Peruvian Produce

Posted by Christopher Ives on 27 October 2008 · 1 Comment 

The produce here is amazing! Going to the grocery store is still an action that brings joy even though we´ve been going nearly daily for the last three months! There is always such an interesting assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables, most of which I´ve never seen in the US.

There are Roccoto and Ají peppers… spicy spicy spicy! We bought a small roccoto once and used only one small centimeter^2 piece of it, and even that was hot! But it is a delicious hot though. We often buy pre-made roccoto and ají sauces, and even though they burn your tongue and make your nose run, we just keep going back, even eating them plain sometimes!

There are beautiful Camotes Morados, sweet potatoes, PURPLE sweet potatoes! They make delicious home-fries.

Then there is Caigua, the most amazing of all veggies we have discovered. It is part of the cucumber family, but it is hollow! Known for its ability to lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol and reduce overall fat, I would consider it a super-food and its tasty to boot! Especially stuffed! Especially when Chris makes it because he is a gourmet chef extrordinaire! 🙂

(Caigua stuffed with rice and scrambled egg with a side of Mango Lime salsa)

As for fruits, the options seem endless! There are of course apples, grapes and I think I saw pears once, but those hardly ever get a second glance (mostly because they aren´t peelable and therefore must be cooked before eating, AND because they are super expensive!)

But there are delicious Bananas for 20 sol cents (aka US$0.07) and sweet Plantains for frying! There are Mandarins, so sweet and juicy! There is the Chirimoya, similar to the Anona we ate in Dinamarca, peelable with a soft, sweet, smooth almost milky flesh, but sadly they are out of season now and not really to be found. There are kiwis, 2 bucks for a pack of six! There are the Aguaymanto, little berries that are found inside a leafy balloon. Bright orange and plump, they are sour and sweet at the same time. There are the Granadilla and the Maracuya, similar fruits, the former being slightly smaller, that look like the pomegranite. They are bitter!

(Maracuya Close-up)

And then there are the mangos! They just came into season and they are the new edition to our every bowl of oatmeal (the usual breakfast, accompanied by tea). So sweet and juicy and delicious and humongous, we peel them and sometimes just eat them off the pit as a quick snack (which would feel wrong if they weren´t so cheap)

(Can you buy 7 mangos for less than US$1.50? We can!)

Filed under Peru · Tagged with food