Apr-Jul: I'll be in the South Pacific.
Dinner, Quechua style
Last week, my colleague Abe Koop and I visited a small Quechua village called Llihuari (say yee-WAH-ree) in the Huánuco Department of Peru.
Several million Quechua people live in Peru, primarily in the Andes Mountains. Their languages are related to that of the great Inca Empire, which controlled a huge territory in South America prior to Spanish contact and conquest. Here, a Pillco (Huallaga) Quechua woman invites us into her kitchen to have lunch.
The meal consisted of greens and boiled potatoes. The Andean peoples first domesticated potatoes thousands of years ago, and the tubers remain a dietary staple. They also domesticated the guinea pig or cuy (say COO-ee) and allow the little animals to roam free in the kitchen — until a birthday or some other special occasion calls for a special treat of, yes, guinea pig!
As, Abe and I munched on our boiled potatoes, skin and all, I noticed the boy beside me peeling the skin off of his potatoes. I assumed that he was just being a kid, but I was wrong. A few minutes later, somebody told us that only pigs eat potato skins. Augh! Everybody (ourselves included) had a good laugh at the “gringos”….
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