Inspired by wixbloom's thread about Brasilian food, I bring to you Bolivian and Peruvian Food! Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Ingredients (under construction) III. Bolivian Food (under construction) IV. Peruvian Food (under construction) I. Introduction For those not familiar with the countries in question, here is a handy map of a section of South America: Bolivia is that landlocked country at the bottom right. It consists mostly of mountains (ANDES), a big chunk of Amazon, the transitional areas and unique habitats created in between, and grassland. Peru covers a big chunk of coast on the left, and is usually divided into the Coastal, Mountain and Jungle regions. Both countries were originally part of the Virreinato del Alto Peru under the Spanish Crown, and was forcefully converted into Catholicism by missionaries who travelled into the highlands and deep into the jungle, our mines worked hard to fill the coffers of Spain. At one point, the city of Potosi was bigger and richer than London at the time due to its rich silver mines, said silver spreading so far that even know, the British Queen has silver teasets that originate from Potosi. The resulting mix of influences and conflict has created two very different countries, regardless of the similar origins and our shared Andean and Amazonian contexts, but both rich in cultural and religious sincretism, festivals, and amazing archeological and historical sights. Neither country is given the attention it deserves. And yes, *sigh*, we have llamas.
II. Ingredients A big part of what makes the cuisines in both countries so delicious, and also so diverse, are our ingredients. We have LOADS of delicious things that you don't get in the USA or Europe, or that directly shaped today's cuisine after exportation. The list I am making here is nowhere near comprehensive, and concentrates mostly on the overlap between countries. i. Fruit Maracuyá This is a type of passion fruit, and my favourite fruit to boot... but not to eat! It's way too acidic and sour for that. Instead, you make a delicious juice from it and add loads of sugar. Or you use it to make ice cream. The best ice cream ever. Basically my favourite fruit juice and my favourite ice cream are maracuyá. I've seen it used way more in Perú than in Bolivia. Granadilla Another member of the passion fruit family, now this is a fruit you can really eat. You crack it open with your hands, and scoop out the crunchy gel seed inside. My family likes to call it the booger fruit. You eat the boogers. Childhood goals achieved. Capulí/Aguaymanto Capulí as it is known in Bolivia and Ecuador, grows inside these husk like leaves, and when the leaves start to dry out and become golden, you peel them back for the delicious golden little fruits inside. They are sweet and tasty. I used to have one in our garden when we lived in Quito and when they were in season we'd just pick them out, no gardening care needed, they were as present as a weed. Lucuma I actually don't like lucuma, and it isn't a popular fruit, and I think it is only Peruvian, or at least mostly Peruvian. I haven't seen it in the markets yet. However, it is used for very traditional, artisanal ice creams and my dad loves them. Chirimoya Chrimoya is a fucking trip, it looks like a scaly reptile thing from the outside, and then you cut it in half and it is all white and delicious. When ripe, the white insides get soft and mushy, and all you have to do is grab a spoon and scoop it out and eat. A bit like watermelon, you have to be careful of the seeds. But this fruit? This fruit is so dang sweet. It is delicious. You don't want to do anything with it, it's so good. It's perfect. Just eat the dang thing already. There are way more fruits, but those are the main ones right now, unless you want me to talk about how limes are used in LOADS of Peruvian dishes. ii. Meat. There are a few additions to chicken, beef and pork you should know about. Llama Yes, people do eat llama. You will only see this in the actual Andes, though. Cuy I'm sorry, we do eat cuy in the highlands. Um. That is guinea pig. Yes I have eaten cuy. It was delicious. I... do not suggest you google cuy dishes if you like guinea pigs. They tend to serve them roasted whole. iii. Crops Potatoes Look, the Andes is the place where potatoes originated. Peru has some 4000 varieties, Bolivia some 3000, there is some overlap in there. We don't eat all of them, but there are a good seven or so you see in pretty much every market. We roast them, fry them, mash em in a stew, everything. Btw, if you get the opportunity to eat the following potato chips... YOU REALLY SHOULD THEY ARE DELICIOUS. We also have loads more tubers like oca and ulluco, but I don't want to write blurbs for all of them and I don't cook them. They're used primarily in highland (mountain) cooking. Additionally, we have sweet potatoes as well, with two varieties: the more typical orange one, and a very purple one. They both taste good :P
I love maracuja - I encountered it in Rwanda a few years back. My fave ever. So good. *camps out in this thread and @wixbloom's Brazilian thread* edit to add: I am SO frickin' jealous of all your potatoes. man do i want some.
