It has been a lot of fun trying different foods and I am only getting started.  After looking around and learning more about the cuisine I realized I will need to write several entries about the food here.  First and foremost the “pastry of the day” program is alive and well and has been expanded to include cakes and any other baked good that catch my eye.  There is no shortage of candidates!

The pastry of the day. Layered and yummy.

On the walk back from the project yesterday Carrie, Laura, and I passed a small bakery nestled inside a wall along a very narrow street.  As usual, when you pass these niche stores you cannot help but  look in.  Once we looked in our eyes immediately focussed on an attractive display case with many different kinds of cakes and baked goods.  We had no choice; we had to stop and pick out a pastry to try.   We selected something that consisted of many layers and appeared to be covered in nuts.  Inside the layers was a dulce de leche filling.  I had tasted something like this before but the pastry from this small gem of a bakery was much better – the filling was a bit more rich and had a deep carmel flavor.

Chicha Morada- a drink made of blue corn

Today we went on an excursion with our Spanish teacher to a small cafe that serves chicha morada and piccarones and only that.  Both are specialities of the region. The chicha morada is a drink made from blue corn so it is purple.  It has lemon, sugar, water, cinnamon and cloves in it.  There are other corn based drinks, some fermented, but the chicha morada was not.  There is even a drink made with quinoa.  The chicha morada was sweet, some thought it had an initial taste like bubble gum.  I could detect a faint similarity at first but then noticed a slight corn flavor.  Over all it was not bad, but a bit on the sweet side for me (in a drink).  The piccarones look like donuts and are made like donuts in that they are fried in oil, but the dough is not made of wheat flour.  Instead the dough is a comination of pumpkin and sweet potatoes with egg, cinnamon and cloves.  Then it is fried and immediately served hot with a regional honey on top.  So far these Peruvian donuts are my favorite.  Not too sweet and served hot, YUM!

Piccarones (YUM!)

Our meals have been highly variable and for the most part, pretty good.  Breakfast is constant from day to day.  It is continental style with bread and butter and sometimes a strawberry jelly.  There is dried cereal and yogurt to go on it if you choose (no milk) and a bowl of freshly cut fruit.  Bananas and oranges are also available all day long.  The great thing about breakfast is the fresh juice that appears magically every morning.  We have had all kinds of different juice from orange to mango to pineapple to papaya to banana.  The latter is very thick and is practically a smoothie in consistency as opposed to a more liquid juice form.  All have been very good and I attribute that to the fact that they are fresh daily.

Lunch is usually very hearty.  As an example, we were served spinach pie yesterday.  The slice was huge and I could not finish the whole thing although I did eat all of the spinach out of the crust.  (I am not going to waste a close encounter with a leafy green vegetable!)

Spinach Pie for lunch

For dinner tonight we had a very nice chicken enchilada type dish complete with fresh guacamole.  Dinner is always accompanied by desert and for tonight it was rice pudding with raisins.  My favorite desert so far has been a cheesecake that had a bit of a lemon flavor and looked like a slice of pie.  In general the meals are very good although sometimes they run a bit heavy on the starch, as I have mentioned before.

Dinner tonight. Enchiladas accompanied by a beet salad

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There are many street vendors all around Cusco selling everything from slices of apple cake, boiled white corn with cheese, shish-kabobs with meat and potatoes to tamales.  Elizabeth and I tried some tamales on the way home  for lunch from Spanish class.  We decided we needed an appetizer in order to justify eating right before lunch.  We each purchased a savory and a sweet one.  Both were good.  The tamales are made of white corn here and therefore have a very light flavor and texture to them.  I have not tried many tamales because for some reason I always had the impression they tended to be heavy, but I did like these.  Ricardo, our Spanish teacher, mentioned in class that the tamales in Lima, which are made of yellow corn, are a bit heavier.

Tamales "appetizer" before lunch today

It seems that the exploration of foods can continue without end.  I have yet to get back to the San Pedro market to try the “jugo de especial” (special juice) and take photos of the items I could not identify last time I was there.  Most likely this will be one of my weekend projects.  More to follow……