Sugar Quail Eggs, Magic Idols and Underdogs Triumphant

The last couple weeks have been pretty full. We said farewell to Farnaz and Paul, closing a chapter in which we fished for piranha in the Amazon, explored the Guayaquil mangrove swamps, hiked at altitude along the Andes' Cordillera Blanca, and hiked along beneath the condors of Patagonia. But we also fed our faces while in Lima. So, of course, we spent their last week mostly stuffed to the gills on a final epicurean odyssey.

Astrid y Gaston

We finally made it to the signature restaurant of Gaston Acurio, the superstar chef who has almost single-handedly put Peruvian cuisine on the world stage. But more than that, he has created a pride and love around the local food, something that Limeños celebrate in restaurants all over the city. The tasting menu was both education and performance art, with 50 fabulous new tastes and one nasty one (sea urchin ceviche…not for me). It's difficult, but I am resisting going into too much detail about every course (believe me, their are blogs out there that describe the 17 courses spoonful by spoonful). There were things I ate that I still don't know what they were. The first course came out served in a nest of branches, with savory twigs dusted in various spices, and fake quail egg shells made of sugar, with a clear syrup and passion fruit looking like a raw yolk. And it went on from there.

More Bones

I finally took Farnaz and Paul down to Cañete to see the Wari burial ground and ruins. They were amazed, as everybody is, by the skulls with hair, the pottery shards and fabrics. But then we stumbled upon something unusual, a 1000yr old figurine of a man. Made from terra cotta, with some remnants of what was once a white enamel coating. I emailed more with Goyo, the local Peace Corps volunteer who is putting an application in for USAID funding for a little museum to house and protect some of what is at the site. So hopefully, this little figure will end up safely under glass, there in the village. We hiked up to the top of the ruins, I for the first time getting a sense for the layout of the place, seeing the buildings rise up in my imagination. At the top, I inadvertently flushed a burrowing owl out from where it was roosting, in a burrow under the corner of an ancient wall. I also found a spent condom…proof that not everyone thinks of the site in the same way.

Peru vs Chile

Another big World Cup qualifying match and although Peru is numerically very far out from contention, this one was against arch-rival Chile. Chile not only took a chunk of Peru (and Bolivia's access to the sea!) in a war over a century ago, they continue to offend Peruvians by arguing territorial water boundaries and, more serious indeed, claiming that pisco sours are Chilean. [which is balderdash, there is a Peruvian town called "Pisco", which the Chileans can't say they don't know about because it's where they landed their troops in that war mentioned above!] Anyway, we told Farnaz and Paul that the place to watch the soccer game with real Peruvian fans was Chili's, the American chain. You may chuckle, as we did, and think it bad luck to watch a game against Chile at Chili's. But when Jen mentioned this to her coworkers, they didn't get the joke…it's only to our gringo ears that the two words sound even close. And it was NOT bad luck. The underdog Peru fought as we bit our nails, jumping up at every close call, zero-zero until within three minutes from the final whistle when Peru scored. Later, back at home, the cars out on the street were still honking to the rhythm of the Peru cheer. Even the next day, out at the Mercado Indio, Farnaz and Paul witnessed a couple of blissed-out vendors tapping the rhythm out: tap---tap---taptaptap---taptap---taptaptap "Peru!"