Peruvian Food

You can eat pizza in Cusco but why would you?  Neverthless, many people must since the places are everywhere – lcd dining.  The local speciality is cuy (click on the link if you do not know what it is.  But do not tell my children what Daddy has been eating!)  Roasted cuy is an old tradition – recall the discussion of syncretism and subterfuge and check out this Cusconian painting of the last supper (scroll down to the third picture for a good view.)

You can get western cuy in town but I wanted the real thing so I asked the hotel guide where the locals go.  After some argument (si, si, yo no quiero cuy touristico, yo quiero muy bien cuy tipico) she relented and got me a taxi for the next day.

We traveled well out of Cusco, past the shanty towns and out into the countryside where cows roam next to the highway and the occasional llama can be seen on the mountains.  After about 40 minutes we arrived at a downtrodden pueblo.  I thought this was it but we then headed out on a dirt road finally pulling into an alley/driveway behind a house.  Just like in the movies a fat goose and a skinny dog (you work it out!) moved slowly out of the way as we pulled up to a terrace behind the house. The restaurant, if you can call it that, wasn’t much to look at but opposite were the mountains.

Two Andean mamas right out of the tourist book seated us and began to stoke a large earthenware stove with wood.  The cuy was roasted and served with excellent Andean potatoes as well as macaroni and cheese (!).   

The cuy: good.  The view: great.  The experience: priceless.