Sampling the Peruvian Plate

Everywhere I travel in the world I make an effort to sample and learn of the local cuisine. A recent trip to Peru provided a smorgasbord of food that was diverse, healthy and ancient. Perhaps more famous for its Inca ruins and archeological wonders than its culinary allure, the Peruvian cuisine is largely undiscovered on the world stage. 

The food and cooking of Peru reflect a vast array of climates, as well as a variety of contact with other countries and cultures. This South American nation extends from the Pacific coast in the west to peaks that rise above 22,000 feet in the Andes Mountains to a lush rainforest in the Amazon jungle. 

From a historical point of view, Peruvian cuisine has been influenced by waves of immigrants from Europe, Asia and Africa. These influences coalesced with a rich diet already consumed by the Inca and other Indigenous groups.

I came to Peru with my daughter, Jenna, and everyday there was something new for us to try. Below I have made a list of nearly every dish, food or drink that we encountered that I felt was a part of the Peruvian culture.
 

Lomo Saltado.  If I were to pick one as the quintessential Peruvian dish, I would choose lomo saltado. It is colorful, tasty and simple. Like many other dishes, it has influences from around the world. It was first prepared by Chinese chefs living in Peru in the nineteenth century who decided to stir-fry marinated beef (brought from Spain) with onions and tomatoes. It is served with a side of rice and French fries (made from Peruvian potatoes). Lomo saltado is a dish that will probably never become world-famous like pizza or sushi, but it is one that I imagine is eaten often in many humble Peruvian homes.
 

Chicha Morada.  Chicha Morada is a non-alcoholic beverage made from purple corn, not to be confused with chicha de jora, a fermented drink, also known as corn beer. In addition to purple corn, it is boiled with pineapple rinds, quince, cinnamon, cloves and sweetened with sugar. It is cooled and served cold. This was a pre-Colombian drink, although I'm sure they used the ingredients they had at hand (cinnamon, for example, they did not have because it comes from southern Asia). Like so many other foods in Peru, purple corn is native to the Andes Mountains.
 

Emoliente.  This warm and comforting drink we found sold on the streets of Lima. The closest thing I can compare it to is apple cider, but with lots of herbs. The vendors at their carts usually had a large cauldron from which they cooked the beverage. The brew is cooked using barley, Andean horsetail, cat's claw, linseed, alfalfa, honey, quinoa and probably whatever else they want to use. The recipe can vary from person to person. It is claimed to have medicinal qualities that boost the digestive system and help with respiratory issues. For me it was very soothing.
 

Ceviche.  In Peru, ceviche is a very traditional dish that is prepared differently than it is in other countries. Extremely flavorful, it is powered with raw onions, peppers, hot sauce, and raw fish that marinates in lime juice. For texture it is served with both dry corn (cancha) and fresh corn. It is also served with slices of sweet potato. I enjoyed getting a bite with a chunk of fish, a dab of hot sauce, a slice of red onion and a piece of corn.
 

Sopa de trigo.  "Trigo" translates to wheat, corn, or more generalized, grain. However, in this situation it refers to barley. We ate this soup as a first course, but I'm sure historically it could have been used as a full meal. It is made with beef, barley and a variety of vegetables, including potato, carrot, zapallo squash, celery and parsley. There are plenty of varieties. Ours appeared puréed with the exception of potato chunks and a leafy green. From what I've read, sopa de trigo is not usually puréed.
 

Ají de Lizas con Pollo.  “Ají” pertains to the ají amarillo chili, which has its origins in the Andes Mountains. Although it appears red, it turns yellow when cooked. It is the base for many dishes and sauces. “Liza” is a reference to papa lisa, a tuber that also originates in the Andes. It looks like a speckled potato, but is yellow on the inside. Combining the ají with the papa lisa makes for a very yellow dish. When we ate it, we decided that it had a very “earthy” flavor that reminded us of beets.— The ají de lizas was served next to a scoop of rice and grilled chicken.
 