iii. Crops (continued) Quinoa Yep! We have the superfood that has become a huge thing for health nuts and keeps resulting in people arguing about whether Americans should eat quinoa or not because *gasp* "oh no the farmers are not eating it anymore and now they have BAD HEALTH" and putting forward really simplistic arguments about boycotting it which... would remove the only source of income said farmers have. Ok, that complaint aside, I really love quinoa. You can make it into salads, and soups, and flavour with many things... there are three varieties, roughly, of white, red, and black. Generally I see people cooking the white quinoa but they are roughly the same. I've heard said that the Spanish settlers prohibited quinoa and quiwicha because it made the local population too strong. Don't quote me on that, however. Spicy Peppers I'm going to let you in on a secret... all of the spicy peppers you know, all of the genus Capsicum originates from Bolivia. In fact, scientists have tracked it down to a specific valley in Cochabamba. I love spicy food, so this makes me RIDICULOUSLY and IRRATIONALLY proud. It's amazing how much these spicy peppers have spread to become a part of so many cuisines of the world, so the fact that they all originate from a specific valley in my country makes me dance in glee. That said, the varieties originally exported probably were the ones found in Central America. Ulupica This spicy "cherry" is basically the closest we have to the ancestor of all capsicum peppers. You can only find it in Bolivia, it is super small, and it is super full of really spicy seeds. My family keeps dried toasted Ulupica to flavour up some stews. And it is really spicy. Rocoto/Locoto Delicious spicy pepper, this is a big mainstay in both cuisines. Peruvians call it Rocoto, Bolivians call it Locoto, but it is the same thing. It grows a bit smaller than my fist, and is very spicy, so usually you don't cook with the veins or seeds and chop it very, very small. Dad once decided to make stuffed rocoto, and made the mistake of not using gloves while cleaning it up. My dad's hands burned for three days. So! Be careful with this. A lot of tourists see slices of rocoto and think it is tomato and... well, it's a surprising experience. Aji Amarillo (yellow pepper) This is a very, very mild pepper compared to the others, and used more to give depth to flavours. It is very typical for many dishes in Peru and makes for some very yummy sauces :D Still, don't eat the veins and seeds. Yuca I think this is known as cassava or manioc in English, and yes, it is the same tuber that is poisonous if not cooked properly. It's a good source of carbs and common in the jungle regions, but it's also pretty popular in the rest of the regions of the two countries. Choclo Choclo is basically corn, but we have a varietal that I haven't seen outside of Andean countries. The kernels are very big, pale, and delicious. God I love choclo. Huacatay It's a herb. We use it in sauces. It's. I don't know how to describe the taste! I've seen it way more in Bolivia!
i had cherimoya once but i think it was not ripe - it was fairly hard and flavorless. ): (that was the Day Of Strange New Fruits - we also tried to eat prickly pears, resulting in everyone's hands getting spiked - but it turns out you can't get very good Strange New Fruits in a supermarket in New Hampshire.)
breathes heavily at all of those delicious looking POTATOES #I love potatoes okay #I have a deep spiritual connection to Rincewind
Oh man, yeah, if it was hard it isn't ripe, you test for ripeness by pressing the fruit to see if it has give/how much give it has. Also dang, PRICKLY PEARS ARE HARD TO EAT. We also have them in Bolivia. You have to cut and peel them without actually using your hands so you can have the yummy inside without the spikes. Mom, dad, and my uncle were traveling through the altiplano when they decided to stop for lunch, and found a nice spot that was all cleared of bushes and stuff where they put their blanket and sat down to eat. Turns out that the spot had been cleared to "rub" the prickly pears and snap the spines off the fruit. They spent hours carefully removing painful spines from each other.
those potatoes are making me hella envious. wow. also interesting fruits! and veggies! Very very nice!
