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Published: October 8th 2007
Just in case you were wondering, I am still vegetarian and did not eat the guinea pig in the picture. The others say it tastes a bit like chicken though, except with very little meat.
I have had plenty of traditional dishes to try myself. In Cusco, I had
rocoto relleno (filled hot pepper) for the first time. It was delicious, and the meal was particularly great because the restaurants in San Blas, the suburb where we stayed, also gave us free pisco sours and garlic bread... My first encounter with rocoto was actually back when I was in Potosí by myself. I bought what I thought were tomatoes and capsicum for a home-made sandwich. It was with great shock and great pain that I discovered that what I thought were capsicum were actually
rocoto and not to be taken lightly.
Another dish I had was
ocopa, which doesn't sound very interesting as it is basically boiled potato covered in cheese sauce. I loved it, but no one else in my tour group did. Maybe my cold has altered my taste just the right amount. There are also various types of potato available. I didn't like the dried potato
all that much, because it has a very dense consistency, but it was interesting to try anyway.
I have already told you about the foul
chicha (fermented corn brew) they drink here. You can tell which places sell
chicha because they hang a red plastic bag by the front foor. The
chicha de quinoa which I ventured to taste was no better than the
frutillada. However,
chicha morada, which is made from purple corn, is a completely different drink altogether, without the horrible fermented taste. I have never managed to find the
chicha de maní (peanut drink) which I drank and loved in Rurrenabaque (Bolivia) again.
On the subject of
chicha, it used to be drunk only by the king and queen and priests in Incan times. Other people drank water. I went to a museum to see the preserved (frozen) body of Juanita yesterday. She was a girl of 14 to 16 years, who was scacrificed at the summit of Mount Ampato 500 years ago. They say the blow to her head which killed her would not have caused her pain because she would have been tired (she walked all the way from Cusco), cold, hungry, and
they gave her
chicha to intoxicate her, as they discovered by analysing the contents of her stomach.
After going to the museum, I went to a vegetarian restaurant, hoping that I would get a healthier meal. I went for a set menu, which is called
menú in Peru (
almuerzo in Bolivia). I did not choose well. My vegetable soup was made of carrot and green beans, which I had been eating rather a lot of lately, and the salad which was supposed to come with my meal was made of the same vegetables! I have only ever had really oily fries in South America too. For dessert, I had a
pye de manzana (apple pie), which is written
pie de manzana in some restaurants. I found this really funny because, as you probably know,
pie in Spanish means 'foot'.
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Gaston Milsom
non-member comment
guinea pig for tea?
Sarah, You say that you did not eat the guinea pig, but (and tell the truth here) how did it die...you didn't step on it, did you? Sounds like a fun holiday - and thank you for assuming that we would all know that pie meant foot in Spanish - of course we all did know that but it is handy that you reminded us :) Cheers, gaston