So to give a picture on how important food is to my day lets look at how I spend my day while on vacation.

25% – Seeing cool shit like ruins, museums, convents, and various other things

25% – Walking around between these places

25% – Walking around looking into every place to eat and wondering if I am hungry enough to have a snack

25% – Eating or drinking something.

Ok so I might not actually spend 25% of my time eating, but I’m pretty sure I spend 50% of my time thinking about, searching for, or actually eating. Thats a low ball guess.

The post is more going to be a gallery and comment section that a direct retelling of everything I’ve eating.

Drinks

The Good

Caluma – Milk Smoothie

So this smoothie brought together three of my greatest loves. Weird Indigenous fruits (Caluma), Beer, and restraunt owners who want to engage the random tourist who wandered into the very local market. This simple $1.15 was probably the most fun culinary experiance I have had. I was wandering through the market, just past the whole section dedicated to potatos when I steped into the food area. A very cute young girl behind a counter piled with fresh fruit beckoned energetically for me.. well for any passerby, to come and sit. This was from probably 50 ft away. So I did, I saw water boiling in the back so I figured I probably wouldn’t regret it.. Thats what antibiotics are for anyways! Looking over the list I came to a couple fruits that I did recognized so of course I had to pick one of those. Caluma.. what the heck is that.. So I asked and they showed my a small round greenish brown fruit looking like a hairless kiwi. I smiled and nodded like I had a clue, bad habit. They told me it was good, so I went with it. She then set to work in a flurry of activity, freshly peeling the fruit and giving it a big glug of honey and a few other ingredients that I lost track of as I got out my notepad to write the name of Caluma

She even let me take a picture.. When I say let I mean got a stool and rearranged things out of the way and posed for the picture and reviewed it afterwards for approve. This is one of the rare times I take pictures of people I don’t know.

So this smoothie was awesome, the Caluma has a interesting custardy texture and flavor apparently that goes well with honey, evaporated milk, Grapes, and Beer.. Yes beer! The same beer thats on my worsts list, is a ingredient in my best.

Go figure.

Random Food From Comedors

Sopa de Trigo.. It was labeled soup.

So this doesn’t win the award for prettiest, or even the best tasting, but it does win the award for cheapest and very filling. Comedors are small essentially unmarked eateries that I don’t think I have ever seen another white person in. Here or in Mexico. They do look a little shady, but i’ve never gotten sick from them and they have kept my food budget in check on those days that I decide I need to drink a few extra beers or buy a bag of handmade chocolate.

Heres how it goes, most of the time theres a Menu de Hoy. It lists a soup and 1-3 entree options. You aknowledge the host and take your seat, they yell to the back for "SOPA" and a few minutes later your soup appears. Most of the places have sodas for sale, others just have possibly sketchy non sealed drinks. I avoid because I mean I have standards right? The soup has been pretty much, chicken broth, starchy somethings, chunks of potatos, and some little flecks of veges or carrot. More importantly, it’s rich, tastey, hot, and filling.

Then the main comes in this case it was a roasted steak of chicken, with rice, and roasted potatoes.

This time switch in a small portion of steak.

Thats it.. and when you finish your meal and ask to pay they tell you amounts that still make my head spin. 3 soles ($1.15) – 5 soles ($1.80) seems to be the normal range. Bump that up by one if you want a Coke, but don’t expect to get a diet coke. These places and thier $0.40 sodas are gonna get my back in that habit.

Cerveza Cusquena Machu Pichu

While the normal edition of the Cer. Cusquena was sweet and sickly tasting this one was much nicer. It was still a lager and on the touch sweeter side, but this time was nicely balanced with hops. I was a little worried, after the first encounter, but that proved to be unfounded.