I adore Peruvian/Bolivian food! Thanks for posting this. Awesome! Please post some recipes :-) if you have the time! I have digestive issues eating rice so I switched to quinoa (it should be spelled "kinwa" but the Spanish made things hard when the wrote down those Quechua words.) I mainly eat it for the taste, I don't get people who crow about stuff being "healthy". My favorite food to make, we call it "Inca Cassarole", it has potatoes (hunt down the purple ones!) quinoa, peppers, onions, eggs and this pale white cheese. It's so amazing. I'm not sure how "traditional" it is, but it is very tasty. I live in Jersey (USA) and we have a decent Peruvian population, so I can hunt down odd chillies and colored potatoes. My husband is obsessed with ceviche. I don't think we ever met fish we didn't like (to eat). I imagine that's a Peruvian dish as it is hard to get fish in Bolivia? I have 3 pet guinea pigs, and I'm not grossed out by people eating them: I eat chicken all the time! I imagine some people have pet chickens too. I know that if the Incas and native people of the Andes never domesticated the cuyes for food, we would never had such nice, cute little pets. That's how I see it. I would never eat my "cuycitas gorditas" but I would eat one if I visited a nice family in the Andes and they made me dinner (from a different pig, not my girl-sows!) It seems rude not to, and I'm sure they taste good. Does that make me strange? Also, "cuy"'is the sound guinea pigs make to ask to be fed by humans (English speakers say "wheek" but it's the same sounds in a different order) , they are almost like real live Pokémon, screaming their own name. I'm glad these living potatoes with fur exist. Sorry my blog is about guinea pigs and I have a special interest in all things to do with Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and the former Inca Empire. My Spanish teacher in High-school learned there and he also spoke Quechua since he worked with poor farmers in the mountains. Have a good day and enjoy all the food :-)
I am so jealous over your choclo, and wish those were even rare in the North American areas. They look like the good aspects of corn, to me. Also, I've been lucky to have capuli at a wedding (according to a produce/ingredients book I have, I think it might have the alternate name physalis?) . It's really sweet and good, and I'm just fond of peeling the leaves for it, but it's hard to find so knowing at least a few other names for it and it's Peruvian helps in finding it at farmer's markets. Thank you for that. Will you be posting recipes in the near future?
@Kaycashew :D Yeah, by now quinoa has loads of spelling variations in South America as well, but since Spanish is more phonetically consistent than English it is pretty easy to figure out what people mean. I do think quinoa is pretty healthy, but it certainly isn't the answer to all health problems that some US health nuts make it out to be. Peruvians really love their food, so maybe if you ask around you can find a little latino market to get what you need. When I lived in New York (state not city), I was able to find a latino market and grab some queso fresco and aji amarillo and stuff for a few dishes. I love ceviche, I understand your husband's obsession. Yes, you are correct, it is a Peruvian dish since Bolivia doesn't have a coast anymore and we eat river fish, specifically, rainbow trout. There is some really tasty rainbow trout that tastes so good a la parilla, so gooood. I dunno if that makes you strange! It seems logical to me, but it is hard to fight against culturally taught distinctions of what animals are food, not food, and pets. And I am really glad you know so much :D I personally thing the whole Andes region is fascinating (my dad is an anthropologist and my uncle is an anthropologist/sociologist/psychologist, so they've always shown me how fascinating our history is. My uncle even has a very well known book called La Mascara de Piedra (The Stone Mask) which apparently is a pretty landmark text in a lot of disciplines in the area now :D @missoyashirou I have never seen choclo anywhere in the states :< Sadly, I think that corn growers are only subsidized for one species so there is little interest and market for it. Capuli is indeed Physalis! I checked its wiki just in case and it has a bunch more names that might help you in your search, stuff like uchuva, peruvian groundcherry, stuff like that. Maybe a photo would make it easier for people to recognize it XD. I will be posting recipes, though mostly I will try to tailor them to recreating in other countries. I know of a good way to make papa a la huancaina in the usa if you just get the aji amarillo, so there is at least one good way of doing it. There are also a growing number of Peruvian restaurants in the world for curious folks - Peruvian cuisine is now a UNESCO recognized world heritage :D
