Peruvian diaries

I’m meeting some lovely people already tho…on my flight to Toronto, a sweet man called Perry told me about all the delicious desserts and sweets his mum used to make. She was, however, dreadful at savoury cooking and used to boil vegetables forever and ever. When his mum grew old and ill, his dad started looking after her. His dad had been a cook in WW2 and learned that vegetables should be immersed in rapidly boiling water for 3 minutes, for flavour and nutritional value. When Perry asked him why he had never said this to his mum, he just said it wasn’t his place. I thought this was very sweet, because food isn’t always about making things taste good – it’s also about love and complications and family politics.

In other news, my (lovely) taxi driver told me last night that Peru has roughly 3500 types of potato…!!! He also told me that huancayo (where I’m going on sat) is famous for potato production and  has some very specific regional potato dishes. Exciting!!

I also met a very gentle canadian vegan called nick, who I might meet up with in the amazon in a month! (If he manages to survive til then on a vegan diet in Peru…50/50 chance I reckon) So all in all, a good trip so far.

Missing you all, and sending hundreds of besitos xxxxx