One person's pet is another person's dinner

Peru has several food specialities, some of which are familiar to us while others might seem a little out of the ordinary.  The potato is actually native to Peru with over 3000 varieties having been catalogued.  I don't think I've had a meal without at least one potato item and sometimes two.  They even serve a sweet potato slice with one of their other specialities, ceviche.

One of their more pleasurable specialities is a drink called a Pisco Sour.  Pisco is a brandy liquor made with first press grape juice.  To this you add lime juice, simple syrup and whipped egg whites.  I have to say it's a very pleasant way to start a meal, end a meal, or just skip the meal altogether.  Our friends on the trip took the opportunity on our train ride today (that's another post) to coax the recipe for the perfect Pisco Sour from the bartender. 

Now for the slightly unusual food specialty - cuy.  First let me say that cuy is so important in the Peruvian culture that there's a painting of The Last Supper hanging in a cathedral in Cusco with a cuy proudly displayed on the table ready for consumption.  And what you might ask is a cuy?  Well, it's one of our furry little childhood pets, the guinea pig.  We actually visited a village today where they were raising them on a dirt floored room.  My understating, although I didn't have a chance to confirm this, is that they bake them with their skin on which becomes crispy.  It's acceptable to eat the cuy with your hands because they are so bony.  Yummy!

The last food item I did try was alpaca.  I actually had it in carpacio form (that's raw and sliced very thin) for an appetizer last night.  That might explain my bathroom visit(s) in the wee hours of the morning where the only thing I could think of was that I had come all this way to visit Machu Picchu and by God I wasn't going to let a  little food poisoning get in my way!  After clearing my system of any remains of dinner (I tried to say that as delicately as I could, but text me and I can give you all the gory details) I was good as new a ready for the climb of my life.