Peruvians, especially among the Andean towns, receive November with the celebrations of
"All Saints" (November 1th) and "Day of the Dead" ( November 2nd).
In those days one of the most traditional breads consumed is the “Tantawawa”,
TANTA = bread
WAWA= baby
which in the Andean tradition has a very important meaning at the moment of do offerings to dead people. According to historian Martin Romero, the offerings made to dead people with breads have its beginning in Egyptian culture, Mesopotamia and Spain. Later, it arrived to Peru between 1570 and 1650, period in which the Catholic religion enforces its religious doctrine on Andean and Inca culture.
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| Tantawawa is a type of sweet bread shaped and decorated in the form of a small child or infant. |
The Tantawawa represents the origin; the being who is born and the tasting, symbolise the decline because for the Andean culture the death is the continuation of life, and a way to be related with dead people is through offerings.
Hundreds of people go to the markets to buy varieties of sweet breads to give as an offering to the deceased in the cemeteries.
These pieces of art are the reason for social celebration and festivities. As an example of that, this year in the region of Junin staff from the provincial municipality, prepared the largest TantaWawa in Peru, traditional Andean bread in the shape of a doll, prepared with wheat flour, maca and other ingredients native to the area, which was baptized with the name of "Shimona".
The huge bread, which measures 10 meters long by 2.50 wide was presented by Mayor Percy Chagua Huaranga in the main square of the city of JunÃn, department of the same name, gathering more than thousand of people in the event.
After the presentation, the mayor of the province personally took charge of distributing the Tantawawa to the entire population and visitors who gathered at the Plaza de Armas in the city of JunÃn.
The organizers expressed that this custom is made in homage to the deceased who fought in the battle of JunÃn and also by the citizens who exercised different positions for the progress of the province of JunÃn.
Its cost varies between S/1.00 and S/4.00 depending on the size and the inputs of the loaves. You can also find this delicacies at Mistura this week and in the principal streets around Lima, don't be afraid and give it a try!
By: GringoPeru
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| A very well know dessert that has conquered the hearts of thousands with its original and unique taste. |
Turron Doña Pepa (Mrs. Pepa's nougat) is a traditional Peruvian sweet that is consumed mostly in October because of its close relationship with the celebration of the Lord of the Miracles, the world's largest procession, according to the Vatican. In Peru, especially Lima, October is the purple month and the month of turrones.
The exact origin of this dessert is still unknown, but here we share the most popular stories: (you can also watch the video)
1. The Miracle
The most popular or beloved story by all Peruvians, is Josefa Marmanillo, as well known as "Doña Pepa", a slave from the Cañete valley (colonial times) that stood out as a good cook. Due to some health problems, she began to feel a paralysis in the joints that prevented her from performing her daily tasks. Hearing the rumors of the miracles of the Christ of Pachacamilla, she decides to travel from her native Cañete to Lima. Her faith and devotion was so immense that she recovered from the evils that tormented her. As a token of her appreciation she traveled from Cañete to Lima just to accompany her divine patron. Nevertheless, she wanted to offer him a present as a token of her gratitude. Therefore, when she was in the procession she noticed everything that involves the festival as the group of sahumadoras (woman who carries a perfume in braziers or pebeteros during the religious processions and its task is to sahumar, that is to say "to give aromatic smoke to something in order to purify it or that it smells good") with purple habit as the group of singers. In addition, of the shippers of each team dressed in full suit and above this attire, the habit with insignia. However, what most drew her attention was the suppliers that were located in the surroundings where the procession passed, they offered the classic anticuchos, picarones, choclos, choncholÃes, rice with milk, purple mazamorra, emollient and picarones with its particular honey (all Peruvian desserts). In that moment, when she saw the food and the desserts, she decided to thank her Lord with a new Peruvian sweet prepared by her. Thus, to the next exit of the divine image she took her nougat and offered it to the parishioners as a sign of her gratitude to the Lord of Miracles. From there, the nougat of Josefa was spread and baptized as it is known in our time: "Turrón de Doña Pepa".
2. The Contest
Another popular story talks about a contest arranged by a Viceroy looking for a tasty
and nutritious sweet that could be preserved for several days without losing
its flavor. Marmanillo was the winner of that event so, her nickname 'Doña Pepa'
was associated with dessert.
