Week 22: Peru ~ Food Review
- Mary Kate gKing
- Aug 10
- 5 min read
My wife heard what many from her homeland would consider blasphemy: “The potatoes of Peru are better than Ireland.”
It was a bold comment, especially from someone from Brazil. For the sake of this person, I will leave their identity anonymous.
I must admit, I think her statement has some legs. Peru’s potatoes are awesome. They actually have over 1500 types of potatoes. And this is coming from two people’s whose heritages (Russia & Ireland) have the potato at the center of their culinary universe.
Theres much more to Peru than just its potatoes. Peru is topping the list, with the highest score yet.
Peru Score: 9.4
Surpassing Thailand as the favorite food thus far, Peru elevated to the top spot based on one thing. Obviously, the quality is there. But, the variety is really what puts Peru in its own league. Peru has incredible variety. Large cities, across the world, will always have variety. But that is not what I am talking about here. The Peruvian cuisine weaves in Chinese, Japanese, Italian, seafood, meat, and Latin influences, to create distinct variety, that, at its core, is still Peruvian. I think this stands out in many of its dishes that we were unfamiliar with, yet loved.
Causa: our favorite. A mashed potato cake sandwich that can be filled & topped with anything.
The first time we had causa was “Causa a Cevichada.” We did not know what it was, it was so good, it led us to seek out a food tour that specifically had Causa.
Causa is made by cooking potatoes, with herbs, in a pot. It is not cooked in any water. Once the potato is soft, throughout, you mash up the potato. We added a “peruvian” portion of lime juice, salt, and an aji Amarillo sauce. The sauce was made from yellow peppers. You then press the potato cake thing into the bottom of a mold. Add stuff to the inside, we did quinoa in the class. Add a second layer of potato cake. Top with more/other topping. We did avocado.
We had causa with quinoa, ceviche, shrimp, and a seafood mix. But, you can really have it with anything. Keep reading for the recipe.
Cuy: guinea pig
I made peace with this decision. When I see Chunky again, I am sure he will have some words for me. That, of course, will be after he gets through Mary Kate. I would imagine he may have a few words about the frequency at which his bedding was changed in some of his early years.
The story of Pedrito. Our guide for the Inca Trail had a guinea pig named Pedrito when he was a child. He came home from playing soccer and ate lunch. He said it was good. He went to find Pedrito. He couldn’t find Pedrito. He kept asking is abuela where Pedrito was. She said Pedrito was in his belly.
I thought the way that many Cuy restaurants were marketed was funny. The Cuy restaurants always had a very cute guinea pig looking mascot marketing itself.
Anyways, it was pretty good. Kind of like rabbit, but I thought it was better. Only ordered once due to moral confliction.
Ceviche: Different from the Mexican ceviche. Fish (or other seafood), giant corn, red onion, sweet potato, some greens, maybe some sweet potato chips.
Another must-do when in Peru. It was available everywhere we went with all types of seafood.
Trucha Frita: fried rainbow trout.
Around Cusco, trout is found all over the place. In Lake Titicaca, it is exceptionally hard to catch. That is what was special when our host mom made us her & Ailinda’s favorite dish: Trucha Frita.
Alpaca: we ate his brother, the guanaco, in Chile. It is also possible we ate his protected brother, the llama.
Alpaca is the best of the crew. Alpaca > llama > guanaco > vicuna
I think we had llama. Then again, people in Lima gasped when we said we had llama. I guess it is protected.
Given a vicuna jacket is $10,000, we definitely did not have vicuna.
Chifa: Peruvian x Chinese food derived from the Chinese word: 吃饭 (chī fàn).
You can find Chifa everywhere. Chifa is Chinese food with Peruvian ingredient. Very unique. We got it takeout in Lima. A bunch of Cantonese people came to Peru in the mid 1800’s and that is how Chifa came to be.
Chaufa: Peruvian fried rice, derived from the Chinese word: 炒饭 (chǎo fàn).
We had this, for the first time, at our halfway stop on the Inca trail. It is found all over the country. Special shoutout to our chef on the Inca trail hike. The food he made, out of a tent, was incredible.
Lomo Saltado: wok-stir-fried beef with veggies. Served with rice & papas fritas.
Another Chifa favorite. Made with lomo, or beef tenderloin. Add red onion, tomato, bell pepper, soy sauce.
Choclo: corn
Found as a side, with cheese, in sopas, and in ceviche. The corn is frickin massive. They have nickel sized kernels.
We also got to have some homemade popcorn with our host family. Corn nuts, fried up, served with some cheese.
Quinoa Pancake: breakfast pancake made with quinoa
Prepared by the best chef on Amantani, Dina. Breakfast, served with butter or jam. Thin, crepe-like.
Picarones: Donut
Picarones de Mary in JFK Park in Lima. Try it.
Sopas
Soups were a staple starting dish across the country. The soups on the Inca trail and with our host family on Amantani were some of our favorites. Soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Drinks
Pisco Sour: Peru > Chile
Chilcano: "its name originates from fish broth, specially consumed in order to recover from drunkeness."
Chicha de jora: corn beer. Tastes more like vodka, but sweeter
Chicha Morada: non-alcoholic. Purple corn, pineapple rind, cinnamon, cloves, apple.
Coca Tea: see the blog from two weeks ago for more on Coca leaves
Muña Tea: flower that grows > 12,000 feet. Cures altitude sickness.
HLULs
Nick
High: not getting sick in Peru
Low: not getting to try cow heart or many other antichuchos
Unexpected: how much asian influence there is in the Peruvian cuisine
Learned: in addition to over 1500 types of potatoes, there are over 500 types of corn in Peru
Mary Kate:
High: causa
Low: finding out 3 weeks later that you can't eat llama, not knowing if we ate llama or lomo.
Unexpected: how much I enjoyed the soups and potatoes
Learned: how to make causa, excited to share it with people
Recipes
Off to Experience Camps tomorrow. But, first a pretentious millenial story. We are proud of our newfound habit of not bringing our phones to dinner. We convinced our friend, Beth, to join us in our newfound habit. After a nice dinner, we returned to our Airbnb apartment. I forgot the phone was the only place that had the code to get back into the apartment. Security couldn't do anything. None of us could get into our emails on other peoples phones. An hour later, we finally got Airbnb support on the phone, and we got back in. All is good.
Leave your phone at home and go explore. Just remember your Airbnb code.
And the hits just keep coming :) Welcome back & Good luck at camp in LA!