Peru: Mi Valicha

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!

Our final meal in Peru, HB and I decided to wander close to the hotel and see what we could find.  We tried to go to Pollos Broaster again since I’d LOVED it and had raved about it to her – and we were both very low on sols, with no real reason to exchange more money so late in the trip – but it was closed.  We’re still not sure why; it was a Saturday afternoon, not too late or early, and the place was just shut up tight – we couldn’t even find the storefront since everything had been brought inside (presumably).  In any case, after a bit of walking up and down the two narrow streets our hotel was basically on, we landed on this place, which was cozy, pretty quiet, with an effusively friendly proprietor willing to accept USD, but with a heavy aroma of incense. 

HB and I both picked out stuff on the menu boards outside that looked interesting and went in hopefully. 

While wandering around earlier, HB had pointed out that though I’d tried cuy, I hadn’t had alpaca.  I responded, “It didn’t even occur to me to try that, I didn’t know we could eat that.”  It had been on menus certainly but I never really noticed it.  So I decided oh why not, last meal in Cusco. 

HB opted for something plainer/blander than I, because she was still feeling a little icky from being sick.  The first course was a potato soup, much like the one we’d had in the Amazon – sweet, with tons of tender potatoes and yucca.  I received a similar bowl with less potatoes… we opined that this might be because HB had asked for no salad, so they gave her more potatoes (which I was perfectly OK with).  Pretty tasty! 

For my salad course, I asked for the “Avocado Queen” which was a lovely half-avocado filled with potatoes, chicken, carrots, green beans, and the slightest slick of mayo.  And a bunch of cheese scattered on top. 

This was actually really delicious and made me think – not for the first time in Peru – “I really need to make this at home, it’s so simple and tasty!” 

HB’s grilled breast of chicken.  As I mentioned, she still wasn’t feeling too well, so she opted for something on the blander side. 

As for me, well, I told you earlier: alpaca.  The menu listed it as barbecued, but I’m not sure how that translates in Spanish. 

As for the meat… it was a thin cutlet of meat, cooked tender.  It had the texture of beef – a little chewier even.  I thought it had just the slightest hint of gaminess, but HB took a small piece and said it was super gamey; I’m not sure how we both had such differing opinions on it, but there you go.  I found it mildly blah, nothing exciting, but not horrible either.  I finished my meal just because, well, I wanted to eat a full meal before the airport and our super long layover in Lima (I already blogged that airport meal here). 

A dish of Jello arrived and the lady informed us how much we owed.  It was about what I thought it would be, given that we were paying in USD, so I tipped her nicely and off we went to Inkarri to retrieve our luggage and catch our taxi to the Cusco airport. 

And so ended my trip to Peru.