3. The cook
This one refers to "a brunette cook" married to a man named Cobos, former employee of the Public Beneficence. Her real name would have been Josefa and she was a specialist in preparing snacks. She also had the ability to make drinks and desserts. Josefa immortalized her name with an original nougat made of wheat flour, butter, egg and honey.
There are several stories behind this delicious dessert, we choose the best known to share with you. No matter when or who was the original creator, the mystery of its origin only enhances the popularity of this traditional dessert.
Written by: GringoPeru
One Peruvian dish that everyone here must have tried in Peru is Pollo a la Brasa and this to has an interesting story that surrounds it (the truth of which is debated).
This story is also a tale of two immigrants from Switzerland, Roger Schuler and Franz Ulrich and begins in 1946 when Roger Schuler established a chicken farm in Santa Clara, Ate with hopes of selling the chicken to districts like Miraflores. His products were known as "Productos AvÃcolas de La Granja Azul” (Poultry products of La Granja Azul).
However, 4 years later in 1950 business went sour meaning many chickens were not sold, fearing that he would lose more money he spoke with Franz Ulrich and together they devised a method of cooking chicken over algarrobo charcoal and marinating the chicken in panca, soy sauce, black mint, salt and pepper. Algarrobo comes from the Prosopis pallida tree which can be found throughout Peru, Colombia and Ecuador.
To cook this chicken, they built a mechanised rotisserie to cook many chickens at one time, this system of cooking chicken became known as planetario. To gain the attention of the local people they placed a sign in front of the central railway that stated
“Eat all the chicken you can for 5 soles!” and built a small rustic restaurant in his house. This small restaurant became known as
La Granja Azul.
What set La Granja Azul aside from restaurants at the time was that the place was generally cheaper than most restaurants, also at this time restaurant were seen as a place of luxury and prestige but with the introduction of a restaurant like La Granja Azul people were happy eating with their hands and could do so without criticism.
It was not long till another Swiss by the name of Steinmann opened up a restaurant closer to the centre of Lima, he called it El Rancho and it implemented the same mechanised rotisserie that Schuler and Ulrich created.
It was not until the 1970´s that Pollo a la Brasa became popular very soon many other restaurants that served Pollo a la Brasa popped up to keep up with the ever increasing demand. Each restaurant played with the recipe however, the method of cooking it remained the same.
La Granja Azul which is still located in its historical place is still serving people today and to celebrate the creation and popularity of Pollo a la Brasa the 21st July has been named Day of Pollo a la Brasa.
Statistics have shown that every month 12 million Pollo a la Brasa’s are sold nationwide also according to the INEI (The National Institute of Statistics and Informatics) 24.4 kilos of Pollo a la Brasa per a family in Peru was consumed in 2014.
Written by: Gringo Perú
Inka Cola is a soft drink that is well-known and loved by Peruvians and is seen as the national soft drink that represents Peru. The origin of this drink originally came from the British immigrant Joseph Robinson Lindley, also called José who was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire in 1859.
Lindely and his wife, Martha Stoppanie moved to Peru in 1910 and settled in the Rimac district of Lima and started to work on a soft drink based on the native plant Lemon Verbena. Located at 371 Jirón Cajamarca they opened a small bottling plant where all the work was done by hand, this small place was called Fábrica de Aguas Gasificadas Santa Rosa.
In 1918 they obtained the first machines to assist in the production of their product and in 1928 changed the name of the company again to Corporación José R. Lindley S.A. In 1935, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Lima, Lindley launched Inca Kola with the logo “Solo hay una y no se parece a ninguna” ("There is only one, unlike any other").
The company continued to expand and develop and in 1962 the company launched another product called Bimbo which came in flavours such as strawberry, pineapple, orange and cola. Another mile stone for the company came in 1972 when it expanded nationwide and in 1996 they acquired a German bottling plant called Krones which was fully computerized and automatic allowing the company to produce a thousand bottles a minute.
Direct competition came from the Coca-Cola and in 1995, Inca Kola had 32.9% of the market share while Coca-Cola had 32% and due to popular demand Bembos (Peruvian fast food chain) and McDonalds began to serve Inca Kola. However, in 1997 due to a mix of restructuring of the company, expansion and mismanagement, the company took on a huge debt resulting in a $5 million loss for the company in 1999. In this crisis the company looked for help turning to Coca-Cola which took half of Inca Kola Perú and one-fifth of Corporación José R. Lindley S.A, the deal cost Coca-Cola a speculated amount of $200 million.