Picarones.  These are doughnuts made of sweet potatoes, covered in a molasses-like syrup. They are light, fluffy and crispy. We bought these from a street vendor in Lima. They were invented during the colonial period to replace buñuelos from Spain. As with many other dishes in South America, they substituted a local ingredient for something that was scarce. In this case it was sweet potatoes in place of flour.
 

Breakfast.  I will admit that I have no idea what the typical Peruvian eats for breakfast. But I do know that every morning we were served breakfast in our hotel, it was basically the same thing. To drink we were served fruit juice, warm milk, and some sort of tea such as chamomile. We were offered coffee but declined. In the middle of the table was a basket with four rolls, which were a cross between a baguette and a normal roll. There was also a plate of meat and cheese, a small bowl of jam, and balls of hard butter. The amount seemed perfect to make one meat and cheese sandwich, and one of jam.
 

Ají de Gallina.  This is a very delicious dish made yellow by using ají amarillo paste. Gallina is translated as “hen,” but any type of chicken breast will do. Other ingredients such as onion, garlic, pecans, Parmesan cheese, bread and evaporated milk are added to create a creamy stew. Ours was served over slices of boiled potato and next to a heap of rice and slices of tomato. For Jenna, this was her favorite dish she ate in Peru.
 

Alfajor.  This light and flaky confection is made of flour, honey and nuts. It was brought to Peru in the 1500's from Spain, who inherited it from the Moors, who inhabited parts of the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The name is likely of Arabic origin. I'm sure there are several varieties, but the alfajores I've seen are like mini sandwiches, with a dulce de leche filling in the middle.
 

Alpaca a la Parilla.  Grilled alpaca. I will admit that this was the most disappointing food of the entire trip. Maybe I just got a bad serving. We were hungry and ate at a small restaurant in Ollantaytambo. It took them forever to get our food and we were the only customers. The steak was tough and had a unique taste to it. Not quite like a game animal, but similar. The texture was similar to that of a game animal—kind of chewy. It was also bland. Had to use lots of salt and pepper.
 

Anticuchos.  Anticuchos are the Peruvian version of kebabs. It is meat cooked on a skewer, and usually that meat is beef heart. It is Pre-Columbian, originating in the Andes. The name comes from the Quechua language. I thought they tasted pretty good and if I didn't know better I would have never guessed it was heart. I ate it with rocoto relleno on the side.
 

Rocoto.  Rocoto peppers grow in the cool, high landscapes of the Andes Mountains and are a bit more spicy than red bell peppers. Rocoto relleno (or stuffed rocoto) contains a filling of ground beef, garlic, onions, pepper, spices and whatever else the chef desires. It may be baked in the oven, although I think mine was battered and deep-fried.
 

Milhojas.  We found this pastry being sold at a street cart across the street from the Lima Peru Temple. It is made with several stacked layers of pastry puff, filled with dulce de leche and sprinkled with powdered sugar. We sat down on the grass and ate our delicious treat. Although milhojas originated in France, it is considered part of the cuisine in several other places including Spain, Peru and other Latin American countries.
 

Chaufa.  Chaufa is a fried rice dish that originated with the Chinese who settled in Peru in the nineteenth century. It is simple and inexpensive, usually consisting of rice, scallions, eggs, chicken and soy sauce. My experience eating chaufa was memorable. We ate it at a lone table off the side of a dirt road in the Peruvian Amazon, cooked by a lady named Dora. We enjoyed conversation and a glass of Coke while we ate our chaufa.
 

Inca Kola.  The national soda is undoubtedly Inca Kola. Interestingly, it was developed by a Brit who immigrated to Peru. Although it has a sweet fruity flavor similar to bubble gum, it is the lemon beebrush, native to South America, that gives the drink its unique flavor.
 

Pollo a la Brasa.  Probably my favorite thing I ate in Peru was Pollo a la brasa, or rotisserie chicken. It was tasty and tender. It was served with a mayonnaise sauce and ají verde chilli pepper sauces. The chicken is rubbed with spices and slowly cooked on a spit over coals or flame. Although you can find roasted chicken in many other countries, according to the internet, its roots are in Peru. I loved pollo asado in Spain with alioli sauce, but what I ate in Peru seemed to be a step up.
 

