Pachamanca

On Fathers' Day I got to have a special Peruvian meal: Pachamanca. It's a traditional meal from the sierra (mountains) and is named after the Inca god of the earth, Pachacamac. The food (first wrapped) is put on top of hot coals and then covered in dirt and allowed to cook for an hour or so. My host family has a small fire pit/grill in their back yard so we used that to make the Pachamanca. We had chicken, pork, choclo (a variety of corn with large kernels), potatoes, sweet potatoes, habas (they look like large lima beans), and humitas (sweet tamales). We also had crema de rocoto (a homemade hot sauce) on the side.

Below we're getting the fire going and the pit ready for the food.

Below my host brother, Fran, is covering the buried food in a tarp. My host dad is in the fore ground. And I'm helping by staying behind my camera.

Below, one of my other host brothers, Joey, has joined the fun starting to dig the food out. I'm still helping out behind the camera.

And the feast we dug out....

And finally the fire pit after we'd taken everything but a few habas out. (It's also kind of what the table looked like once I was done eating).

It was one heck of a feast. I learned a Peruvian saying at that meal. “Yo soy Juan Orozco. Cuando como, no conozco.” It roughly translates to, “I'm Juan Orozco (that name is in there because it makes the saying rhyme in Spanish), when I'm eating I forget that I know anyone.” Anyone who knows me probably won't be surprised that my host family used that one on me ;-)