out because she was an AMAZING cook! The meals I had at her home were some of the best I have had in my entire life (and my mom is a very good cook too. But now that I think of it, I have stayed with host-families on four occasions throughout my life, and during each of those I had some incredible, yet simple meals.) There were bread rolls at the table with every meal and we also ended with a dessert, which I learned was something that she was not required to do. (She was just that nice!)
Food is such an important part of culture and travel, so I took a photo of my home-cooked meal every day. And for this, I was often laughed at in the nicest way by my fellow housemates because they thought it was a little strange. But I am so glad that I can look back through those pictures now and relive (and hopefully replicate) some delicious meals!
Since I am vegetarian/pescatarian, my host mother normally modified the main meal, so what I was eating was slightly different from the rest of the table. For example, if everyone else was eating chicken with rice, then I would get eggs, a "fake" meat (the term I use for soy "meat"), or fish. Or sometimes I would just a larger portion of whatever the side dish was, or something altogether different. On a few occasions, everyone at the table ate the same vegetarian meal, though she told me she only did this when our male housemate was not eating with us because she felt he wouldn't be fully satisfied without meat in the meal.
We typically were not told in advance what we were having for dinner, so it was kind of fun not finding out until the meal was served. Here are a few of the most memorable home-cooked meals (in order of when they occurred), some of which I have mentioned before and some I have not:
My first meal - eggs, potatoes, and vegetables. Pretty simple, and based on this I thought my meals over the next month would be fairly basic and plain...
But by dessert I knew that wouldn't be the case! A flat crepe with fruit topping. By the end of my stay I realized that this must have been my favorite dessert because every day afterward I wished this was what we would be having.
A creamy cauliflower "pot pie." Very good, but way more food that I could eat in one meal, especially since my stomach seemed to have shrunk from the high elevation of Cusco.
Cake with chocolate sauce. The other girls went crazy over this since it was their favorite dessert. It was good, but not my favorite, and since I was full anyway I shared most of mine.
Rice with zucchini, peppers, peas, and possibly potatoes, covered in what seemed like a pesto sauce. I never thought of putting pesto on rice. It was good!
Peruvian-style flan. (I think it may also be the same thing as Crema Volteada.) It had the consistency of cake and not the gelatin consistency of traditional flan, which was a good thing because I am not a fan of traditional flan.
One of the times that I received fish instead of meat. I was hesitant to eat it at first because it looked so much like pork, not fish.
Chocolate pudding, which had much more a flan consistency than the flan did.
Quinoa veggie patties and salad. This was probably my favorite meal. (Fun fact: Although quinoa comes from Peru, nowadays it is not very prevalent in Peruvian cooking. Since it has gained so much popularity in other countries for being gluten-free and full of protein, growers feel they are better off selling it for a higher price to overseas buyers. Or at least this is what I was told.)
On our first weekend, my roommates and I learned that breakfast on Sundays was special. (Breakfast was typically bread rolls and jam.) Today it was scrambled eggs and French toast (tostadas francesas), which went perfectly with the maple syrup I brought from home. (Side note: I brought the peanut butter too. Most of my housemates were not fans of peanut butter. It definitely is an American thing.)
The juice selection in Peru is very different from the US. The two most common juices are peach and mango. I drank one or the other every day.
I was quite happy when I was given the leftover quinoa patties for the next dinner, along with papas fritas (fried potatoes.)
Most host mother was really on a roll. Our next meal was Chifa - Peruvian-style Chinese food. She made friend wontons and vegetable fried rice. Everyone loved it! There was no dessert since the fried wontons were an appetizer, but none of us cared since the meal was so good.
Side note: It was probably at this point that I began to feel bad for all of the other students and volunteers that did not have my host mother.
I caught a nasty cold and stayed home from work and school one day. My home stay did not include lunch, but since I was sick my host mother (or perhaps the housekeeper) made me vegetable soup. Like everything else, it was delicious!
One of my soy meat meals, with whipped potatoes.
This tasted just like key lime pie. I'm not a fan of that, but this was pretty good.
Vegetable omelet and rice.
Home-made carrot cake. Good, but would have been even better with some frosting. :) This must have been a massive carrot cake too, because we had it for dessert the following two days.
Papa a la Huancaina, a traditional Peruvian dish always served with hard-boiled egg and an olive.
