• The T-shirt I brought mami from Iceland 2 years ago? Worn once I think.
• Necklace and earrings I bought in Cartagena? Never used.
• The Big Ben souvenir mamacita asked me to bring from London? Stuffed in a file cabinet.
• The cute pillow from Poland? Never used and haven’t seen it in forever.
• The cute polar-bear hairclip I picked out at the souvenir store in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik? Mami looked at it once and said: “Cute, but you go to Canada and bring me back something made in the Philippenes??” Never been used.

I could go on. Clothes are always a bad idea. I buy something stylish and sexy and mamacita says “I can’t wear that here. It’s too cold in Cuzco to wear that.” I buy something comfy and mamacita says “Why do you buy me old lady clothes like that? Buy me something cute next time would you.”

Anyway, I’m writing this sitting in departure gate 19 of the Lima airport, waiting on a flight to Miami. I’m on my way to Kansas to pick up another new airplane from Cessna. The real reason I’m fussing and ranting about souvenirs right now is that souvenirs take up space in the airport where something useful could be, say something like FOOD!!! Airport food is never a great idea but in Lima the choices are really slim. For all the great food you can find in Peru the Lima airport is not a good place to go when you’re in a rush and haven’t eaten.

At the Lima airport there’s a food court with a McDonalds, Papa Johns and a few others. You can get a pretty good “pollo la brasa” at Manos Morenos but they give you like 6 french fries. There’s a Dunkin Donuts at the food court in the Lima airport and you can always tell the Cusquenos traveling home to Cuzco because you’ll see them carrying a dozen donuts through the Lima airport (there’s no Dunkin Donuts in Cuzco). I always feel like such a fool when other gringos in the airport stare at me walking through the airport with my Dunkin Donuts bag. They’re probably thinking something like “why would this fool come all the way down to Lima to buy a dozen donuts?”

At any rate, other than the food court there are few restaurants in the Lima airport. There are 2 restaurants in the international gate area, both ridiculously overpriced. Cheap Dutchman that I am I’ve never eaten at either of them. I just ponied up S/.26 (~$10) for a soda and sandwich at the 365 Deli by gate 19. Ten bucks for a sandwich that had like 2 slices of roast beef on it!

Peruvian food is great but forget Lima airport. The first thing I plan to do when I get to Wichita tomorrow is stuff my tummy with a big juicy steak

Now my experiences are not representative of all of Peru. There is a world of difference between the elite in Miraflores who have beautiful grocery stores, cooks and maids, and the rural population who live of the land and cook on a fogon. I can only speak from my own experiences living in a middle-class area of Cusco.

What you need to know in order to grasp the concept of cooking in our neighborhood, is that there are many small stores and very few larger stores in Cusco. In our complex, there must be 6 or 8 of these 1-man or 1-woman stores, like the one in the picture below. Each store is about the size of a big pantry and serves maybe 2 or 3 apartment blocks.

One of the little stores in our neighborhood

Just for contrast, a little bit of background about the process of cooking in the other cultures I’ve lived in:

Cooking in Belgium:

Belgian people are super-efficient, in an old-fashioned, hard-working, German kind of way. In addition, for many in the graying population, the Depression and World War 2 are only a generation away, so their comfort level is to stock up a ton of food in their pantries, freezers, etc.

In my house, this is how we used to cook:

(1) Dad peels potatos — God knows Belgians eat a lot of potatos.
(2) Mom gets meat and vegetables out of pantry / fridge / freezer.
(3) 20 minutes later everyone’s at the table eating and another 20 minutes later the dishes are done.

Cooking in the US:

In the US people do everything big, not just in Texas. Twice a week I used to stop at the grocery store on the way back from work and spend $100 or more on groceries. I’d eat as much red meat in a week as I do now in 2 months. Seriously.

(1) Drive home, fire up the grill.
(2) Open bag of salad and put baking potato in Microwave.
(3) 15 minutes later dinner is ready.

Cooking in Peru:

Let’s take a typical weekday, lunch is the big meal. The cooking is usually done by mamacita or my suegra.

12:15 – Hey, it’s time to start cooking.

12:17 – I’m going to Señora Maria’s store. (see above).

12:22 – At the store, there are three or four other ladies from the neighborhood. Everyone talks, and talks for a while.

12:47 – I’m back from the store. Time to cut the vegetables.

12:57 – Holy guacamole, you realize you forgot to buy onions.

12:59 – You go back to Señora Maria’s store only to find out it is now closed, Señora Maria is also cooking. No problem, you go to another “store” 200 yards away.

13:05 – The lady at the other store has the new Avon / Esika / L’Ebel / Leonisa or whatever catalogue, so you check it out.

13:24 – Walking back to the house with your 2 cebollas, you run into your friend from “collegio” and talk for awhile.

13:48 – Back at the house you chop up the vegetables and potatos and throw them into the trusty pressure cooker along with some noodles. Soup will be ready soon.

13:50 – Don’t forget the rice. I think Peruvians eat more rice than Belgians eat potatos.

14:02 – Time to set the table.

14:04 – Yell at your ayudante (in our case, my sister in law). Helen, Heeeleen, Heeeeleeen.

14:12 – Tell Helen to go to “the store” and buy something to drink. Helen and my suegra then argue about what kind of soda to buy and how much money to spend.

14:15 – Food for the wawa (baby) is ready. Papi feeds the wawa.

14:26 – Table is set, Helen came back with soda, soup is served.

14:35 – “Segundo” or the main course is served.

15:50 – Table is cleaned and dishes are done.

Until tomorrow, then we do it all over again

That isn’t news in itself, I’ve written about this before. However, the other day I jinxed myself, I know better by now…

Since mamacita now works in the afternoons, I’ll try to cook dinner most days right around the time when she arrives home, around 8:30 or sometimes later. Now meals in any Latin culture are typically much later than in Western Europe or the US. We normally eat lunch between 2:30 and 3:30 in the afternoon, dinner is sometimes as late as 9:00 pm.

