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A Peruvian (non)Thanksgiving Epiphany
It’s Friday, November 26, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States but which, in Peru, is just November 26. We don’t celebrate Turkey Day or Black Friday in this Andean nation of 30 million people. No pilgrims landed here. Just conquistadors. The locals were eating cuy, not turkey, when Pizarro invaded the place and smashed the Inca Empire. The conquistadors weren’t big on saying Thanks. They just grabbed. I was feeling unexpectedly sad yesterday morning. It was my third Non-Thanksgiving Day in Peru, and you think I would have gotten over it, but I hadn’t. What made my disappointment a surprise is that I’ve never been big on the holiday. Back in the…
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Afro-Peruvian Cooking Queen in Lima this Sunday
Mamainé will be cooking in La Molina this Sunday. If that news doesn’t make your mouth water, then you don’t know Chincha and you don’t know El Carmen and you certainly don’t know carapulcra con sopa seca. Mamainé is the Queen of Afro-Peruvian cuisine. Her restaurant in the El Carmen district of Chincha is the hub of local Afro-Peruvian culture, where dance, music and good food are celebrated daily. (See this over-exposed video for a glimpse of the Queen dancing in her own restaurant.) El Fotografo says her seco de cabrito (kid) and seco de carne (beef) are the best he’s ever had. Ditto Mamainé’s frijoles, which “melt in your mouth,” he says. EF…
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French Fries vs. Choclo and Boiled Potatoes: Why Peruvians Aren’t Fat
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this week about obesity in the United States vs. weight and nutrition in Peru. We’re currently exploring these topics in the conversation class I teach at UPC (see class blog, here), but really, they’ve been on my mind since I moved to Peru from Florida in July 2007. Why is it now normal to be fat in the United States? And why do you rarely see an obese person in Peru? After living here for two years, I know why: We Americans regularly eat fried, processed foods, many of them in huge qualities. In contrast, Peruvians’ regular diet tends to consist of fresh food and dishes made…
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Peruvian ‘Viagra’ Soup: Does It Hoist Your Sail or Is It Just a Crock of Chupe?
Yesterday's post on the medicinal powers of chilcano de pescado led to my discovering a Peruvian restaurant in Chicago that's serving up a traditional fish soup as a wonder aphrodesiac. Taste of Peru in Rogers Park is touting its seafood-crammed "Sopa de Viagra" as a "natural elixir to jump-start the love life," reports the Chicago Sun Times. And at $25 a serving, the lovers' soup competes with U.S. pharmacy prices for the little blue pill:
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Peru’s Answer to Jewish Penicillin: Chilcano de Pescado
Chilcano de pescado, as made by Gaston Acurio I need my Jewish chicken-noodle soup in the wintertime. I grew up on the U.S. East Coast, where delis and diners and Jewish moms cook up barrels of this fragrant, healing soup all year long. Then I moved to Miami where at gourmet delis like Epicure, you can buy big jars of delicious matzoh-ball soup that will cure you overnight of colds, bronchitis, pneumonia. I’ve been restored from the Dead with homemade chicken soup glistening with beads of kosher chicken fat. Then, a year and a half ago, I moved to Peru where there are like, 3,000 Jews in the entire country and no…
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El Corazón Es Un Músculo (The Heart Is a Muscle)
I used to think that France was the most food-obsessed nation on earth. Then I moved to Peru. Life halts twice a day in France for the gastronomic liturgies of le déjeuner and le dîner. Then the French people refold their napkins and return to the all-consuming business of being French: ie., being frighteningly exact about money, arguing about philosophy and literature, and dressing better than everyone else except the Italians. Here in Peru, however, food consciousness–preparing, eating, talking, thinking about food–goes on 24/7. Peruvians discuss food with a singular intensity and concentration — and I mean all Peruvians, all the time. I sometimes believe that you could wake a Peruvian from a dead sleep, and in less than two minutes…
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Like Your Ice Cream Spicy Hot? Peruvian Flavors Challenge Taste Buds
The odd blend of flavors exploded on my tongue: Sweet strawberry and hot jalapeno. Yikes! Welcome to ice cream in the Land of the Inca, where jaded taste buds are courted by unusual and sometimes explosive flavor combinations. The ice cream that sent me running for ice water a few days ago was a neon-orange product called Sin Parar Hot (“Non Stop Hot”). It’s a cup of highly sweetened strawberry ice cream spiked with spicy flavor bombs — a weird combination that Nestle/D’Onofrio dreamed up to appeal to kids and teens. El Híjo was introduced to it by his 24-year-old cousin, who has a weak spot for Dunkin Donuts and trendy…
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Vote for the 7 Gastronomic Wonders of Peru
Peru has discovered the marketing power of the voter-powered “Best of” list. The trend began in 2007 when a global poll of 100 million voters chose Machu Picchu as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. The prestige and tourism revenues generated by that honor inspired Peru to mount its own contest to name the 7 Wonders of Peru. Winning sites include the Inca baths of Cajamarca, Colca Canyon and the Kuelap Fortress in the Amazon. (Given its status as a World Wonder, Machu Picchu was not eligible for nomination.) Now a group called Acidoungusto Comunicaciones is sponsoring an online poll to determine the Seven Gastronomic Wonders of Peru (las 7 maravillas…
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Peru Food Up Close: Mushrooms and Figs at Surquillo No. 1
Giant porcini mushrooms, figs and blackberries for sale this week at Surquillo Market No. 1, Lima; photo by Barbara Drake My eye was caught by this remarkable fresh produce for sale at the local market in Surquillo. The porcini mushrooms (“hongo funghi”) are enormous. Black figs like those on the bottom are now in season. Blackberries are rare in Peru. Within the next year, the proletariat Mercado No. 1 will undergo a massive renovation. It is being turned into a gastronomical destination by Peruvian superchef Gaston Acurio. The same stands will be selling produce on the ground floor; the second and third floors are being transformed into a food court and…