A different style of veggie patties, which seemed like they were partly pancakes. Good, but nowhere near as good as the quinoa ones. I did however come to realize that I love the broccoli carrot salad. (It was a cold salad of grated carrots, lightly steamed broccoli, and vinaigrette.) I was delighted when this made an appearance at quite a few meals afterward.
Well would you look at that. The carrot cake now has some frosting.
Chifa! Chifa! This time it was vegetable lo mein. I could have ate a whole nother bowl of this!
Alfajores, a traditional dessert. It is a caramel-ish filling between two cookies covered in powdered sugar. I thought it was alright. The flavor of the filling wasn't quite what I expected though.
Cauliflower with some sort of batter and a salad of avocado and tomatoes. Loved it!
Dessert was a crepe-style pancake. I topped it with my maple syrup. It was so good that I came to the conclusion that I should end every meal with a pancake.
Dessert was vegan chocolate mousse, which was very good. She said it had a secret ingredient and had us all guess what it was. After many tries, my Brazilian housemate guessed correctly. Avocado!
I also had many incredible meals at local restaurants also. Cusco actually has a wide variety of offerings if you look hard enough, and the prices (mostly outside of the central tourist area) are so incredibly cheap that I typically felt like a thief, getting so much for so little. Most restaurants had at least one vegetarian meal, though there were times when I had to get creative when ordering or settle for just rice or papas fritas.
During a lunch break with my schoolmates, we ended up at a place that surprisingly did not have any vegetarian or pescatarian items. I ended up ordering chicken salad, which came with avocado, and a side of white rice. I gave the chicken salad to my friend and ate the rest. As plain as this seems, it was actually very good!
Many of the restaurants offered two or three course meals. The first course was typically soup or some type of appetizer. The second course was a main dish. The third course was either a refresco (flavored watery beverage) or dessert.
I must have eaten trout at least five times during my month-long stay. So basic yet so yummy!
One of my favorite restaurants in Cusco was a hole-in-the-wall looking place from the outside. I am not sure of the name of it, but it was located a couple blocks from the main plaza, and right next to the most popular American-style restaurant, Jack's Café (which I never ate at, by the way.)
They offered three-course meals for only 7 soles (less than $3.) Simply amazing! On this visit, I chose the cream of carrot soup to start.
Some of the main dishes - trout with rice and lentils, spaghetti napolitana, and ratatouille with rice. Guess which one is mine?
Finished off by a refresco. It seemed to have a pineapple-orange flavor.
Not all of the "set menu" restaurants were winners though. One that we tried had an 8 soles menu that seemed to be popular with the locals. I barely ate my potato soup because it turned out there was meat in it.
Once again I chose trout for my main course. It was fine, but definitely the worst of all that I had. Also, the potatoes (or what I assumed were potatoes) had a strange flavor and texture. The refresco was barley. It was alright and tasted a bit like tea.
This meal also came with a complimentary dessert buffet. Upon looking at the way the dessert was served though, I decided not to partake since it did not seem to be quite sloppy and unsanitary
Side note: While traveling abroad, when in doubt don't eat it!!! So many times on this trip, my friends ended up getting violently ill from things they knew they shouldn't have eaten.
After I began taking classes and volunteering, I often ate lunch by myself because I had limited time and my schedule didn't match up well with anyone else. So, I decided to try the Chifa restaurant near my home. This was noodles with vegetables. It was pretty tasty and a huge serving!
Another day for lunch I tried a mushroom empanada from a cute coffee shop close to school. It was alright, but nowhere near as good as I thought it would be, especially considering that it was a little pricey for Cusco standards.
I decided to eat at the mall food court another day. Vegetarian options were very limited, so I chose a pasta place. It was actually pretty good. The meal included a fountain soda, so I got a Pepsi. After a few sips though, it dawned on me that the water used for soda fountain may not be purified water. So I didn't drink anymore. Plus, this was the first Pepsi or Coke I had drank in months since I'd been doing a very good job at avoiding soda altogether. (Side note: This realization about the water also made me think twice about all of the refrescos that I had already drank on this trip.)
Cusco has a few vegetarian restaurants. I hit one up for lunch (alone again) called El Encuentro and ordered a veggie burger and fries. It was pretty good. This restaurant even included a free salad bar. Since I was trying to stay on the safe side and eat as few fresh vegetables as possible, I chose not to partake in the salad bar. I also did not eat the lettuce on my burger. I did however eat the tomatoes, since those were peeled. (Side note: At almost every restaurant, you receive your silverware and [tiny] napkins in a basket.)