As I said, the other day I jinxed myself. I was cooking my famous lemon-pepper baked chicken with tortellini and alfredo sauce… Mira, que rico

Papi's famoso lemon-pepper chicken with tortellini and alfredo sauce

Just as I was getting the water for the tortellini to a boil, mamacita called to say she’d be a little late. I’m not the best cook and I usually wing it a bit when I’m cooking, but one thing I’m picky about is the time to cook the noodles. So as I was talking on the phone I just happened to have the box of noodles in my hand and looked at the “recommended cooking time” and said to mamacita:

Just as soon as I hung up the phone it hit me. Because the “recommended cooking time” said 15 minutes I told Patricia 15 minutes.

You never tell a Peruvian 15 minutes

You can be assured 15 minutes will be at least 45 minutes on a real clock, and probably closer to an hour. If you want a Peruvian to do something in 15 minutes, you better use words like “hurry up”, “right now” or “2 minutes”. That’s not to be fussy or anything, that’s simply the Peruvian sense of timing.

So I turned down all the food as best as I could, but after about half an hour the little goose and I ate our dinner anyway, since it was after 9:00 already. About 45 minutes to an hour after the original 15-minute call, mommy did make it home and gobbled away the remaining noodles and chicken, which was sort of lukewarm but still yummie

Posing with the president and a pig...

That would be Alan Garcia, current (and former) President of Peru, next to a huge pig – click on the pictures to see full size.

These pictures hang on the wall at a chicharonneria we go to in Saylla, a town just outside of Cusco known for “chicharron” or fried pig. I positively know there’s no pun intended. I’ve asked the owner (the lady in the picture with Alan Garcia), and there’s no special relation or political affiliation, they’re just proud that Mr. President frequents their restaurant.

Here’s a couple of closeups:

Regardless of how you feel about Peruvian President Alan Garcia and APRA politics, one thing is for sure: the man knows his food

Parilla para 2 ... y medio

Now Cusco isn’t exactly Texas when it comes to steak. Instead of a 32oz T-bone, this “parilla” has a small steak, a pork chop, various types of sausage plus a bunch of food you wouldn’t typically see in the US: tongue, heart and some other pieces that I don’t quite recognize

I don't know what most of it is either

Peru is a poor country with only a small percentage of arable land due to the mountains, desert (coast) and jungle, so it is only natural that many types of food are standard fare. Here in the mountains we eat mostly chicken and pork, but I’ve also had goat, alpaca and of course “cuy” or guinea pig, a local specialty.

Enjoying lunch outdoors

How cute is that?

Playing on papi's favorite traditional blanket!

Relaxing after eating a big lunch

There must be 20 or more restaurants in Saylla, and practically all of them are “chicharronerias”, it’s what the little town is known for. If you drive further down the “Valley of the South” you can have cuy in Tipon or pata (duck) in Lucre. From Cusco you can take the local busses like we do, and there are also many tour operators who offer day-trips to the “Valley of the South”.

Plato Sol de Mayo

We went to our favorite restaurant in Urubamba, “Sol de Mayo” and Patricia ordered their perennial house special, “Plato Sol de Mayo”. In case you can’t make out the details in the old cellphone picture, the plate consists of a salad with yummie white Andean cheese, a potato – which Peru claims to have invented – noodles, corn, chicken, beef, chicharron and cuy.

There are a lot of places where you can enjoy typical Andean food, but if you’re in Urubamba I highly recommend “Sol de Mayo”. It’s located only 3 blocks right behind the main bus terminal in Urubamba, it’s not overpriced or touristy, and you definitely won’t leave hungry!

So why would living in Cusco make a difference? The report continues that…

In other words, if everything you eat has “high fructose corn syrup” in it, you might want to consider spending a few months in Cusco. Food here is fresh and delicious. Gringos in Cusco lose weight, lots of it.

Typical Andean food

Homemade papa rellena

Papa rellenas are typical Peruvian food, served often at the local restaurants that offer daily specials known as “Menu”.

So how do you make papa rellena? Again, I’m no expert, but basically you make mashed potatos and roll them around some ground beef and vegetables like peas, carrots, peppers – all cooked and cut into small pieces, of course. Then you fry the rolled potato in a pan to make it crispy brown on the outside, yummie!!

Don’t try frying them in a deep fryer, just take my word for it

Chicharron, or fried pork

Los Kqantus, our favorite chicharroneria

We are caseros, or regulars, at “Los Kqantus” in Saylla. Saylla is a small town about 20 minutes outside of Cusco, known for chicharron. There must be 20 or so restaurants in Saylla, all Chicharronerias.

Que rico!!!

Enjoying the sun

It bears repeating, the food is fantastic. But the experience is even better since we usually eat outside, overlooking the mountains and the countryside. The weather in Cusco is perfect in the early afternoon: sunny, 78-ish and no humidity.

Saylla is a quiet, small town. After lunch we walk through the countryside to the next town, Huasao, where we take the bus back to Cusco.

Countryside near Saylla, Peru

Bus back to Cusco, from the main square of Huasao

Tough life we have here in Peru, si

How to get to Saylla: from Cusco take a “combi” to Saylla, Huasao or Oropesa, any of these stop in Saylla. Just ask the locals where to take the bus to Saylla. A good place to get on the “combi” is any bus stop on Avenida Cultura. “Los Kqantus” is near the 3rd bus stop in Saylla, about a block back from the main highway.

On the way back the busses get very crowded, if you want to get a seat it is best to walk to the main square (Plaza de Armas) in Huasao, where the buses leave from.

The main square in Huasao, Peru