Machu Picchu 4 - FOOD

Okay, so you've taken the adventure with us, you've camped, hiked and summited; seen the sights and experienced history. What more could there possibly be??? Food, of course.




WARNING: Not for people who hate food or pictures of food!!! (Or on horribly strict diets and are currently feeling desperate.)

Peru is the gourmet capital of South America and has been named, on several occasions the gourmet capital of the world. (Shhhh, don't tell France or Italy.) One of the reasons we selected Llama Path Tours is because we heard the food was awesome. (I mentioned this in an earlier post.) Their weakest meal was breakfast, but nobody left hungry or dissatisfied. (It might have something to do with the fact that we're oatmeal addicts and they never served it and the fresh fruit was a bit lacking, but that's another thing that we're obsessed with.)

I'm going to post a selection of photos from our trek, as well as some of the food we had in Cusco and Lima. Enjoy...we certainly did.

Sebastian's work:  Chef for Llama Path (Salkantay Trek)

Chicken Ceviche

Fried Trout in Herb Sauce

Stuffed Avacadoes

Chicken with Tomato Salsa

Mixed Vegetable Salad

Pizza

Chicken Skewers on a Turtle Shaped Pinapple

Steamed Veggies in a Yellow Aji Dressing

Ceviche is Peru's signature dish, followed closely by their signature drink the Pisco Sour:

Ceviche with Yellow Aji

Traditional Ceviche with an Herb Sauce Twist

Unintentionally (but conveniently) we had a gourmet day in Lima, with lunch at a restaurant called Cala, located right on the beach. We sat out on the balcony, overlooking the ocean and enjoyed "light" meal, which included a bottle of wine and dessert.

Beef Cheeks in Bernaise Sauce with Soft Boiled Egg

Traditional Mixed Ceviche

Chocolate Mousse (soo Spanish - ha ha)

Suspiro de Chiramoya

Later that night we went to a highly acclaimed restaurant called IK. (Don't think I didn't noticed the irony of a restaurant having a name the sound equivalent of "ICK", as in yuck, gross.) Fortunately for us, the restaurant was named after the owner Ivan Kisik and not for a poor dining experience. The whole thing (including the building) was designed to appeal to every sense. The interior is constructed like a Peruvian fruit crate; think a wooden orange crate, with plants inserted between the slats, giving a sense of the Amazon. The bathroom (at least the ladies') has a ceiling of Plexiglas tiles, bedecked with vinyl coating of blooming vines and back lighting. The rest is pretty well all mirror, so you feel like your in a sunny arbor.

See the chefs on the lower tier? A symphony of culinary work.

We opted for the 8 dish tasting menu (you can also order a la carte or go nuts and have the 11 course tasting menu). We didn't have a bad dish. There was only one that you needed to work at to get all the flavours going, but the rest were very well developed an balanced and it was a remarkable experience. I will say one thing; the restaurant and staff take themselves very seriously (for me, I'm used to a more relaxed dining experience, even at five star restaurants). 

This might stem from the fact that the chef who imagined this experience was killed in a car accident shortly before the restaurant opened. I can only think that the staff are adhering to his legacy. They obviously have exacting service standards, ensuring that everyone at the table receives their dish at the same time (my mind boggles at the thought of a table for 10...would the sous chef come out to make sure each guest was served simultaneously?), replacing cutlery with every course (okay, that's not so unusual) and operating with grace, even in the kitchen, which you can see from the dining area.  Anyhow, here's the meal, with description.

Menu - click to enlarge

Amuse bouche (not on menu)
Octopus on homemade torilla chips
Trout on Sweet Potato Mousse

Amazonian tuber pudding with coconut froth

Corvina in a grenadilla saude, kumquat, daikon, ginger geletin

Variety of tomatoes, aromatic herbs, chia and chili pepper

Scallops in lulo (an amazonian fruit)

Amazonian Paiche, warm ceviche

Corvina with bok choy, lemongrass and sauteed veg.

Cuy (guinea pig) 3 ways
Above - skin, purple corn chips and cuy pate
Below - marinated cuy thigh

Another traditional Peruvian dish
Chicharon (pork belly) with corn and mustard
braised with teriyaki

Sauteed apples in pisco, smoked apple puree, nut and
frozen tarragon powder

White chocolate truffles with maracuya liquid

Strawberry marshmellows

Peruvian Yunsa Tree

Chocolate and ganache truffles

Fittingly, on our last full day, we chose to stroll along the beach and have a relaxing lunch at the nearby mall. Not what you expected? This mall is like one in Southern California, mostly outside, with restaurants strung along the beach side of the complex. We skipped the T.G.I.Friday's and headed for a restaurant called Popular. It was mother's day and everything was fairly busy, but we scored two seats along the bar overlooking the ocean, once again. We ordered the pulpo al carbon (grilled octopus) and traditional mixed ceviche along with an Argentinian sparkling wine. It was a great way to pass an afternoon.

