We Want to Be Your Solution for All Things Potato
- Delicious purple Peruvian potatoes
Potatoes are a big deal in Peru. The Peruvan Andes were the birthplace of the potato, and today Peruvian farmers cultivate more than 3,000 native varieties of them — potatoes with names like Ica Huila and Purple Viking and Wilja.
The United Nations has declared 2008 “the International Year of the Potato,” and this event is being celebrated in gastronomic festivals, restaurants and stores throughout Peru.
Peruvians are passionate about potatoes and spend a lot of time preparing and eating them. This is not a country where you can get away with serving inferior spuds. Peruvians know a good potato when they eat one. Now that I’ve lived here for a year, I’ve developed papas consciousness, too.
That’s why I got on this rant, several weeks ago, about McDonald’s restaurants in Peru serving french fries made with Canadian potatoes. It’s counterintuitive — like serving wines from New Jersey vineyards in a Sedona Valley wine bar, or opening a seafood restaurant in Maine featuring dishes made with surimi, that faux Japanese shellfish product.
With superior ingredients at your doorstep, why not use them?
During the process of uncovering where McDonald’s Peru sources its potatoes, I contacted an international trade group called PotatoPro, which has its headquarters in Canada. I sent them an e-mail and didn’t hear back, so I chased down the information elsewhere.
Now, several weeks later, I receive this email:
Dear Barbara,
Welcome to PotatoPro.
You are now subscribed to PotatoPro. You will receive our weekly PotatoPro Newsletter and information on new Products and Services for Potato Processing Professionals.
We want to be your one-stop Solution for all things Potato Processing.We offer Equipment, Market Research, Books and the Latest News. Find it on the PotatoPro site or contact us.
Best Regards,
Paul van Eijck
Food Innovation Online
I’m touched by this e-mail. When I woke up this morning, I had no idea that I was about to be welcomed to the PotatoPro fold and enveloped in its community of Potato Processing Professionals.
The e-mail does not explain where the potatoes used in Peruvian McDonald’s restaurants come from, but apparently, that’s not the point, from the PotatoPro perspective.
The point has something to do with Capitalized Nouns and alliterations and having a powerful organization on my side in my quest for All Things Potato Processing.
Obviously, some formal response is required on my part.
Thinking it over, I’ve decided to change my name for one day.
Parparpa Prake, Potato Processing Professional.
Barbara
I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.
3 Comments
"el kibitzer"
barb,
leave to the “gringos” to come up with another use for “papas”; the spud gun:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
when i as a kid in peru, we used to extract a bit of a potato into the end of an empty ball pen cartridge, then shoot it by blowing into the other end. when i visited cuzco a few years ago i often heard the tourists say how the indigenous peruvians would never starve, referring to the abundance of potatoes.”que vivan las papas’
"el kibitzer"
barb,
a better use for peruvian potatoes, i found this emeril recipe in the food network site:
Peruvian Purple Potato Chips with Cilantro Aioli
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/peruvian-purple-potato-chips-with-cilantro-aioli-recipe/index.html
bon appetit!, or enjoy!, or buen provecho!
Barb
The recipe looks yummy; I’ll have to give it a try.