People back home might be wondering what I’m eating (or even worrying about whether or not I have enough to eat—Hi Babcia!). Trust me that I am eating very well, sometimes maybe a little too well! Portions here tend to be pretty big. The biggest difference between meals here and in the US is the timing—lunch at 12 or 1 is the biggest meal of the day, and dinner is more of a snack/lunch around 7-8 pm.
My favorite part of Peruvian food so far is all of the fresh, local fruit: even a boring banana (or plátano) tastes better here. I’m also living near Santa Eulalia, the self-proclaimed palta (avocado) capital of the world. While I have no evidence to back up their claim, the palta and red onion sandwiches that I often eat for breakfast are really delicious. I also really love papaya, and don’t even get me started on the mangos. I just ate one. It was ammmaaazing!!
My other favorite part about Peruvian food: Peruvians are big on sharing. ¡Invíteme! (Invite me to have some!). The downside is that if I have a pack of 8 cookies and am sitting with 7 other people, I will probably only get to eat 1 after I invitar (invite) everyone around me to have some. But then I also get to steal other people’s snacks. Caitlin has yet another delicious mango? ¡Invíteme, Caitlin! Someone is eating crackers? ¡Invíteme! We definitely are abusing the phrase, shouting ¡ Invíteme! as soon as food appears or is won during class, but it’s fun!
Probably my least favorite part of the Peruvian diet is all of the carbs—even though most everything is tasty, it’s not always the healthiest. Even fruit has a lot of sugar, and little rolls of white bread goes with everything—they’re fresh baked and probably don’t have a lot of preservatives in them, but no whole grains, either. Saltines and tostada (pre-toasted white bread—basically giant crotons which I pretty much use as a vessel for eating butter and jelly, which for some reason I’m in love with lately) are also popular.
My breakfasts are usually instant coffee (which isn’t amazing, but definitely better than some of the instant I’ve had in the states!), palta or fried camote (sweet potatoes) sandwiches, and some kind of freshly made fruit juice—papaya, plátano, fresa (strawberry), or mandarina (big mandarin oranges). If you want the best accompaniment to breakfast ever, just throw some fruit and a tiny bit of water or milk in a blender. It’s like magic! I’ve also had fried yuca (like a potato but a little drier/even more starchy) or potato French fries coated with egg in the morning.
My lunches vary, but usually have a base of white rice, noodles or potatoes. Chicken is really popular—sometimes breaded and fried into a patty, like a thin chicken burger (I’m blanking on what that’s called), other times plain or with some kind of sauce. My favorites so far have been chicken and rice with a peanut-based sauce (pollo de maní, I think), and pachamanca, which is chicken, beef, potatoes, camote, and some veggies slow cooked with a whole bunch of herbs—mmmm! I’ve also had lentils or beans and rice a few times, and noodles with soy sauce and veggies (fidellos chinos). Popular vegetables include broccoli, zanahorias (carrots—I love that word), lots of red onion, cucumbers, and choclo, which is essentially yellow corn on steroids—the kernels are at least 3 times the size of those in the states. I had a salad made out of beets, zanahoria, and potatoes once, too, that was pretty delicious. And ají goes with everything--a hot sauce made out of some kind of pepper--it’s really good on pretty much everything from chicken to potatoes to soup.
Dinner, as I said, is usually small, which took a little getting used to—the first week I couldn’t come close to finishing my lunch and then ended up eating a lot (lot!) of tostada for dinner. Now, I still don’t always finish my lunch (big portions!) but I’m used to having the smaller meal at night. My host mom usually makes some kind of sweetened oatmeal out of a few different grains, including corn (they call it polenta, but I don’t think Italians would approve of this sweet, soupy version), or soup with chicken, chicken feet (actually really delicious) noodles, rice or barely, to go with my tostada and tea. Twice I’ve also had mazamora de… something… which is essentially warm Jello that hasn’t set yet, mixed with a little bit of flour or something to make it a little thicker. If you think that sounds bizarre, it is pretty odd, but does taste good.
Even more bizarre—tonight I was at another volunteer’s house around dinner and was offered, yes, sheep’s stomach. It was actually really tasty—cut into small pieces, it was kind of chewy like calamari, and it was cooked with potatoes, carrots and lots of tasty spices. Different, but definitely delicious. I still haven’t tried cuy (guinea pig) or anticuchos (animal heart on a stick with sauce?), two Peruvian specialties, but I’m sure I will before my two years are up!
As far as drinks go, I try to stick to water (boiled, of course) to avoid eating more sugar, but I have tried chicha morada, a dark purple drink made out of maíz morada (dark purple corn) and lots of sugar. Inca Cola is a popular cotton-candy flavored pop that I am kind of glad I don’t like, because it has even more sugar than a Coke.
Something I will probably miss from the US is the beer—cerveza here is really cheap, but also really sweet. It’s no Sam Addams or Goose Island for sure. Sad. I did try pisco and Coke last weekend (piscola!) and a sip of a pisco sour, which was pretty delicious—I don’t know how pisco tastes plain, but it’s a hard alcohol distilled from grapes.
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