The grandson Johnny Lindley Taboada, grandson of the founder became the chairman of Corporación José R. Lindley S.A and worked with Coca-Cola striking a deal which stated that he would be the sole owner of the trademark Inca Kola outside of Peru and within Peru a joint-venture with Coca-Cola.
During the years that the two companies negotiated smaller business started selling their own branch of soft drinks like Isaac Kola, Triple Kola, Concordia, Oro and Kola Real. Their main smear against Inca Kola was that Inca Kola was no longer Peruvian and was a sell out to an international company.
Corporación José R. Lindley S.A continues to buy out bottling plants, bottling both Coca-Cola products and Inca Kola and in 2010 to celebrate its 100 years in Peru, it received a medal of honour from the Congress of Peru. On 28th of January 2014 Johnny Lindley Taboada passed away and Johnny Lindley Suarez became the new chairman.
By: GringoPeru
Congratulations to the Peruvian team for achieving the Guinness Record:
"LARGEST BOWL OF QUINOA"
The event was held in Miami (Florida, USA), the main role was played by Rosa Polo who declared to feel truly happy for the success a long with her other partners, most of them apprentice students and chefs from the Peruvian university San Ignacio de Loyola.
The challenge was to cook 500 Kilos of Quinoa and the team managed to prepare a salad of 716.35 kilos.
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| Rosa Polo |
"We've been working very coordinated and thank God now you can see the results" commented Polo, a Peruvian lady who's been living more than 31 years in the South of Florida.
During 24 hours, Peruvian chefs have been working on the preparation of a dish of 716. 35 kilos that finally managed to enter in the Guinness Record's book.
"Yesterday we started at 1 p.m. and during 24 hours we've been in a continues work, day and night, till now that we just finished the salad", declared Polo very excited for achieving the world record.
The Peruvian chef also received the congratulations from the Minister of Exterior of Peru, who sent a representative to the event.
Rosa Polo also confessed:
" I was convinced since the first day that we were going to achieve the record because we cared even about the minimum detail"
"587.55 kilos of quinoa was used for the preparation, among red peppers, raisins and dressing with oil" said MartÃnez (representative of the Guiness Record) " In this case it's been established that all the ingredients have to be prepared for the event. We can't have any ingredient prepare beforehand, so the process of creation and cooking is a continues process" .
The even was held at the campus in Florida International University ( FIU), also had the support of the Peruvian consul in Miami, Cesar Bustamante, and some other local authorities like Luigi Boria, Major of the city of Doral where the campus is located.
At the end, the guests could enjoy the Quinoa salad and the rest was distributed among two charities institutions in Miami.
October is the start of a large and important event in Peru known as “Senor de los Milagros” or Lord of Miracles at this time of year you will see a lot of people wearing purple throughout the month.
This festival all came about in the colonial times when an Angolan slave painted the image of Jesus on the wall of hut at the Pachacamilla plantation in 1651 however in 1655 a large and devastating earthquake destroyed much of Lima but the wall was left intact while everything around it was destroyed.
This was then seen as divine and a small chapel was built around it but bad luck came again in 1687 when another earthquake and tidal wave destroyed the chapel yet the wall was once again left intact. By 1771 the Sanctuary of Las Nazarenas was built incorporating the wall and was left in the care of Nazarene Sisters whom still to this day look after it. Large processions take place on this day with thousands of devoted followers holding an image of Jesus above their shoulders.
Also at this time of year
Turron is eaten a really sweet and delicious dessert made from anise, flour and honey. Turrones is an Arabic tradition brought to Peru by the Spanish however, there is a branch of
Turron called Doña Pepa and this has a legend of its own.
The legend goes back to the colonial times and started with an old slave named Josefa Marmanillo who was also known as “ Pepa” and the story states that she was paralyzed but was healed when she prayed to "Señor de los Milagros" (Lord of the Miracles) during its procession. In thanks to the miracle she created the dessert and gave it to the people at the procession, legend also states that when she presented the dessert the “Lord of Miracles” smiled and blessed the offering. Ever since then Limenians eat this dessert to remember the power and miracles of "Señor de los Milagros". Another version of this legend states that Josefa Marmanillo had a dream in which saints appeared to her and gave her the recipe and this is what she used to create the dessert. Whatever version of the story you may like,
you will sure to fall in love with Turron and if you are looking for many varieties you can go to Tacna Avenue where there are many stores selling it.