I heard great things about a trendy pizza place near the plaza called La Bodega 138. So I checked it out with my American classmate on our last day of class together. Each table was given complimentary bread, sauces, and olives. It was so good that I could have just eaten that and been satisfied.
We got a margarita pizza and it was good too. The other customers were all English-speakers, so I guess this place is popular with the tourists (surprise, surprise.)
At the end of the meal, they gave out Chicha Morada hard candy. Chicha Morada is a traditional Peruvian sweet, non-alcoholic beverage made from purple corn. Since the corn is boiled with cinnamon and clove, it has a similar flavor to spiced apple cider. The wrapper on the left is from the restaurant. After much searching, I was lucky enough to find some similar candy (on the right) at a grocery store in Lima.
There are two restaurants in Cusco that I absolutely loved. The first was Aldea Yanapay, which offered a daily vegetarian buffet lunch. (I mentioned this restaurant in one of my first posts.) The items changed daily too, so it was worth checking out again and again, though due to time constraints I only got to eat here three times.
Meal on my first visit.
On my second visit, our table was on a balcony overlooking the rest of the restaurant.
The menus are playfully within the pages of children's books.
In addition to serving good food, they also do good things!
My third visit was with my Peruvian friend who had never eaten here before. She was in the mood for something light and fresh, so I thought this would be perfect. She ended up liking it a lot!
Me and my Peruvian friend, Diana.
The second restaurant was discovered during the walking tour I took one Saturday afternoon with my roommate. La Boheme (also known as La Bo'M) is a creperie and all-around cute place! I ate here twice and told many of my "new" friends about how good it was. Both times I ordered the same savory crepe, and unfortunately they were so big that I didn't have room in my stomach to try a dessert crepe also. Lesson learned. If I ever go back, I am starting with a dessert crepe!
It was very crowded when we arrived. I took this photo when things died down right before we left.
Our cute little booth for two!
"La Mika" crepe. Caramelized onions, mushrooms, cheese, olives, basil, and tomatoes.
How to find it.
One night, my Belgian, Norwegian, and Brazilian housemates raved about a restaurant they wanted us all to go to called Chili's. After a few seconds, it dawned on me that they said Chili's. Surely they didn't mean "Chili's" Chili's? When we got there (and by there, I mean the only local shopping mall), I realized that they did in fact mean "Chili's" Chili's. I can't even remember the last time I ate at a Chili's. It has probably been well over 9 years. My American housemate and I couldn't believe we were there. How cliché for the Americans to go to Chili's while traveling abroad. I must admit, it was nice reading an American-style menu, though I was not thrilled about the American-style prices. Also, the only vegetarian meal on the entire menu was fajitas, so fajitas it was!
Their "after dinner mints" were cherry-eucalyptus flavored Halls. Um, okay. I guess they knew that almost everyone in town had a cold.
There weren't too many American restaurants in Cusco. The Plaza de Armas had a McDonald's, KFC, and Starbucks. The other American restaurants were at the Real Plaza shopping mall, including Chili's, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, and another Starbucks and KFC. Here are some of the others:
Now, I can't write a post about Peruvian food without also mentioning Pisco, the famous Peruvian liquor. (I say Peruvian liquor because this is what all Peruvians claim no matter what Chileans might say. After all, the liquor is named after a city in Peru, not Chile.) Pisco can be drank as a shot or in a cocktail, as in Pisco Sour. You will often be asked by locals, "Have you tried Pisco yet?"
In Cusco, there is even a Pisco museum (Museo del Pisco.) My friends and I were told though that it was actually a bar and not a museum. We had to see for ourselves, and yes, they were right. There were a few distillation relics, but other than that this place was just a trendy place to get Pisco at an expensive price.
Yep, definitely a bar.
It did have some great views though.
Looking out from one of Cusco's characteristic narrow balconies.
The view below the balcony.
While you wait you are given a small bowl of cancha/maiz chulpe canchitas to munch on. They are toasted corn kernels covered in salt...and they are highly addictive!
Our two Pisco cocktails. A traditional Pisco Sour and a fancy pineapple mixed drink. I wasn't expecting the Pisco Sour to be so large, and so strong! It was a good thing that we split these drinks among 4 people considering it was the late afternoon.
Oh, and last but not least, in case you are wondering, the ice cream in Cusco is very good!
2 comments:
Where's the cuy?
I just cuydn't do it!
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