We finished of our culinary journey that evening at a Japanese restaurant inexplicably called Magma...I don't know if they meant Manga or if the name was intentional, but it was nice to have a simple, fresh and fairly inexpensive meal that we'd have to spend a fortune for, here in Cuenca. I will say this, food in Peru, for the most part, is not only excellent, but affordable. Our only real blow out meal was at IK and we've, honestly, spent more on dinner in Vancouver.

Our next installment will be blissfully short, and will feature a few of the districts of Lima, a huge city that it's almost overwhelming when you try to tackle it. Until then, be well!

Part Three - MACHU PICCHU

So the big day finally arrived and we were on the bus and heading to Machu Picchu in order to watch the sun come over the mountains. It's a pretty well oiled machine, with dozens of buses constantly driving the circuit to get the flocks of tourists to the legendary location. Before we knew it, we were through the gates and standing on the rock that has the defining view of MP. It was kind of surreal to finally reach our goal. Photos ensued.
 

Elvis gave us a comprehensive tour of the site, taking three hours to talk about the history, the supposition of why it was there, the architecture, the Incan belief system and the rampant looting that took place before and after the site's discovery. While Hiram Bingham introduced Machu Picchu to the world, many others had been there before, taking what they wished and keeping it all on the down low. Yale University currently is hording 90% of what Bingham handed over. They graciously (and I use the phrase loosely) returned 10% for the 100th anniversary of Bingham's discovery. (Fie and shame!)

Sun creeps across the site.

Outside of Sun Temple

Sun alter & temple from other side.

We'd seen pictures of what state Bingham had found the place; covered in vegetation, with barely a building or stone wall visible. Some of the locals had been using the terraces for growing crops of their own, and the farmers lived where the ticket gate currently stands. Just another site for them to make a living! Incredible.

There were actually a couple of llamas grazing on the terraces and the place filled up pretty quickly with tourists, like ourselves. I like to try and imagine that I'm stepping back in time, but the illusion is pretty well killed by Tilley Endurable  hats, selfie-sticks and mini skirts...I've learned to cope, I wasn't exactly draped in Incan textiles, either.

After our tour, we made our way to the gate of Huayna Picchu. You have to sign in and out, so they don't loose anyone, I suppose. When I saw it the day before, from the other side of the valley, I thought Ron was nuts...it looked huge and looming over the site, but once we hit the stairs and found our groove, it was actually pretty easy. (If we hadn't been hiking for the prior four days, I don't think that would have been the case.)

There is a main landing (as pictured above) and if you want to go to the very peak you have a bit more work to do.

This was actually the much larger of the openings

 

Derek waiting in the traffic jam to summit.

The weirdest part was having to wiggle through a couple of little caves near the top. There were a lot of bugs at the peak, including pretty butterflies, but also creepy flying things that were a little intimidating. A suggestion: if you visit, there isn't tons of space at the peak, so it's probably not the best place to sit, have a snack and catch up on some sun tanning. This actually happened - true story.

Top o' the world, Ma!

After the prerequisite photos, we headed down the back side of the peak to find the way to the Grand Cavern and the Moon Temple. Our new friends were all in, until they found out it would take two hours to complete the trip. They only had an hour before they needed to head back to Aguas Calientes. So we said good-bye and wished each other good journeys.

Yup, actually that steep

The attendant at the start of the path didn't seem too keen on us going down to the cave, but once he got what country we were from, he waved us towards the path and radioed his co-worked down at the bottom. The going was steep and we'd been at it for about 25 minutes with no cave in sight. That's when we came across the ladder, we had a quick debate and decided to plow on. In for a penny in for a pound, right?

When it seemed like we'd actually reach the river valley, before we found the cave, we came across an Incan ruin that indicated that we were near our goal. 

One corner more and there was the Moon Temple. We would have likely missed the cave, except for an Argentinian couple that pointed out the path to us. As we were getting ready to go check it out, the co-worker showed up to hurry us along. They closed the access to Huayna Picchu earlier than the main gates.

We checked out the Grand Cave and then headed down the path towards the checkout point. Thankfully we didn't have to go back the way we came or we would have been a couple more hours.

We didn't stay on the site much longer, we'd already been there for 8 hours or so and we headed back to our hotel. It had been an amazing day and we wanted to finish it off with a nice meal, so we headed to Chullpi, highly recommended on Trip Advisor. This is when we ran in to Pepe again. 

Oh, remember the test from the previous post??? Here's our vantage point from the previous day, taken from the back side of Machu Picchu...we walked the majority of that distance!

If I'd been smarter I would have taken a long shot, to show how far away we actually were, but you can probably get the idea from the photos on the previous blog. Next installment will be a special "food" edition...samples of what we ate on the trek and some of the food we gorged on in Lima.

For a distance reference!