Rice. Potatoes. White. Peruvian Food.Since things haven't been too exciting here, I decided I'd start writing on Peruvian culture and customs, like food, music, politics, and the like. Today, I'm going to start with food.
I live with a Peruvian host family and they prepare me dinner daily. I usually make myself breakfast, relying on an electric water boiler and gas-burning stove-top to make tea and eggs or oatmeal. When I feel bold, I make guacamole sandwiches.
Guacamole sandwich to start the day.I eat lunch at a Menú restaurant in town. Menú is a fixed price/menu lunch of one appetizer, one entré, and one drink. Choose one of each from the day's list, pay 6 soles (~$2), and walk away stuffed and satisfied. Sometimes options are limited (appetizer 'list' is a soup) and sometimes they're great (ceviche), but no matter what, you can't beat the price. Actual food menus don't really exist in these restaurants. What's been chalked on the day's Menú board is all they've got. At first, I internally commended the few restaurants that had menus (one step forward), only to realize that their menus were ancient and in no way reflected the actual meal options or prices (two steps back). Come in a group of 10, ask for menus and you'll get 1 to share. Order something from the menu and you'll get a blank stare from the waitress every time. Solution: Menú.
Menú chalkboard.Generally the food here is pretty good. There have been few instances where I really didn't want to eat what was in front of me. Chicken feet and cow intestines, which are ironically called cau cau (pr. COW-COW), are two notables. The intestines have grown on me, but the slimy chicken feet never will. My only real complaint about the food is the lack of flavor and variety. The typical Peruvian plate is heaped full of cheap, filling calories, devoid of color, flavor and nutrition. I'm looking at you, rice and potatoes. I'm so sick of rice I could cry. The calorie-boost means PCV females gain weight and the lack of protein means PCV males lose it (I lost ten pounds after two months in this country.). I miss people in the US, but man do I miss the food.
Pomegranate for b'fast.I'm going to write a second part on food, but for now I'm going to finish things off with a list of foods and drinks I miss from the US that are difficult or impossible to find here:
- Cold, fresh milk (canned soy milk w/my cereal)
- American ketchup (sweeter, thinner here)
- A fat, juicy steak (cut thin, rubbery here)
- Good pizza
- American candy bars
- Bagels and cream cheese
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Drinks served at the beginning of a meal (served last here)
- Good service (no tipping = bad service = can't get a drink at the beginning of the meal even if you ask)
- Diverse ethnic cuisine (Mexican, Italian, Thai, anything non-Peruvian, etc.)
- Beer variety
