Museo de la Nacion y MISTURA!!!

I was looking through my pictures and it seems I haven't really been doing much... That must change soon! I'm trying to go on atleast 1 trip outside of Lima per month and there's one in the planning stages now.

About 2 weeks ago my program (CIEE) had a Cultural Excursion at the Museo de la Nacion. This museum, according to most locals, is the best museum in Lima. We had the special honor of having my history professor guide us through the museum...Long story short: my friend and I got lost and got to the museum over an hour late, efectively missing most of the tour. We managed to get there in time for the photographic exhibit on the internal conflict in Peru from about 1980-2000. The conflict was called La Guerra Sucia (or the Dirty War). It was a really intense an, quite frankly, depressing but necessary exhibit.

This past Friday I also went to THE culinary event of Peru: Mistura. I have no idea what Mistura stands for but it's a really great and large food festival here in Lima. I spent 5 or 6 hours there and only managed to taste 2 different things. Boo on me for getting full so fast. Basically alot of restaurants and chefs come out and people can buy tickets to taste portions of the local cuisine. I had tacu tato con mariscoes (basically a rice/potato patty with awesome seasoning and sea food) and picarrones. Picarrones are like funnel cake-but better. Seriously addictive. I think I'm going to have them once a week until I leave. They're in a picture below and served with a thin honey syrup. Que rico!

Comida

I think I'm getting better at taking pictures of my food. I don't remember the names of these dishes...

They're not food but I bought these flowers after class on Thursday for my host mom...They were only 4 soles (that's like a little bit over $1)!

Bembos!

I tried Bembo's yesterday. Bembo's is like the Peruvian fast food restaurant. I won't even say it's like McDonalds because they have those on every corner. Most of the time, next to the Bembo's. It was better than I thought it would be. I stayed safe with a chicken caesar but it was really good. And ALOT of food. The peruvian I was with got the "hawaiian" which had an egg and pineapple. I wasn't quite ready to try that.

Here's some of the other food I encountered this week. Still haven't found anything that's completely disgusting.

**Note to self: take more pictures of food. Think before eating.**

Papas y Arroz!

Potatoes and rice. Rice and potatoes. The 2 items Peruvian food is built around. Yes, they eat the simultaneously. Yes, that is alot of starch. No, they're not extremely huge.

Aji de Gallina- potatoes with a creamy sauce that tastes a little cheesy with shredded chicken. Served with rice and an egg. Que rico! In the glass is pineapple water with herbs and spices and the red stuff is gello.

They don't gain weight because:

• Almuerzo (lunch) is the largest meal of the day. By my standards, it's the ONLY meal of the day. Breakast is very light...like corn flakes, or toast and cafe, or yougurt and fruit. Dinner doesn't really exist. They might eat buttered crackers or something extremely light. Seriously.
• Ingredients are fresher and not fried. Alot of dishes are served with baked chicken but there's never fried anything. Even dishes with papas fritas (french fries) aren't deep fried. Plus they move alot more. I have 20 minute walk to and from school. But even people who drive alot still end up getting some sort of exercise.

I'm not sure what this is called but it was surprisingly tasty. I think it had meat, potatoes (claro), and something else... The "salad" is steamed vegetables.

The thing about food here is that it's not what it appears to be. It all tastes better than it looks. I should have more pictures of food but I keep forgetting until I'm staring at an empty plate.