Dinner is served...

Having been in Peru for almost 2 months, I’ve already gotten to try many of the traditional Peruvian dishes, and I have to say…so far so good. My motto is to always try something at least once. I haven’t said no to anything yet, and I haven’t regretted it either. 

Peru’s culinary dishes are a bit of a mixture, as is the Peruvian culture in general. A lot of the dishes have changed throughout the decades, but many were formed from the slaves. The story goes that the slaves were given the “leftovers,” so to speak, from the animals while the Spaniards ate the good meat. “Leftovers” included all innards and the organs. So today, some of Peru’s famous dishes include cow heart (anticucho), intestines (relleno), and much, much more. 

So here are my two cents, or in Peru, shall I say mi dos semillas:

Pollo a la Brasa

This is basically roasted chicken with a side of fries. There is a chain restaurant called “Norky’s,” which is quite popular. So much so that there are many knock-off restaurant, my favorite is “Dorky’s.” I’ve eaten here twice and I have to say that the meat is especially tender and delicious, although some vegetables on the side beside the French fries would give me a few days before my next heart attack.

Cuy

Yes, Cuy, or Guinea Pig in English, is a delicacy in Peru. When people ask me if we eat cuy in the United States, I delightfully inform them that no actually, Guinea Pigs are pets. I’m just glad I never had a guinea pig growing up or I think it would be much harder to choke it down. My family made “Cuy de Picante” one night and it was RI-CO. I’m pretty sure it was the sauce they put it in. It had a peanut base and of course Aji, so it had a little bite to it, but I just couldn’t get enough. My family has very impressed because this was the first time I had seconds. Cuy tastes a lot like chicken, as do many things, and my only pet peeve is that there are a lot of little bones, but it’s definitely worth the time. Cuy is more of a Sierra thing, where supposedly it is not uncommon to find hair in your soup or even brains. MMMmmm can’t wait.

Sangrecita

So this is a dish that I actually tried before knowing it and I’m glad of my ignorance. Our class took a trip to a “Wawa Wasi” or child daycare basically, and got to sample some of the food they give the kids. We were given this vegetable mixture with dark flakes over rice. After the first bite, it wasn’t half bad, so I asked what was in it….(Drum roll please)….Chicken Blood! Sangrecita is just a mixture of vegetables and blood of some sort. Not only did I sample Sangrecita, but I also had chocolate mousse with blood, and picharones with blood. Now I have to give props to the Peruvian government, they are getting pretty creative on ways to prevent anemia in children, so good call on their part.

Lucuma

So one glorious day at “La Agraria,” we spent tasting all the tropical fruit of the “Selva” (Jungle). Seriously, the best day ever. And on that day, we got to sample the illusive lucuma! Lucuma is everywhere….lucuma flavored yogurt, ice cream, cookies, etc. The only problem was that I never had actually seen a real lucuma. Turns out it’s hard to find when it’s not in season (April-June…duly noted), but thanks to the excellent helpers at “La Agraria,” we got to taste it. Lucuma is kind of like a sweet acorn squash, only really dry, but once you get a mouth full, it’s hard to choke it down. I don’t think anything will take the place of my favorite fruit, Chirimoya, but Lucuma comes in a close second.

Ceviche

So if you have ever talked to anyone from Peru, they will always recommend you try Ceviche. Ceviche is basically raw fish or seafood soaked in lemon juices to “cook” it. Our teachers were wary of us trying this in the first few weeks of training, but they finally broke down half way through and took us to La Punta, near Lima, which juts out into the sea and is surrounded by the Pacific on both sides. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it since eating raw fish on sushi kind of grosses me out, but I sucked it up for the sake of the experience and tried it. Again, I was pleasantly surprised. I actually….liked it! It’s hard to describe, but the fish was just so tender and the sauce it was in contained aji, of course, so there was a kick in it as well. Luckily, my stomach agreed with me as well, so I didn’t have any problems afterwards. So don’t worry, I’m still not about of the “70%” club…yet…

Picharones

Picharones are Peru’s answer to “Dunkin Donuts.” They are made of sweet potatoes, squash, and flour and then deep fat fried and served with honey. MMMMmmm Good! I’ve had these a few times. Once with another volunteer’s host mom who prepared them for us and another at the Wawa Wasi (with blood ofcourse), but both times were amazingly good. My plan is to learn the recipe and replicate them in the states…try to give “Dunkin Donuts” a run for their money.

Aji de Gallina

This was one of the first dishes I tried in Peru, and actually also the first meal in Peru that I cooked as well! My Spanish class helped with the preparation of “Aji de Gallina,” which is basically pulled chicken with an aji-creamed based. The part I was surprised the most was when the recipe asked for crumbled up saltine crackers mixed in with water and milk. I thought that was kind of odd, but it added some thickness to the sauce.  The pulled chicken is added to the pulled chicken and then poured over cooked potatoes and topped off with a hardboiled egg and olive.  Delectable.

Foods still to try:

Panchamanca (meats of all kind buried underneath the ground surrounded my hot rocks)

Anticuchos (Cow hearts)

Well I hope you have cleaned up your pool of drool right now. I hope you have enjoyed a little taste (pun intended…ha) of what Peru has to offer...and something to look forward to if any of you decide to visit. Provecha!

