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Posts tagged ‘travel’

The Best of South America

Our two months in South America were amazing, and incredibly delicious. I certainly like a bit more vegetable matter and a bit less fat in my life, but that’s not what I’ll remember from the eating and drinking we did on this trip. I’ll remember the interesting flavors and unique ingredients and new ways of combining and working with food. I wish I could be back in a kitchen sooner to start playing with all of the things that I learned, but it’ll have to wait.

To wrap up all of the writing I’ve done about our experiences in South America – and because a few of you have specifically asked for it – here’s a list of the best things we ate and drank during our time there. I know some of the items are kind of specific to our itinerary and experiences, but others are certainly able to be recreated. Know that I’m always happy to answer questions about places we went and things we ate (as well as the things we purposefully didn’t eat), should you find yourself going to these places.

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Colombia: The Food

Our final week in South America was, by my measure, our best. Colombia was absolutely enchanting – beautiful, vibrant, sophisticated, friendly, and welcoming to an extent that it took us aback a bit. All the southern-moving travelers we met – literally all of them – told us Colombia was their favorite, and even with those expectations looming, it impressed.

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We made our way steadily north through the country, coming in from the south on a hellish 19-hour bus ride and making our way north to the Caribbean coast. We traversed the mountainous coffee region and hiked through wax palm groves and flew over river valleys and took a boat to an island off the coast – and tried to eat everything good along the way.

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Ecuador: The Food

We didn’t spend as much time in Ecuador as we would have liked – two days in Quito, four days in the jungle, and two days in Otavalo, a smaller town about two hours north of the city – but we were coming to the end of our trip, and knew we’d want and need time to get across the expanse of Colombia before heading home (especially because we had a plane to catch up on the Caribbean Coast on our last day in South America). And considering our four days in the jungle weren’t particularly notable in terms of food and eating, we really didn’t have a lot of experience with the cuisine of Ecuador. But we did what we could with the time we had, and between Quito and Otavalo we spent significant amounts of time at public markets, which gave us great insight into the diets and cuisine of the people in those areas.

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Peru: The Food

We spent just under three weeks in Peru, including Cusco (Machu Picchu/Aguas Calientes), Puno (Lake Titicaca), and Arequípa, including Christmas and New Years. (You can see more about our time there on our travel blog – Brett just posted about Cusco/Machu Picchu yesterday.) It was an amazing few weeks and we finally felt like we were travelling, instead of just on vacation – partially because we were now a few weeks into our time in South America, but also because it felt far more adventurous and exotic than had Chile and Argentina.

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Workshop recap: Peruvian Cooking Experience

When we first started planning our trip, I had visions of learning how to cook traditional foods wherever we’d go. In South America these visions consisted of images like me and a well-worn abuela, making empanadas. Me and an Argentinian butcher, grilling up all those cuts of beef I’d never heard of before. Me and a Chilean fishmonger, me and a Peruvian potato farmer, so on and so forth. Heads together, laughing, eating, poking fun at each other, exchanging knowledge (in a mostly one-way exchange, let’s be honest). But I’m not exactly sure where I thought I’d find these people; people with time and patience to spare and the interest in opening up their homes, their businesses, and/or their kitchens to teach a gringo how to make their traditional food. People who I’d be comfortable enough with to poke fun at. Now that I’ve been to some of these places, the thought is hilarious at best and embarrassing at worst. Also, I probably should have taken into consideration the consistently recurring fact that I don’t speak Spanish. Brett does a wonderful job translating for shopkeepers and hotel receptionists and flight attendants, but that only goes so far and gets pretty exasperating after even the shortest of exchanges.

And thus it was that, with only a tiny bit of logic and reasoning, my dreams of picture-perfect, authentic, intimate South American cooking lessons were bashed.

So in the absence left behind, I’ve sought out tourist cooking classes as we’ve planned each city – entirely touristy, yes, and almost certainly of the sort that merely guide you through a couple of recipes and send you on your way, but still a chance for me to ask questions about the food and get answers from people who at least somewhat know what they’re talking about.

But – it turns out these sorts of classes aren’t as common or as affordable as they are in other parts of the world (I’m looking at you, Southeast Asia …), and in each city I’d come up empty-handed. Until Arequípa, Peru, that is. In Arequípa, I found one that was even better than I could have hoped for, a three-part workshop designed by the owner of our hotel, who used to be a professional chef, and set in the hotel’s beautiful outdoor courtyard. 

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