Sopa de Chuño.  Chuño is one of Peru's more fascinating specimens. It's a freeze-dried potato whose origins are in the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia. Traditionally the potatoes are spread on the ground where they are frozen by night and sun-dried by day. After a few days of this they are stepped on with bare feet. This allows for excess water to be squeezed out and detaches some of the peels so they come off easier. The drying process is repeated until all the water is gone. The dried potatoes are then rinsed in water and subsequently dried to create white chuño. If unwashed they are called black chuño.  

The final product can be stored for years and has been considered a staple in Andean cuisine. It can be ground into flour and used in soups, which is how I assume it was used in our dish. We ate it as a first course at San Blas Market in Cusco. I couldn't tell you everything that was in it, but it was very hardy, thick, and came with a couple chunks of potato and garnished with parsley.
 

Caldo de Gallina.  Throughout our two weeks in Peru I was eying one item that I saw on nearly every menu: caldo de gallina, or chicken broth. I knew it wasn't just broth because occasionally I would catch a glimpse of it and what I saw was a beautiful brothy, creamy, and hearty stew with a chunk of chicken and hard-boiled egg.⸺On our last night in Cusco I knew it was time to pull the trigger and see if it lived up to expectations. Well . . . they served it in a bowl where it looked as good as I'd hoped it would. In addition to the piece of chicken and hard-boiled egg, it came with spaghetti noodles and diced scallions. Everything tasted wonderful . . . except . . . that piece of chicken! Oh how I had high expectations for the chicken! I'm not even sure which part of the chicken it was, but either it had no meat, or the meat was so tough that it tasted like an old hen that can't lay eggs anymore and is slaughtered to eat (after all, gallina technically translates more specifically to “hen” instead of “chicken"). Oh, well. You can't win them all! Now I have an excuse to try it again or just make it at home. I think caldo de gallina has a lot of potential. ♠

Culinary Crusade in Catalonia

The cuisine of Spain has been of particular interest to me over the last thirty years. I lived in the area of Catalonia, Valencia and Mallorca for two years. Since then I have traveled back a handful of times to those same areas and also Central Spain and Andalusia. 

I have discovered that the cuisine in this Mediterranean country is among the best—and overlooked—in the world. Health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet are widely touted, but they are usually associated with Greece and Italy. I ask, why not Spain? 

Life expectancy in this Iberian country is the seventh-highest in the world. I would attribute much of this to diet. 

The Spanish eat five meals a day. Common ingredients include vegetables, legumes, garlic, olive oil, chorizo and smoked paprika. Most meals begin with a first course of soup or salad. Dessert is less common, and usually not so rich as the American fare. Typical examples are fruit, yogurt, flan or Maria cookies with herbal tea. 

Typical shop selling Spanish cured ham.

I have learned that there is a difference between what is served at home verses what is served in restaurants. Of course, there is an overlap of the two, but restaurants are more likely to serve popular foods such as paella and tapas. Inside someone's home you're more likely to get a fideo soup, garbanzo stew, or something with chunks of blood sausage. 

Food in Spain is very regional. Although paella is the national dish, it hails from Valencia. Fabada is a distinctive bean stew with blood sausage from Asturias. The Basque are noted for their tapa-like pintxos. Gazpacho reigns in Andalusia. The coastal areas favor fish and seafood. 

Butifarra is a typical sausage of Catalonia.

Arroz a la Cubana is a popular dish in the Canary Islands and Catalonia.

On a recent trip to Spain I returned to the area of Catalonia with my daughter. As always, I set out to find as much local food as possible. With the exception of one meal, we would be eating in bars and restaurants. 

On our first evening in Barcelona we ate at a quaint restaurant near the Gothic Quarter. Since it was Kaitlyn's first meal in Spain, she went for the iconic dish of paella. I, however, ordered a more regional meal, one that is certainly difficult to make at home: arròs negre, or black rice. 

