#ComidaPeruana

This week has been filled with so many amazing foods! My host mom, Carmela, is a wonderful cook. All of us have different schedules so we eat at different times, but whenever I get home the table is always set for me and my food is waiting - she's the greatest. These food blogs are probably going to be my favorite because well - food's my favorite :)

I'll kind of give you the low down before I head straight to the goodies!

• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's - hot topic in the US) are illegal here
• Everything tastes más fresca (more fresh)
• Every day starts out with the same desayuno (breakfast) - avena (oatmeal)
• Lunch and dinner contain the same dish
• Carmela feeds about 10 people every day
• Her daughter's family comes almost every day for lunch
• She takes food to her son's house quite often
• PLUS the four mouths she has to feed at the house...like I said - she's the greatest
• JUGO (juice) - soooo much fresh juice. Every meal I am offered juice & tea

Okay! Now to the good stuff :)

Avena (oatmeal)

This isn't like our oatmeal at home - it's almost like a soup; we eat it out of coffee cups. Carmela adds canela (cinnamon) to it and it is seriously the best oatmeal I've ever had. It's pretty dulce (sweet) which is a good kick start to the morning! It is usually served with juice and a piece of round bread that you can put mantequilla (butter) or mermelada (marmalade/jam) on.

Matasquita

Sorry, I have no idea what this translates to in English - but my guess is something like "stew". It is often served with white rice and has a salsa de carne (meat sauce) also. Along with the carne (meat) is zanahoria (carrot), papa (potato), and guisantes (peas). This was delicious and it is a popular, native dish to Peru!

Served with it we had flan de chocolate (chocolate pudding) and jugo de maíz morado (purple corn juice...I'll come back to this one later).

Tarwí

Once again, sorry - no English translation. This is another native dish to Cusco and is extremely difficult to place the taste - I have never had anything quite like it. I had a really hard time finding any information online about it...the closest thing I can connect it to is hummus (blended beans). When I say that, it's quite a stretch - tarwí is served warm and it is a mix of tarwí beans and queso. It is served with white rice (yes, we eat a lot of white rice) and some form of carne (meat).

Espagueti (Spaghetti)

If you know me pretty well, you probably know that spaghetti is my go to, most favorite meal ever :) So when I woke up and found out we were having homemade noodles - YIPPEE! Carmela calls it "pasta de la casa" and adds a tomato sauce with some carne. It was seriously fantastic. The noodles here are different than the states - they're "softer" I guess? I can't really find a way to best describe them.

Estufa de Pollo

My mom has made something similar to this chicken. Again, it's a national dish and very popular in Peru - essentially, you just cook chicken on the stove and add a tomato sauce to it. Super moist & super delicious. We had it served with white rice.

Jugo (Juice)

The juice here is out of this world. Carmela makes it fresh every day and with lots of different types of fruits. We've had papaya, manzana (apple), maracuja (passion fruit - my personal favorite), naranja (orange), limonada (lemonade), and last but not least chicha morada (purple corn).

Chicha Morada is a sweet juice made from boiling down purple corn with other things like apple and cinnamon - it can be prepared a lot of different ways. This purple corn is native to Peru - so it's really special and tastes amazing! It dates back to pre-colonial days (Pre-Inca)! If you check out the link you can begin to realize all of the health benefits this rare corn has...super interesting and a novelty of the area!

****No, I haven't been able to try "Cuy" (Guinea Pig) yet :( ...in the weeks to come!****