This time I wanna share some great news with you!!!!! Since I'm 50% Peruvian I feel totally proud of this new title. Peru has a great potential in the choco-Industry. Their organics products are as good as Swiss chocolate brands and this award proved!
At the International Chocolate Awards 2015, Peruvian chocolate company Cacaosuyo was awarded best chocolate in the world, among other awards.
It was Cacaosuyo’s Piura Milk bar that took home the best of the best prize, defeating the competitive Swiss chocolate brands.
In addition to winning the best in the world, the Cacaosuyo company won Gold – Chocolate Maker; Gold – Directly Traded; Gold – Growing Country and Gold – Organic.
“Today not only chocolate is exported but it is being marketed in the local market due to demand by the Peruvian consumer, who is educating their palate and wants to enjoy a good chocolate with high percentages of cacao which is also beneficial for health,” said Samir Giha, CEO of Theobroma, the chocolate factory that creates Cacaosuyo, reports Perú21.
In April this year Piura’s chocolate stood out in Seattle, Washington at the Specialty Coffee Association of America Fair. The ceremony awarded Theo Chocolate and Peruvian cacao the Best New Product and People’s Choice in Food Category.
Hello there! Well let me start my story...It was Wednesday and I had the day off but my girlfriend was working so I decided to go out around Miraflores to chase the cats at Kenedy Park ehehehhee ...but then I got super hungry and I didn't know what to eat so I spent most of the days with the cats hoping my girlfriend will finish soon so she could recommend me a place where to eat. Finally *-* it was 5 p.m. and she came....sadly she had stomach-ache x_x so she didn't want to eat. Since we didn't want to go home yet we decided to walk all Arequipa avenue...YES! WE WALKED from Kenedy Park till block 16th ...around 20 blocks ehehheheh :P I guess my idea worked because she felt hungry xD and after she took some medicine she decided to look for something to eat. So that's how we were hanging around Arequipa avenue WHEN WE SAW IT!!!!!
*-* An oasis in the middle of the dessert!!!!!! Guided by our noses we arrived to this fancy food truck! It was burger time! OH YEAH! We've heard about their famous home made burgers so we decided to give a try.
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| HOT BARBIE Q |
The Food truck EL GRINGO is a place I would definitely recommend. It is located on Arequipa Avenue at block 12, they are open only from Monday to Friday from 5 p.m. till 11 p.m. here they sell traditional burgers and chips that are all hand made.
My girlfriend ordered that Kiwicha chicken and I order the HOT BARBIE Q!!!! I have to say these are sooo much better than the commercial burgers you can by, the chips were really nice and the burger I ordered was satisfying. Also, they don't sell soda, they offer you cold tea :) I would like to go again sometime, hehehehe maybe after a long walk!
If you don't like to walk around Arequipa Av. cause of the traffic and new constructions around, now you can find them now in JOCKEY PLAZA next to Sodimac!!!!
And guess what? They are open from Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. till 11 p.m. and the best part is you don't need to pay with cash, they accept cash and visa!!!!!! A really nice peruvian company you should give a try!!!!!!!
Know by Peruvians as "Yuquitas" they are a very delicious snack made of flour, anise, water, sugar, oil and baking powder (This is according to Lyn Lyn's yuquitas recipe).
The real recipe is actually a secret held by Mrs. Segundina Dávalos, who told in an interview by Comercio (peruvian newspaper) that it was her father in law, Dionisio RamÃrez, who discover this recipe 65 years ago when he was trying to cook butter donuts.
Although her snacks are very famous and some companies have offered her money to buy the recipe and sell overseas, she says this is a family business and will remain like that.
Their store is located at Palermo market in La Victoria , the business is open from 9:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m. from Monday to Sunday and every yuquita cost S/.0.20 soles.
Her Yuquitas are fabulous! My girlfriend's father bought us last week a bag of them and it was like a special kind of bread...actually I don't know how to describe it, you have to try it. It has a taste of cassava with anise that melt in your mouth, also you can find the popular yuquitas on the street carts where sellers offer them at the cost of S/.0.50 or S/.1.00 sol.
They are all around Lima, and also you can find these food carts at Kennedy Park in Miraflores.
So next time you're hungry and are looking for a snack, and you see one of them ... check in your pocket for S/.1.00 and buy one! You wont regret it!
