Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Chinese food...in Peru

Gralon's blog post, specifically his reference to Chinese food, reminded me about one of the most important Peruvian foods of all! I can't believe that I missed it in my last blog post.



Chifa: Means "to eat" in Chinese and is also the name of a special mixture of Chinese traditional cooking and Peruvian traditional cooking. Chifa restaurants here are like Starbucks in Seattle, one on every corner. And you always know it's a Chifa restaurant, because all Chifa restaurants are called "Chifa." Have a said that it's delicious? It's delicious!

The picture above is a kind of like sweet and sour chicken except with spices specific to Peruvian food and limes. Limes are grown all over Peru so they are in everything. The side dish is Arroz Chaufa, fried rice with chicken, egg, and green onions.

I am definetly going to have to hit up my Senora for some Chifa recipes.

Let's Talk About Food: Postres, Pan, Papas, Pato, Pescado, Pollo...in Peru

One of the most important parts of going abroad (besides helping people and changing the world): the food. While it hurts my heart that some of my classmates are eating less than desirable food (sorry Val), Peru has the best food I have ever eaten in my entire life. Yes, Peru is beating Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France in the World Cup of Gastronomía (cause Peru sure as heck would not go anywhere in the actual World Cup).

Menu from "The Enchanted Garden," a traditional Peruvian restaurant in Ica, Peru
From Food in Peru


Okay, let's start with appetizers.

From Food in Peru


The above pic is of a very popular dish all over Peru, Salchipapas. French fries and hot dog. Papas=potatos. Salchicha=special type of spicy hot dog. Peruvians love, love, love salchipapas with mayonnaise. I prefer my salchipapas smothered in Ketchup.

From Food in Peru


Fruit is a really big deal in Peru. Peru has some of the world's best fruit. They frequently mix pineapple, papaya, grapes, apples, mandarines, etc. and cover them with peach yogurt and little rice puffs. Notice the drink: Lemonada Frozen. Big favorite.

From Food in Peru


The above is a plate of pata (duck) con arroz (rice) which is a pretty standard Peruvian entree. More importantly is the yellow and white mass on the left. That is what is left of "Causa," two thick layers of potato with chicken salad sandwiched in between. It sounds weird, but it is delicious. How many times can I say "delicious"?



The above is "choclo." Peruvian corn eaten since the time of the Incas. The kernels are huge and really good when served with white cheese!

Ok, let's move on to the main course.

From Food in Peru


The lovely Annie is eating a triple for lunch. This is a popular sandwich of bread + cheese + bread + meat + bread. Here it is grilled and covered with cheesy white sauce.



Lomo saltado: Sauteed beef, onions and peppers on rice. Don't forget to mix in the French Fries? They sell this everywhere....cause it's delicious. Even in McDonalds.



Ceviche: Raw sea fish marinated in lemon and covered in raw onions. Not my favorite, but the Peruvians rave about it!



Anticucho: Deliciousness on a stick. I'll spare you the rest.



My mother told me not to play with my food.

Dessert, anyone?

There are two desserts that are the greatest creations on Earth.



Suspiro a la limena. Caramel pudding with whipped egg and cinnamon on top. Served as early as colonial Spanish times. Greatest creation on Earth. Did I mention it was good?



And I couldn't miss Tres Leches, the cake made of three kinds of milk (condensed, evaporated, and milk with water). Throw in some caramel and whipped cream icing...yum.

From Food in Peru


Other desserts: homemade chocolate covered marshmellows that you can buy on the street.

From Food in Peru


Also, there are lots of these stands around selling gumdrops, gummy strawberry slices, and trail mix.

Finally, drinks.

From Food in Peru


Fresh squeezed fruit juice.

From Food in Peru


Chica morada. Boil purple corn, add sugar. It's actually pretty good.

From Food in Peru


Pisco Sour (the one closest), specifically Peruvian drink with lemon mix and whipped egg. Frothy deliciousness.

From Food in Peru


Straight up Pisco in a...well, I wonder how that shot glass ended up in the Peruvian desert.

Hopefully, there will be more food to write about! I will not be one of those to lose weight on their IPSP.

Monday, June 28, 2010

POR FAVOR warm up Peru

Por favor, calientáte, Perú. Please, warm up, Peru.

When I signed up to visit Peru, I, like Miss Leer and Miss Watts, was very excited to be near a beach. I imagined sun, sand, surf...all that.

Nope.

Oh, there is plenty of sand and more than enough surf. Mr. Sun, however, has yet to "shine down on me" for more than a few minutes. In fact, Mr. Sun only visits Lima for four months out of the year. That would be January thru April. I get to spend my summer in Lima's winter--which is overcast, cold, humid, and it drizzles (not rains---drizzles) pretty much the majority of the time. The kind of precipitation that doesn't warrant an umbrella (which I'm pretty sure they don't sell in Lima) but that is just enough to make you uncomfortably damp all day.

Doesn't bother the Limeños a bit. My compañeros de oficina are always complaining, "Hace frío! Hace frío!" Then they open a window. I am forever saying, "¿Se importan si cierro la ventana?" "Claro que no," they respond. Twenty minutes later it is open again.

