Out of all the things we ate in South America, my favourite was Peruvian cuisine. Not a surprising choice, since many Peruvian dishes were influenced by the Chinese.
The two things I miss the most when traveling in a non-Asian country are:
- Good, spicy chilli (and I don’t mean tabasco). We are used to having chilli sauce available in restaurants, even fast-food restaurants. I eventually realised that that wasn’t the norm. Most places only serve ketchup, and I’m one of the few people in the world who doesn’t like ketchup. (Seriously, who eats ketchup?!) In other places, versions of a spicy/chilli dish are usually not spicy, leaving me disappointed.
- Clear flavoursome broths/soups. I say, ‘clear’ because cream-based soups just aren’t the same as clear East-Asian soups. I love soup! And noodles in soups!
So, when you see this Peruvian dish, caldo de gallina (below), which is a simple, hearty chicken soup that also has noodles in it, you’ll understand why Peruvian food now holds a special place in my heart.
Chicken soup for the soul | Photo credit: Juxxtapose
We had this soup at San Pedro Market, where we were looking to have breakfast before exploring Cusco. There were rows and rows of stalls selling more or less the same dishes. Many locals had already taken their seats and were happily downing their meals. We knew we wanted a good chicken soup to start our day, so we randomly picked a stall that was selling caldo de gallina, pointed and gestured at the picture, before sitting ourselves down at the wooden bench in front of the stall.
While we waited for our soup to be prepared, the hubs spied another Peruvian delight that he wanted to try. He went over to order it from the nice lady who told him to bring a camera to take photos of her pigs. And he came back with this:
Glistening piece of roasted pork | Photo credit: Juxxtapose
Lechón, it’s called, and what it is, is roast suckling pig. While this dish is also served in several other regions in the world, what struck me the most about it was its similarity to the roast suckling pig we Chinese have for celebratory occasions. Of course, we had to try it.
The day before, we had dinner at a restaurant called Pukhara. There, we decided to try the dish that you have to have in Peru – cuy! It’s roast guinea pig! It kinda looks like a mini roast suckling pig. They served it whole (as in the picture) for us to snap photos if we wanted to, and then took it away to cut it.
I’ve never considered how large a guinea pig really is | Photo credit: Juxxtapose
When they returned it, I was momentarily shocked as they had cut its head and faced its teeth upwards. So when I looked down at it, its face and its full set of unexpectedly pointy teeth were in my face. I let out an involuntarily yelp, to the amusement of the couple next to us. So, anyway, since it looked like miniature roast pig, I had expected it to taste similar as well. Unfortunately, the cuy we had at Pukhara was dry and its skin was not as crispy as I had hoped for.
Juxxtapose 