Arròs negre is a dish with a hint of sweetness and chunks of squid. It is blackened using liquid from the squid's ink sack. 

Black rice on the left and paella on the right.

Years ago I had a lady make this for me in her home. With a notebook I diligently copied down every ingredient and every action needed to complete the dish. When it came time to add the ink I asked, “Where can I find that?” 

She looked at me puzzled and responded, “At the store, of course!” 

Little did she know that most stores in the U.S. don't sell squid ink. [The one time at home I followed this recipe I had to special-order the squid and then order prepackaged squid ink from Spain. It was a lot of hassle.] 

Kaitlyn and I enjoyed our meal. It also came with a sampling of tapas, which included patatas bravas (bite-size baked potatoes with a spicy sauce), roasted padrón peppers, sauteed chicken, fried anchovies, and calamari rings. I noted that most of the tapas I saw in Catalonia did not come served on a slice of bread like those I had seen in other provinces. 

Sampling of tapas.

My culinary crusade consisted not only of eating food, but looking at it also. One of the great pleasures of Spain is found in visiting food markets. 

We walked through the Mercat de Santa Caterina, a market just east of the Gothic Quarter near Via Laietana. The journey was both visionary, as well as olfactory. We walked through a large warehouse-sized building past colorful stacks of fruits and vegetables. Hanging from the shops were legs of ham, with their unique scent of cured and salty meat. Entire bodies of fish and prawns sat atop tables of ice. Somewhere from another corner of the market wafted the aroma of freshly baked bread. 

We found a place here to sit and eat a bocadillo, or “little mouthful” as it is literally translated from Spanish. These sandwiches are typical in Spain, made using French baguettes. I ordered a jamón y queso—a ham and cheese sandwich. Although simple in contents, the sandwich offered a flavorful punch. The ham was a cured Spanish jamón, thinly sliced and similar to Italian prosciutto. They may have squeezed half a tomato onto the bread and added a drizzle of olive oil, but that was it. Pretty simple. 

Vegetable stand in the Mercat de Santa Caterina.

Seafood on a table of ice.

One of my favorite meals was consumed at an outdoor cafe in Tarragona, which is about an hour south of Barcelona. Tarragona is famous for its Roman ruins, in particular an amphitheater and aqueduct. It sits alongside the sea to create a picturesque setting. 

But for this midday meal we sat at a table in the Old Quarter atop a narrow cobblestone street. For our first course I had melon and jamón, a salty and sweet combination. Kaitlyn ordered calamares a la Romana, a staple at many restaurants that are basically fried squid rings. 

Calamares a la Romana with a salad.

A perfect combination of sweet melon and cured Spanish ham.

For my next course I chose morcilla con cebolla (or blood sausage with onion) with grilled asparagus and french fries. The blood sausage is definitely an acquired taste and has a soft texture that is unique. Usually in the preparation stage the sausages are made by mixing blood with either onions or rice.

Nearly every meal on this trip was served with french fries, which seemed to happen far more often than it did thirty years ago. I'm assuming they are catering to tourists. Fries in Spain don't come with ketchup. They are usually served plain or with mayo. 

Kaitlyn ate bacalao (cod) in tomato sauce. Afterward we drank a small cup of manzanilla (chamomile) tea. 

Kaitlyn eats cod in tomato sauce.

Morcilla, or blood sausage, served with fries and asparagus.

It is interesting to note the impact immigration has had on food in Catalonia. Like much of Europe, they have experienced a huge influx of people from the Middle East and North Africa. Not only do these people set up shops to sell their wares, but they open food establishments that sell items such as doner kebabs, something I had never encountered in the nineties. Sometimes a restaurant will sell authentic Spanish food, but it is owned and cooked by Muslims. 

As I stated earlier, we ate one of our meals with a family in their home. Teo, Enric and their daughter, Marta, are friends of mine from my stay in 1994. They live in Girona, a staunch Catalan city located an hour from the border with France. 

Horchata in Spain is made from the chufa nut and differs in taste from that in Mexico.