They tell me always to "Abrigáte." (Cover yourself). But I am "abrigáte...d" thank you very much. It does not help that I really like skirts (In fact, I did not bring much else), and I am wearing holes in my black tights (which they do not sell here). Go figure.

Cuando visito Lima otra vez (si no está enero), voy a abrigarme mejor. (When I come back (if it is not January), I am bringing warmer clothes.)

En fin. The End.

Santiagos is Open!



Just in time for the 4th of July weekend, Santiagos has opened its doors after a short break for preventive maintence and makeover. Come celebrate with us as we get into the patriotic flavors:
Red salsa
White flour tortillas
Blue Agave tequilla

Makes for a great 4th!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Peliculas en Peru

Went to see Toy Story 3 tonight with Mario, mi amigo de salsa (in English with Spanish subtitles). Oh, and it was in 3D! Amazing. Punto.

The best part (the strangely coincidental and appropriate part) was when the toys accidentally reset Buzz into "Spanish mode." Please see video below for absolute Spanish hilarity!



However, having a Spanish Buzz (which did not come with English subtitles in the Peruvian theater) was not the best part. What was you ask? Spanish Buzz dances Flamenco (similar to salsa in many ways)! So, there I am in a theater in a Spanish speaking country with my Peruvian salsa partner watching Spanish Buzz cut a rug! See otro video below...

Lista en Lima

My bosses, Susana and George, are still doing their fundraising trip in Europe. While I would have loved to visit Europe again, I do not envy this particular trip.



Lima to Madrid.
Madrid to Bilbao.
Bilbao to Madrid.
Madrid to Finland.
Finland to Denmark.
Denmark to The Netherlands.
The Netherlands to Barcelona.
Barcelona to Madrid.
Madrid to Switzerland.
Switzerland to Madrid.
Madrid to Lima.

That's a 2.5 week trip. I was worried about under scheduling them when, in fact, I should have considered the opposite. However, I spoke with them via Skype on Thursday; and they told me that, so far, I've done a great job. That's certainly a relief for the 22-year-old who has no experience in fundraising (no experience really in the professional workplace). And exhale.

Friday afternoon Edrina and I decided to check out the famous Gamarra. Before yesterday, I had been told that Gamarra was a giant flea market where you could buy everything for half of the original price. That is only 1/4 true. Gamarra is a collection of stores and galleries full of stores and galleries full of galleries full of stores...and so on...that spans about 5 square blocks. Inside these stores are rack upon rack of cheaply made and cheaply sold clothes (an occasional rack upon rack of shoes). Anything and everything that can be worn can be found in Gamarra. The galleries are usually 5 or 6 floors. The bottom floors are reserved for retail while the retail sold on the bottom floors is made on the top floors. High above the streets are hundreds and hundreds of Peruvians cutting out cardboard patterns, running machines, and doing needlework by hand. Their best products are sold to high-end department stores in Lima's rich district. Others are sold below them in Gamarra.

Gamarra is in La Victoria, a district of Lima with an unusually high crime rate. When Edrina and I told a friend that we were going to take a taxi there, a matronly woman (eavesdropper) said, "No! No se vayas! Es muy peligroso!" (No! Don't go! It's dangerous!). We went anyway, but only because we were meeting our friend, Vicky, who is from Peru and already knows the ropes. We spoke Spanish the whole time so we didn't stick out like sore thumbs. Nothing eventful happened. We attracted about as much attention as usual, but we were generally left alone.

While the shops appeared to be bursting with merchandise, the streets were similarly hemorrhaging people. Men and women selling drapes, shirts, baby shoes, chicha morada, chorros...young people running from shop to shop in their knock-off Pumas...kids doing their homework on the floor while their mothers sewed. Me stepping gingerly over piles of trash and dodging stray dogs. My senses were so overstimulated that I couldn't even look at the clothes.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Photos of Peru

For more Ica trip pictures...

Ica, Peru

Ica, Peru June 2010


Regional Museum of Ica

Regional Museum of Ica


Wacachina Oasis

Wacachina, Peru


Las Islas Ballestas

Islas Ballestas


Peruvian Desert Trek

The Nasca Lines: Out in the Peruvian Desert


Acueductos Incas

Acueductos

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Playing in Perú



"PERUsing Lima" has changed locations. Friends and family were reporting problems viewing and commenting so "Hello, BlogSpot."

I've been putting in a lot of work time at the office trying to organize meetings in Europe for our Executive Director, Susana, and George. They left yesterday, and I'm still rushing to send emails and make phone calls to Finland, Denmark, Barcelona, and Madrid.

As a stress reliever, Annie (my roommate), our friend Edrina, and I took a bus early on Saturday morning to Ica. Ica is an oasis in the middle of the Peruvian desert. That's right...Peru has a full-blown desert complete with sand dunes, cacti, and scorching temperatures.

The only seats available on the 7:30 bus were First Class so we spent a wonderful 4 hours in spacious, fluffy chairs watching "Valentine's Day" and eating complimentary muffins. In Paracas, we switched seats to Second Class on the upper level (double decker). Small, sardine-can seats sans fluffiness. Remind me to always bus First Class.

