Que Rico! - Cynthia

You are walking down the street and then you smell something warm and inviting. Your feet begin to involuntarily walk into the panaderia off to your right. But once you are inside, it is not just the pan that smells amazing, it is the empenadas and tortas. And then you see some delicate pastry thing stuffed with manjar blanco (peruvian caramel at it's best). And before you know it, you have bought it and there is powdered sugar on your nose and on your cheek. And you sigh happily. And this is why we are all going to come back fat.
Here are just a few thing of the things that we have enjoyed eating.

Jake and Erin learning how to eat Maracuya. The next week I discovered Maracuya cheesecake... and two days later I just had to try the Maracuya mousse...



And here are the mangos that we turned into mango cake which Jake thoroughly enjoyed. 

This is a fruit called "Tuna" it is found on cactus and is quite tasty and fresh. The first couple weeks we were here we did not know that tuna was a fruit and kept wondering why everyone was offering us a seafood juice. 

Feliciana taught me how to make Arroz con Leche one morning. A lot of it. And it was amazing. 

This is beeswax full of honey. We really just wanted the wax to help make my dreadlock, but turns out you have to buy it with honey still in it. Lucky us. 





Our new friend Jose Miguel taught us how to make our own yogurt. That's right, homemade yogurt. We walked to the pasture next to our house, hollered at the lady milking her cows and asked if we could buy 10 liters of milk. She said yes and the next morning we had 10 litres of yogurt. The thing is, we don't have a fridge here, so we made our own. It consists of sticking the product in a bucket of freezing water in the shower. Jake calls it our "ghetto fridge". 









This is me eating my first empenada in Peru. And it certainly was not my last. They are these incredible stuffed pastries full of chicken and onions and spices and peppers and little bits of heaven. 










And this is Erin eating our two most favorite things ever. Queso fresca and Pan de Agua. Queso fresca is a type of cheese (which we also learned how to make thanks to Jose Miguel) and it is fresh and light and delicious. Paired with the most amazing roll ever, you have a winner. 


Pan de Agua. What words can I say to give you justice? You are crispy and chewy and you puff up so perfectly. You make a delicious crunch noise when I bite you and you fill my mouth with such happiness. I buy you almost every day and it is still not enough. When I go home I am learning how to make you. 

These are the wonderful ladies who cook for the kids of El Bichito every day. Here they are making "papas fritas" or french fries. And here we are eating our daily meal of rice and lentils. Who knew that something so simple could be so tasty?

And what would life be like without chicken foot soup?








 We have had fun experimenting with food on our own as well. We make pastas and... well more pasta and then we go eat it on our roof. 
And after discovering the hidden oven here we have made cake, cookies, banana snack cake, coffee cake, more banana snack cake and more coffee cake. Like I said, we might come home a little chubby. But very happy.