Also on another note,I have lots of photos to add, but not enough time to upload them right now. If you can´t hardly wait to see what I´ve been up to these past few weeks, click on my Flickr Photostream on the side of my blog. I´m working on captions, but be patient...that might take a while.

The Sound of Non-Silence

For those of you who are who have had the unfortunate opportunity to see me in the morning (especially before I´ve had my coffee), you know that I am not a morning person. I  hate being woken up for no good reason...hm...well take out the "no good reason" and let´s just say woken up in general and I very much enjoy sleeping in. 

So these last 6 weeks here, I have come to find out that it is virtually impossible to sleep in here, let alone to have a full nights rest without getting woken up 2 or 3 times in the night. Some of the wonderful noises that keep me up at night (in no particular order):

-Rooster call (Yes, we have a rooster in Chacrasana which likes to make himself known 5:30 am every morning...)
-Dogs barking (Now that is just a given here, since perros run a ´muck, but it still doesn´t mean I have to enjoy it, just expect it I suppose...)
-Dogs running across roof (I live right below the roof, where my dogs like to bark at the other dogs in the street...it makes for a fun time)
-Judy making a ruckus in the kitchen at 5:00 am (My sister, or shall I say "mamacita," wakes up uber early every morning to cook lunch for me to take to school and cook breakfast. She´s a busy woman!)
-Cars honking (Now coming from Oregon, we pacifists only use our horns in extreme cases of danger or anger, but in Peru, people prefer to use their horns rather to say hi to their friend across the street, to scare the dogs, as if they could be scared, and generally make noise becuase they can...)
-Vendors with horns (Vendors are quite creative here in Peru. They prefer to honk a horn as they walk by people´s houses. What do they sell you ask? I´ve seen crackers, and garden hoses so far...apparently there is a good market for garden hoses)
-Indian Music Videos (My family really enjoys watching Hindu music videos, so usually around 6 or 7, I´m awoken to some great tunes...)

So this a small glimpse into my sleeping patterns here in Peru. I´d like to say, though, that I´m getting used to the noises and can pretty much sleep through most the noises. And while I have yet to have a real good cup of coffee here, I´m glad (or sad?) to say that Nescafe is growing on me as well...

And to that I will say...Good night and sweet dreams :)

Mid-Training Reflections

So we´ve finally hit the midway point of our 10 week session (more or less). We had our second spanish interview last week, which I´m proud to say that I can now successfully string sentences and thoughts together to carry on a conversation. Peace Corps agrees as well, so I´ve now reached the level needed to actually become a volunteer (phew). Now on to bigger and better things.

These next coming weeks are going to go by in a whirl, since we are now starting practice days where we go out in the communities and make house visits. A few weeks later, we will be going on our "Field Based Training," which is going to be in Ancash (heck yes). It´s basically a chance to go visit some current volunteers and get some real context on what we will actually be doing and the challenges that we might face. And then, the following week we will actually get to see where we will be living for the next 2 years. So yah, like I said, it will fly by.

Now I´ve had lots of time to think (and then some...) and so I´ve put together a small list of things I miss about my home in the states and things I love about Peru. Enjoy!

Things I miss about the states:
-Skinny Iced Lattes
-Carpet
-Hot Showers (I´m still waiting for one...)
-Veggies! Veggies! Veggies!
-Being able to drive off into the sunset if I wanted....
-Green surroundings (I live in a dust bowl)
-Being anonymous (We are famous here, ´nuff said)
-CHEEEEEEEEEEESE
-Grey´s Anatomy (Not going to lie....)
-Toilet Seats (Thunder Thighs here I come!)
-24 hour access to Internet
-Autumn Weather (including sweaters, scarfs, and curling up by the fire)
-Family and Friends (almost goes without saying...)


Things I love about Peru:
-Dancing (Everyone LOVES to dance! It´s great)
-Aji (I´m starting to like spicy foods)
-Besos (It´s the custom to kiss everyone on the cheek to say hello and goodbye)
-Combis (I really DO like them!)
-Galletas de Fibre
-The people! (Peruvians are the nicest people you will ever meet!)
-Having less material possessions
-Chirimoyas (Only the BEST fruit ever! It´s a mix between pears and apples and it looks like crab meat!)
-My kickin´ Abuela and the rest of my host family
-Eternal Summer


Okay, now for some photos....

We sure now how to celebrate birthdays here...This is the mariachi band that suprised us all

Miss Chosica Beauty Competition (Note: Cristo Blanco as the backdrop)

The Pizza Disaster

Yanacota Fireworks (They KNOW how to do fireworks right...)

As always, I miss you all! I´ve enjoyed all your emails and letters that you´ve sent...keep em coming!

Fiesta Firsts

After a long week of training, there is nothing more that I´d like to do than sleep...but alas, that was not an option this weekend, since there were not one, not two, but three fiestas going on in and around my community. So what do I do? Go to all of them of course...

