Pachamanca

I hope you are not bored by another food post, but this week has been gastronomically epic.  For Spanish class one day, we went to my teacher´s house to make Pachamanca.  She has a beautiful house with banana trees and her own cuy operation.

Ok, so here is how pachamanca works.  First, you dig a hole and heat up a bunch of rocks.  When the rocks are hot, you put them in the hole then add a layer of herbs your meat of choice (we had chicken), camote (like a sweet potato, but better), potatoes, choclo (giant corn) and fava beans.

Then there´s another layer of herbs, banana leaves, cardboard covering, and you bury the whole operation.

Leave it for an hour or so and watch a practice cockfight in the meantime.  The man in the prep pictures is my teacher´s husband and cockfighting is one of his hobbies.  He put covers on the spurs of the roosters so they couldn´t really hurt each other.  They become like dinosaurs when they fight, all flying frills and jabs.  It an important part of the cluture, but I don´t think it will be one of my preferred spectator sports.

After cockfighting, you dig up the food and take it out of the hole.  Then you pile it on a plate and eat it with your hands and some ahi.  This was my plate.  It was so delicious, I scarfed up everything but half a potato and some of the fava beans.  I can´t even tell you.  I´m going to start a pachamanca restaurant when I get back to the states and make a billion dollars.

Then for dessert we had tres leches and I snacked on a cuy.

I´m trying hard to be less of a needy wuss about what I´m eating.  I´m accepting that it´s mostly out of my hands right now and trying to find peace with it.  Though I still look forward to cooking for myself more when I get to site.  One dinner this week was the first meal that really gave me pause and made all my former vegetairan sentiments tingle and squirm.

It turns out that chicken foot isn´t too bad.  It doesn´t taste like much and has a bit of a gelatinous quality.  You eat it like corn on the cob.  Onward and upward in culinary exploration!

On Friday, my spanish teacher took the class out for cake because we´re switching classes this week.  I had chocolate cake and a cappuccino, then us students went to meet a bunch of others for kareoke in Chosica.  Cake, espresso, and beer made for an interesting mix of sensations in my body, but probably helped my singing.  Jacobo and I brought the house down with Hey Ya!

Then Saturday, a few of us went to Lima to buy guitars.  I came back with a charrango, which is like an Andean ukelele.  I figured I should go for it while I here and I´m really excited to learn it.  Here are my host mom and sister playing with it in my room.