Food in Peru: Streets and Markets

A Peruvian microwave's control panel-- apparently stuffed peppers and rice pudding are popular dishes to heat up.

At Mercado San Pedro/ Mercado Central en Cusco, Peru many different vendors offered the same type of traditional pan (bread.)

Peru has such an amazing history of agriculture, and tremendous amounts of varieties. The dark maiz morado on the lower right is most popular cooked with lemon, sugar, and pineapple rind to make a dessert beverage. Maiz morado can also be used as a dyestuff!

This was a tamer image of the meat vendors at Mercado Central.

IF YOU CAN"T HANDLE DEAD MEAT, DON'T LOOK AT THE LAST PHOTOS IN THIS POST AFTER 7 PHOTOS DOWN. SUSIE, DON'T LOOK!

Ah, the ambulantes! In the foreground we see a vendor of fresh pineapple slices, to the right and below, a bakery on wheels, and in the background above to the far left is a music vendor whose ambulante is a big amp with CDs displayed on top!

A bakery on wheels

A really vertically integrated business: at the bottom, a cage of quails and their feed; hidden next to the quails, a propane tank; above them, raw quail eggs; at the top, boiled quail eggs for sale with condiments and salt! 5 eggs for one Peruvian Nuevo Sol, or $0.36 US.

Choclo is starchier than the sweet corn widely available in the US, but one ear of the large kernels is about as filling as a whole meal, also for about one Sol.

Crema volteada and leche asada are both types of baked eggy custards.

Churritos are little churros, just like you can find so easily in California. These are served with sugar, pero sin canela, without cinnamon. Dough was placed in the canister above and extruded into the hot oil below, heated with propane. Her perforated spoon was used both to cut lengths of dough as she squeezed it out, and to fish the finished product out of the fryer. This vendor was at the FAB7 conference, and her cart was decorated by a participant.

Perhaps the most famous traditional Peruvian dish is pollo a la brasa, or well- seasoned rotisserie chicken. This image is from a culinary museum in Lima.

Look out below, sensitive eyes and stomachs!

Another well- known traditional Peruvian dish is cuy, or Guinea pig.

I thought this hank of tracheas was striking.

Cochineal/ Cochinilla

Cochinilla is an insect that grows on paddle cacti. The females produce carminic acid, from which carmine is derived. This bright red dye is used to color food, makeup, and as demonstrated above, textiles! "Bug juice," indeed.

This was recorded in Chincero, Peru en la Valle Sagrada cerca de Machu Picchu.

Inca Písac

It's a lot of work-- climbing Incan ruins everyday. Okay, "everyday" so far is defined as yesterday and today. The greatest heights of this site are as much as 11,000 feet above sea level.

This is Inca Písac en Písac, Peru.

To give you a sense of scale, these tiny people are working on archaeological excavation and preservation of the steps, the same ones pictured above! These ruins are immense. It is so unbelievable to imagine how many people, and how much time & energy must have been spent to build and preserve this- only one of SO MANY oeuvres!

See the steps at the edges of the steps?

My foot is pictured here at the top of many stone steps. In this image I was already more than halfway down the mountain! I asked a local how many people die here each year, and she said, "Surprisingly few."

Hey Mom, I'm okay!

¡Estoy enamorada!

Yo y el Epilog con una cama que mide 36 x 24". No es una advertencia, pero me encanta.

Contrasts

Well, I didn't know about this until I got here. I'm doing okay, using the Buteyko Method to open my lungs. I haven't yet needed to use an inhaler. Today I walked about seven miles and took a few pictures along the way.

What a striking façade!

If you feel that you need to put bars on your windows, they might as well look good, no?

No, really.

Old and new

The tiny box on the left is populated by one person, who I think is trying to sell apartments in the building they plan to construct on that site. Note the banner of the fake outdoors that separates his shoebox from the palace next door.

Read every part of this image that you find legible.

To Lima

Ahora mismo estoy en un aeropuerto en Florida, en ruta a Lima, Peru. Voy a FAB7, la conferencia internacional de fabricacion digital! Es una convergencia de la mayoria de los FAB Labs del todo el mundo. Despues de la conferencia, voy a Cusco para explorar algunos de estos sitios.

I recorded a lot of video with the new camera. Now just to get the computer to recognize it! I installed some of a Glass Rain Chandelier at 1 Capitol Hill (the State House offices across Smith Street from the Capitol in Providence.) That will be on display into September, and I finished a screenprint for the current events print exchange in Providence. Sorry, no images yet. The print is about how food affects all bodies' functions. In it, I reference and recommend this fascinating article (Is Sugar Toxic?), this documentary (Food Matters), laughter yoga, and perhaps most importantly, GERSON THERAPY.