Susana lives in Peru, and very kindly answered my questions about food and eating there (in delicious detail!):
Q: What kinds of different/ unique foods are there in Peru?
A: Tons!! This is so hard to do through email… I might have to send you to some internet sources that have already compiled this information… or we could do a skype date… hehe. Lately (last 5 years) Peru´s cuisine has become very popular. Here for example is a webpage on culinary expeditions that are now more and more popular. Yes, people come here just to EAT!
http://www.culturalexpeditions.com/peruvian_recipes.html
http://great-peruvian-recipes.com/
http://www.yanuq.com/english/recipesperuvian.asp
Q: Have you discovered any yummy foods?
A: Oh dear, lot´s and lot´s of them.
Some of my favorite are ceviche (raw fish cooked in lime with hot peppers and onions), arroz con mariscos (rice with seafood- cooked), ají de gallina (spicy chicken with rice… I found something similar in Vancouver Butter chicken from India!), chaufa (peruvian chinese fried rice)
Q: Any gross ones?
A: Oh yes! Mondongo (a stew made with cow fat, yes, just the fat, gross) and I don´t like anything that has things like liver, tounge, chicken heart, etc. People have that in stew or in some soups. Not me!!
Q: Are you missing any foods that you can get here but not there?
A: There are some food items that I miss from Vancouver more than meals themselves… Like scones with butter! And natural plain (really thick) yogurt. For some strange reason Peru has really watery yogurt!! That is why I spent some time making my own yogurt last year. Candy salmon !!! Smoked salmon!! Really chunky oatmeal, pine nuts, chai tea…mmmm
Other stuff I don´t get here is exotic food from other parts of the world so Indian food (only know of 3 restaurants), Tai Food (not many either) and cheap sushiiii!!! We have good sushi but it is still in the snob category of food here. Gotta love MSG sushi from Vancouver for that!!
Q: Will you miss any foods when you come back?
A: Oh I miss lots of it. Specially the desserts!! Remember that once I made that very sweet caramel – like dessert with soft merengue on top that I bought to Pam´s and almost no one could eat it… But I think you like it? IT was called suspiro de limeña (Limeña´s sigh) and yes I do sigh when I think of it!! I even miss it now because I am laying off sugar and carbs hehe. Oh yes trust me, this email is making me hungry!
(added by Sarah: YES I remember it!! The minute I read this I started drooling a little. SOOOOOOOOO yummy!)
Q: Are there any food traditions?
A: Traditions yes! Let´s see…
On Sundays families usually have : comida criolla which is creole food (literal transltion) which is the fusion food between Spanish and native ingredients and recipes.
On holidays we have alienated northern hemisphere traditions, you´ll see:
-Christmas eve and New Years eve dinner: turkey or roasted pig, apple sauce, yam puree, potato salad, nuts and dried fruit (prunes, raisins, etc.)
-Easter Friday: most people eat fish because many people are Catholic and you don´t eat read meat while the J-man is resurrecting. For some reason it just interferes with the whole process (?). I love fish so I just follow along..
Q: How much importance does food play in daily life?
A: It is really important. I take time to eat. Where I work and at my home people sit down at the table for lunch and a (light) dinner. In Peru, the big meal of the day is lunch and people get at least an hour off work to have it.
More than fast food, if you work somewhere downtown you would probably go to a place called a menu. A Menu is a place, maybe a house or an garage- improvised restaurant where you can pay between 5 -12 soles (that would be around 3-5 dollars) for a 3 course home cooked meal. So you can get a salad or soup, then a main course. Say rice with chicken and potatoes and a fruit, jello or a pudding and a drink. The cooks may use MSG to cook or maybe potato puree from a box… but besides that it is all made from scratch. Why? Because here prime materials… as in veggies and fruit are cheaper than industrialized, dehydrated boxed things (thank god!)
Q: Is there any interesting table ettiquite? (did you know that it’s rude to cut more than three bites worth of food at a time over here?)
A: Whaaaat?! Really? No idea.
People are pretty big on table manners across social classes. I did not encounter those issues in Canada but in the US there were some pretty nasty table eating manners. But no crazy ones that I can think of, no.
Q: What would you say an average Peruvian diet consists of, and how would you rate the general health of the people who eat it?
A: Ok, this is definitely a weak point.
So we don´t have the industrialized crap in our bodies due to what we eat which is nice…but we are messed up nutritionally. Because there are so many traditional ways to eat things here, and Peruvian don´t like their ingredients messed around with (or else, it won´t taste like mommas or gandma´s home cooking, you know?) we eat very rich, fattening high caloric food. And we like it! There is this pork sandwich called ¨chicharrón de chancho¨ that is about 2,000 calories. And you usually eat it at the beach in your lovely bikini or after a party. Almost all of our meals have potatoes and rice in them (at least) Many of them have potatoe, rice, yuca (kasava, another carb!) and corn. So we carb up like you wouldn´t believe! As an example, because of the carb overload there are many poor people in the highlands who are obese and mal nourished because of this. Not getting all the nutrients they should but sure are getting fat off all those potatoes!