We arrived in Ica around 1:00 and grabbed a taxi to one of the hostels listed in Annie's "Lonely Planet Peru" book. Coming out of the bus station, I told the driver the name of the place and someone behind me said "No existe." I was sure that he wasn't talking to me. Our driver cruised the street three times before we figured out that the hostel "no existe." Two years ago, downtown Ica was destroyed by a "teremoto" or "earthquake." The hostel was one of the building to go. Luckily our driver knew another "hospedaje" close to the city center and took us there.

We booked it to the city center "Plaza de Armas" to buy tour tickets for the next day, then took a cab to "El Encanto de la Huerta" or "The Enchanted Garden," a nice restaurant with delicious food, an outdoor deck, a garden equipped with tree-trunk tables and chairs and hammocks. Most of the patrons were local families ordering "chica" and plates and plates of whole "cuyes"...that would be guinea pigs...whole, staring-at-you guinea pigs.



We stuffed ourselves with "Arroz con pata" (Duck and a deliciously seasoned rice), "Ceviche" (specifically Peruvian dish of sea fish marinated in lemon), and a variety plate of meat and baked sweet potatoes. We paid and rested in the hammocks in the garden.



After our short siesta, we took a "auto-taxi" (the Peruvian equivalent of an Indian rickshaw) to the famous, Regional Museum of Ica, a collection of artifacts from several ancient Peruvian cultures from 2000 BC to 1500 AD. The museum included a one-room display of mummies and bodies preserved by the Peruvian desert. The collection included ancient skulls sporting decorative Incan hair pieces, shrunken (yes, shrunken) trophy heads with dismembered tongues (yes the tongues are still there), and skulls that had been aesthetically and purposefully deformed to become very oblong. I didn’t feel that those particular pictures would be appropriate to post.

We left the museum around 4 pm and took yet another taxi to Wacachina, a “laguna” and oasis nestled between sand dunes as big as mountains. Tourists could strap boards on their feet and speed down the slopes or take a dune-buggy and roar around kicking up a lot of sand.





Skip to Day 2 (Sunday) of Ica trip. The tour bus/minivan picked us up at our “hospedaje” at 6:45 am and drove us to Paracas on the coast. We were met by…



The hombre in the picture trained these pelicans to follow him around. He would feed them and then hold out his hat for soles. Not a bad deal really.

Next, we piled into a huge speed boat and took off toward las Islas Ballestas. On the way, we came upon a school of dolphins!



Next we stopped at the “Candelabra,” the design of a candelabrum drawn into the side of a hill 1000 years ago.



Finally, we arrived at the Islas Ballestas, a series of huge, bare jagged rocks off the Peruvian mainland. They call them “the poor man’s Gallapagos Islands.” The islands are monstrous, gorgeous, and covered with birds including “penguinos” and “lobos del mar” (sea lions). Almost every square inch of the islands are covered in birds. It’s incredible. It’s beautiful. It stinks! Think about it…thousands upon thousands of birds making poop. The smell will knock you off of your feet. Boats visit the islands every seven years to collect the guano for sale. See large mountain of guano.



However, you get used to the smell, and seeing penguins and sea lions makes up for it.









It was very cold on the boat though! Thankfully, we layered up.



The next leg of the trip was certainly warmer. The tour agency we used gave us a car and a tour guide, Guillermo, and we set off into the desert toward Nasca, Peru. Note: along the road we saw several “hermitas” which are small chapel-like structures in memory of those who died in traffic accidents. It was disconcerting, because there were so many!



We drove and drove through the desert.



Our first stop was not the Nasca Lines but the Paracas Lines. These small figures were drawn into the sand 2000 years ago.





The next stop was the Nasca Lines (at least three of them). Ok, so the Nasca Lines are HUGE figures (monkey, frog, tree, man, lizard, bird, etc.) drawn into the sand 1000 years ago by the ancient Nasca culture. It never rains in the desert and no one has lived there in over 500 years, so the figures have been well preserved. The Pan American highway destroyed at least two figures and a barrio of Nasca was built over several others. Annie, Edrina, and I saw “Los manos” (the hands) and “El arbol” (the tree).







We also did some trekking through the desert looking at some lines created 500 years ago by the Incans.



The final leg of our trip was to the “Acueductos” (Aqueducts) of Nasca (built by Incans a little over 500 years ago.) Guillermo (our guide) tried to explain the system to us. We googled it later.



We arrived back in Ica on Sunday night at 7:30 pm. We needed to get back to Lima so I could go to work Monday morning. Unfortunately, our reputable bus company that provided the comfy First Class didn’t run after 6:30 pm. We were forced to take a bus company that we were previously told NOT to take. We soon figured out why. The bus was dirty, the seats were built for midgets, and I was almost robbed while I was sleeping. Thankfully, I woke up in time to slap and wandering hand away from my camera bag. However, despite all that, we got back to Lima safely at 2:30 am with tons of pictures and cool souvenirs.