Peruvians collectively
have a huge sweet tooth. Kids are
constantly seen sucking on lollipops or fizzy drinks, cake shops proliferate
and display the most garishly coloured examples of cake decoration ever seen
anywhere, and street vendors sell sweet treats like churros, a deep-fried honey-filled pastry, revolución caliente, crunchy, spicy cookies and the rice
and milk combination, arroz con leche.
Dulce de leche, a sweet made by
heating sweetened milk, is a big favourite here, both eaten on its own and as a
filling in pastries or an icing on cakes. It is just a little addictive! And,
of course, Peru
grows its own cacao beans, so people have been making chocolate here for over a
thousand years.
All that being said, is
it any wonder that Sarah and I decided we needed to eat our way around northern
Peru ?
Or, to put it a little more delicately, we embarked on a gastronomic torta tour, sampling the cakes of the
towns and cities we visited.
Cake number one:
This was the first cake
of the tour, a dessert of chocolate cake that Sarah enjoyed at the Mama Mia Restaurant in Chiclayo .
For some unknown reason, I didn’t have any dessert that night – I think I had simply
eaten too much Chicharron de pollo,
deep-fried chicken and chips, to fit in anything else.
Cakes two and three:
These are typical
examples of the vivid and gaudily decorated cakes I described above. We had gone
for a wander through the huge local market in central Chiclayo and saw these cakes in a shop
specialising in kids’ birthday cakes. This is the sort of cake we buy for our
birthday parties at Picaflor House. They are super sweet and the kids love
them.
Cakes four and five:
After a 3-hour early morning
bus ride from Chiclayo to Trujillo, Sarah and I had a wonderful time walking
round inner-city Trujillo with our lovely guide, Henry. But, little breakfast
and all that walking made us hungry so, after our city tour and before our
afternoon tour to one of the local archaeological sites, we enjoyed a sumptuous
three-course lunch for the tiny sum of S/16.50 – that’s about US$6 – at Romana
Restaurant. After a delicious salad entrée and a main course of chicken, I had
a slice of crema volteada, a little
like crème caramel, and Sarah had delicia
de chocolate, a rather decadent concoction that would please even the
fussiest of chocoholics!
Cake six:
I wasn’t exactly sure
what this cake was made of when I ordered it – the usual procedure was to go to
the cake counter and point – but it turned out to be carrot cake. And it was a
very moist and quite delicious cake but I’m used to carrot cake with a cream
cheese frosting and I found the dulce de
leche filling and icing far too sweet – so sweet, in fact, that I left most
of it. I kid you not!
Cakes seven and eight:
This was a relatively lazy
day for us – every other day we had tours booked, starting early, but this day
we slept in and, only later, booked ourselves tickets to a performance of the
local horses and dancers (more on that in a future blog). Back in town later,
we checked out the exhibits in the local toy museum, then decided it must be
time for cake! This time I chose a divine tiramisu,
an international classic, and Sarah had delicia
de almendra, or almond delight. I’m reliably told it was indeed delightful!
Cake nine:
I don’t know why I don’t
have a photo of cake ten – Sarah must’ve gulped it down before I had time to
shoot it! We were at Arturio’s, another of Trujillo’s rather excellent culinary
establishments, where I indulged in what was called a fruit soufflé, though it
was actually layers of sponge cake and cream with bits of succulent fruit
thrown in to the mix. It was light and finger-licking good.
And so ends this little
tour of the tortas of northern Peru . Astoundingly,
I didn’t put on any weight on our tour, probably because we did a ton of
walking, but I wouldn’t recommend trying a tour like this without plenty of
exercise. I do, however, recommend sampling the sweet delights of Peru .
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