As mentioned, I recently took a trip to Peru, visiting the Amazon area, Cusco, and Machu Picchu/Aguas Calientes… follow along as I show you everything I ate on my amazing trip!
Directly after our last breakfast at Tambo Jungle Lodge, we were taken to the airport, where we found our flight delayed by an hour or so. HB and I shrugged and looked around the teeny airport and found a small shack of a ‘restaurant’ with the above menu. Everything was so cheap, it was impossible not to sit down and eat something. I wanted something interesting so I went for ‘spice sausage’ (the left side of the menu is in Spanish and the right side in English) – calabreza. HB opted for tamal, which the lone man working the small cafe-ish spot assured us in Spanish was tamale.
But of course I also opted for a Fanta, since it appears that in every country but ours, soda companies use real sugar, making the drink taste infinitely more palatable than it might be in the US. (I won’t lie to you, I drink Fanta in the US occasionally too.)
HB’s tamal came quickly and we wondered what was in it.
A bit of chicken and the occasional olive. HB enjoyed it, but really enjoyed the onions as she scarfed those down. She couldn’t enumerate exactly why the onions were so tasty, but perhaps they’d been salted? vinegared? I don’t know. I just know she ate the whole pile (and I leaned away from her on the airplane hahaha).
My calabreza sandwich came quickly, warm and with fork marks in each side of the bun, a point that amused me to no end. As I sat there looking at it, a man with a heavy cockney British accent asked me what I was eating, said, “Sounds good to me!” and then proceeded to order the same thing.
Fried potato strings on top of a sliced open sausage… I thought this looked a bit familiar and smelled even more so. Ah! Calabreza appears to be a bastardization of the word “kielbasa” – makes perfect sense. I happily chowed down on this; the bread soft, the meat flavorful, and the accompaniments pleasant enough.
Close up of the sandwich. The cockney British man came over and said “That was delicious! Thank you!” and walked away. I agree that it was damn tasty at a price that can’t be beat – considering it was airport cafe! I wonder how much food is outside, in Puerto Maldonado proper, but I guess I won’t find out.
Nom! Next up, the ‘hostal’ in Cusco that we called home for a few days…
TT says
impressive food for an airport!
hope you didn’t have to kiss HB after she ate all those onions!
Aimee S. says
Nice buns. ; )
T.C. says
Gotta agree with Aimee. Damn those shony juicy buns. ;P
Fanta, Fanta, don’t ya wanna Fanta…
Anna says
“calabreza” or “calabresa” actually refers to Calabria, in Italy. Linguiça calabresa is a very popular italian-type sausage in Brazil and some other south american countries.