After a full day of driving us around to different sites in the area, we stopped at their apartment to cenar. In Spain the cena is the final meal of the day, usually being lighter than their heavy midday meal. Spain is also noted for staying up and eating late. Hence it was about 10 pm when we began to eat. 

Teo set out a wonderful array of food across the table. We found an arrangement of jamón, green olives, pork loin, tuna, roasted red peppers and cheese. She also made a French omelette. 

An array of food in the home of Teo and Enric.

We ate while carrying conversation, covering such topics as immigration in Spain and local eating and sleeping habits. It is interesting to note that although Spaniards eat five meals a day, they are lean and have very low obesity rates. I attribute this to their healthy ingredients, as well as the fact that they still attempt to eat together, making meals a social event rather than a stuff-yourself-full event. 

Fresh fish is common along the Mediterranean coast.

We spent our final day trying to take in as much as we could and enjoy our final hours. As far as eating was concerned, I had one last request. 

In the Raval District of Barcelona we found an obscure hole-in-the-wall style restaurant. I remember there being brick walls and tables set up along the window, with a one-foot gap at the bottom to allow air form outside to flow in. 

We came to eat churros y chocolate, a treat in Spain that should never be missed. The churros are usually curly, without as much cinnamon as the Mexican version. The chocolate is thick, nearly the consistency of mud. It is eaten by dipping churros into the chocolate. 

We savored every bite that evening. Although I have occasionally made these at home, there is something special about eating under humid Mediterranean air, late at night with conversation all around us in Castillian Spanish or Catalan. 

By the time we finished and returned to our room it was 2 am. ♠

 

Churros y chocolate.

 

A Photographic Essay of Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain is one of my favorite cities in the world. Since the 1992 Olympics, it has gradually become one of the most popular destinations on the globe. When I first visited this Catalan Capital in the early nineties, few people were familiar with it. Yet now, it is not uncommon for acquaintances and friends to have this be the site of their summer vacation. 

There is more to Barcelona than meets the eye. There are more than beaches, tapas and the iconic Basilica of the Sagrada Familia. In its depth, there is a culture that outsiders seldom see. There are streets outside the tourist zone where foreigners rarely tread. Bubbling behind the surface is also an independence movement that at times has sparked violence. 

I returned to Barcelona a few years ago with my daughter. Part of my goal was to show her as much of the city and its culture as possible, both known and hidden. What follows is a story of Barcelona through the lens of a camera.

 

Carrer de la Volta dels Tamborets in El Born District.

Església de Santa Maria de Montalegre de Barcelona.

Detail of Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar.

Local street festival.

L'Estel Ferit, a contemporary sculpture on San Miguel Beach.

Competition of human towers.

Tombs of Ramon Berenguer I and his wife, Almodis, in the Cathedral of Saint Eulalia.

Detail on Basilica of the Sagrada Familia.

Pockmarks from the Spanish Civil War on the walls of the church of Sant Felip Neri.

Sculpture of a child's face.

View of Montjuïc from roof of the Cathedral.

Palau de la Música Catalana.

Cathedral of Barcelona.

Street in El Raval at Midnight.

Barcelona Metro.

Palace of the Balmesiana in the Plaça del Vuit de Març.

“Woman and Bird” sculpture by Catalan artist, Joan Miró.

Casa Milà, a building designed by Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudí.

The Champions.

Sant Pau del Camp, a former church and monastery from the 12th century.

Montjuïc Cemetery.

Plaça d'Espanya.

Camp Nou, home stadium of Barcelona Football Club.

Church of Sant Llàtzer in the Plaça del Pedró, El Raval.

A silent protest for political prisoners.

Street performer in the Gothic Quarter.

Sculpture of La Gamba (the shrimp) located on a walkway next to the sea.

Words written on a tree to memorialize a terrorist attack on the Rambla in 2017 which killed 13 and wounded 130.

Fragment of Roman aqueduct in Barcelona.

Saint George (patron Saint of Catalonia) killing the dragon.

Statue of Columbus pointing toward the New World.