I started out my weekend in Chosica, where I got to see my first (and hopefully last) beauty pageant. Girls ages 15-23 were battling it to be Miss Chosica. The girls dressed in traditional dresses of Peru, evening gowns, and sport wear, which didn´t make a whole lot of sense to me since I´m not sure what sport you would play in a mini skirt and see-through top. Keep in mind that this was all set to the backdrop of "Cristo Blanco," along with party lights and lighted palm trees. It really became tense once they got down to the finalists and started asking questions. One girl was asked the meaning of the "Chosica," and she totally bombed it and unlike in the states, the crowd was ruthless. Everyone starting booing and yelling that I couldn´t help but feel bad for the poor girl. In the end, the girl we were routing for got 2nd place, but there was some stiff competition.

Next up, was a fiesta in the community "Tres de Octubre" on Saturday night. Being as how it was indeed the third of October,  there were having a big community celebration. After having arrived at 8:30, we soon discovered that parties don´t exact start until around midnight, so we were a tad bit early. Some volunteers were going to perform some songs for the crowd around that time, but didn´t actually end up going on stage until around 11:30 pm...which we should have known. ha. Schedules here are mere suggestions on when things are actually supposed to start. While we were waiting though, we were easily entertained by a few groups of dancing children...some dressed up like devils, other in sparkly cowboy outfits, and of course, Michael Jackson impersonators. Since arriving to Peru three weeks ago, I have seen about 10 different Michael Jackson performances, and heard "Thriller" in the discoteccas far too many times. It appears to be that Michael Jackson is never going to die, at least in Peru.

Finally, I ended my night in Yanocoto, for they too were having a fiesta in their town including a live cumbia band and fireworks. Fireworks in Peru, however, put us Americans to shame. I´d say what is typical in America is to light a firecracker and have everyone stand as far away as possible, so that they don´t get hurt. Not the same in Peru. Here they strap firecrackers onto a paper mache bull and someone wears the bull outfit while running around in circles underneath meanwhile firecrackers are shooting each and every direction at the crowd. The coolest and maybe most frightning thing I have seen so far.

I ended my weeked of fiestas back in Chosica, where I got to see the "desfile" or parade....twice! First time, I saw the parade at the beginning. The floats were pretty ingenious. There was an ice age "Era de Hielo" and another Star Wars float...although float is a rough term. It´s more like pickup trucks decorated in such a way to look like floats, but like I said, they get pretty creative with them. The funniest part was probably all the little kids on the float throwing candy to the crowd. I got nailed in the head by a piece of candy being thrown at full force by some kid. And ofcourse, I ate it...I saw the parada a second time as it looped around Chosica back to wear the "Alcade" was sitting, so there was more dancing to be done. I also saw a member of the "Lions Club" shake and open a few bottles of beer and spray the audience. There was this other man spraying baby powder at the audience as well. Not sure the purpose, but the guys were pretty proud of themselves.

Like I said, Peruvians know how to party. While I did regret not getting as much sleep as I would of liked, I don´t regret any of it at all. In fact, I can´t wait for more fiestas to be had.

How to Make a Pizza in Peru

Here are some instructions on how to make pizza in Peru, as experienced by me and my friend Katie at her house:

1. Tell the host family you are going to make pizza for them. Tell them to make some rice, just in case.
2. Go to the overcrowded supermercado to find ingredients. Make a fuss at how much a little mozarella cheese costs, and decide on which veggetables are safe to eat (without risk to diarrhea)
3. Go home and make dough.
4. Find out the oven doesn´t work, and that you have to use the very sketchy "portable" oven.
5. Carefully place/drop pizza in to portable oven without burning fingers on the side.
6. Realize that the family is hungry, especially the younger host brother, who has been waiting the whole week to eat the pizza.
7. Find out 45 minutes later that portable oven no longer is working.
8. Watch Host family serve themselves rice and potatoes becuase they are hungry, and need to eat something.
9. Tell Host Mom the problem and watch her carefully try to light the oven without burning herself.
10. Carefully take the pizza out of the portable oven to the now lit oven.
11. Find out an hour later, that the oven is only about 100 degrees and that the pizza is still not cooking.
12. Watch younger host brother pop into the kitchen, asking about the pizza only to have to tell him that it´s not cooked yet.
13. Being resourceful, decide to try to cook the pizza on the stove top with another pan on top.
14. Watch smoke come up from the pan.
15. Freak out and start laughing at the same time.
16. Take the pizza off the stove top, and decide that it´s "cooked" enough.
17. Serve the half-cooked/half-burnt pizza to the host family. Find out the host dad went to bed already.
18. Watch the host family pick at their food while also saying "how good it is" at the same time.
19. Force yourself to eat your piece of pizza, half becuase your host family did and the other becuase you slaved away 4 hours in the kitchen and want to show something for it.
20. Be thankful that the family made some rice.
21. Laugh...

Now some photos....

This photo was during our tour of Chacrasana, and no, that is not my hat.

My Host Family during Eric and Raphael´s 15th Birthday

Pablo, the Pied Piper of the Gringos

My Spanish Group in Lima

Eating the delicious "Aji de Gallina" dish

Like always, I miss you all dearly!