Q: Are there any major (or minor) dietary concerns over there? As in something that people tends to be picky about (can I get a vanilla latte? oh wait! I need it to be soy.. and sugar free… and decaf)
A: I think I pretty much covered this one in my previous answer. Peruvians are picky about how each dish should be. How it really is, traditionally. No imitations please! And Peruvians love to eat and then critique food. Very typical. It´s like its part of the eating a meal ritual.
Q: What is food packaging like in Peru?
Do they have the same types of regulations as here where packaging and information are concerned?
A: Food packaging can go from no packaging to very sketchy packaging to normal (US or Canada style packaging). This has definitely picked up in the last decade. You can still find local cookies or crackers for example without that kind of information though.
Q: Is it easy to find basic, healthy options?
A: I would think so. If you are the one to eat out and cheap, then it is harder, because you will be bumping into potatos and rice all the time, since majority of people do not serve much veggies. Oh, and if you are a vegetarian that is really hard to handle. It seems to me that if you are Ok with eating the rice it works, but majority of meals have a meat or chicken component.
Q: How about organic/ ethically treated options?
A: Tough. Each time there are more and more options, but I doubt the definitions of organic in scope of the whole process these foods are passed through.
Q: What is the grocery shopping experience there like?
A: You have up, mid and low scale shopping markets and also municipal markets that are basically a lot of stands with fruit, veggie, meat, fish … Like a farmers market, but produce does not necessarily come from small sale or organic farming. Ideally I get different things at different places. Fish, fruit and veggies for example, are much cheaper and riper in the case of fruit at the municipal market and all the other canned, boxed, etc. goods are better to get at the shopping markets.
Q: Do people seem to put thought into what they’re eating?
A: Peruvians put a lot of thought into food and eating, but in the culinary sense, not in the what is really in my food or where do the ingredients come from sense of it. I think this is natural and OK though in a society that still cooks mostly from scratch off raw vegetables and fruit.
Q: Are there a lot of fast food options? Restaurant options? What kinds?
A: Fast food yes. American-o options and a lot of Peruvian options.
American fast food chains:
MacDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns Pizza, KFC.
Peruvian:
Bembos (Peruvian hamburger), Dinnos Pizza, Pollo a la brasa (Rostisierre chicken). These chicken fast food chains are all over the country. You usually get chicken with fries and a soda.
Q: Would you say food is generally more expensive or less expensive than here?
A: More expensive in Vancouver!!
Q: Is there any at home gardening going on? Community gardens?
A: No community gardens. Some people grow their own veggies and fruit but again, that is more work than buying ok veggies and fruit for really little money so it makes more sense to buy than to grow.
Q: Anything else that I’ve missed or that you’d like to add?
A: Just to explain some of the backstory to all of this, I think a lot of the lack of organic, home gardening, knowing what is in your food, etc. comes from the fact that in Peru there are still a lot of small, mid and large scale farmers that are poor that supply vegetables and fruit for cheap to the country. Although these might be grown on fertilizer and bugspray, it is still not largely transgenic and mutant like in most first world countries and its cheap. Also, you have to remember that in a poor country like Peru people have primary needs like food and water and cannot put that much thought into selecting food. People are basically working very long hours and love eating. Home cooking is still around and popular because it is much cheaper to cook your meal from scratch for your family than eat fast food. I even read in the paper today that the ministry of health wants to put a special tax on fast food, to prevent people from eating it so much. So, although I have answered these questions from my standing point, at country scale looking after what you eat behaviors are still not very compatible with a developing country day to day survival –lifestyle. Higher social-economic class that have higher level of education can worry about these things and bit by bit people are demanding information on nutritional and caloric values of meals (for example served at fast food restaurants)
Thank you so much Suci!!
I LOVE the idea of food being made from scratch all over the place, and buying directly from farmers etc. at municipal markets as opposed to the big stores (I have fallen a little in love with the farmers market up here!). Even if it’s not organic, at least you know who it’s coming from, and can give money directly to the people who grow the food, as opposed to the grocery store, who pays the guy in the suit before the farmer. I could definitely go for an hour long lunch, walk through the warm sunny streets and eat a three course home cooked meal at a Menu!
I also liked reading about how a lot of the eating revolves around tradition. I feel like tradition here (food wise at least) is reserved for the few feasting holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter), and while everyone has their mom’s favourite dish (mine is my Mom’s terryaki chicken wings), it seems like few people are trying to carry those things on.
Putting a tax on fast-food is a fantastic idea! If people had to pay 20% at McD’s they might rethink a little.. problem is, what would be classified as fast food? Salad Loop is fast, but not fried.. hmmm.
Thanks again Lady! I’ll have to get my bum down there to come eat with you someday (and do some knitting – Susana runs a weekly knit night!), thought I think I’ll skip out on the 2,000 calorie pork sandwich on the beach..
By the way.. The dessert that Susana mentioned is FANTASTIC! It’s a super sweet, creamy, milky custard-ish dessert with soft meringue and (if I remember correctly) cinnamon on top. I can almost taste it just thinking about it! I’ll have to get the recipe and try it out..
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