Cusco Cuisine: Eating in the Inca Capital
Cusco's cuisine blends Andean indigenous ingredients (potato, quinoa, cuy, maize) with colonial Spanish influences to produce a distinctive highland food culture; the Mercado San Pedro and the restaurants of the San Blas neighbourhood are the best places to experience it
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Cuy — guinea pig
Cuy (guinea pig) is the most important protein in traditional Andean cuisine – raised in Andean households for 5,000 years; in Cusco, cuy is typically roasted whole on a spit over a wood fire or deep-fried; the taste is comparable to rabbit or dark chicken meat; the animal is also used in healing rituals
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Potato diversity
The Andean potato - with more than 3,000 varieties in Peru - reaches its greatest diversity in the Cusco region; the markets show yellow, purple, red and freeze-dried (chuño) varieties; Papa a la Huancaína (potatoes in spicy cream cheese sauce) and other potato dishes are the basis of Cusco cuisine
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Chicha de Jora
Chicha de jora - fermented yellow corn beer - is the ancient Andean ceremonial and daily drink; in Cusco, chicherías (chicha bars, identified by a red plastic bag on a pole) serve chicha from clay cups; the drink is also used in all religious sacrifices and ceremony – poured on the earth for Pachamama
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Mercado San Pedro
Mercado San Pedro — Cusco's central market — is the single best place to understand Cusco's food culture; The market's sections display all varieties of Andean potatoes, corn and fruit; the market women serve freshly squeezed juice, emoliente (herbal drink) and hot meals at communal tables
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San Blas Gastronomy
The neighborhood of San Blas – Cusco's bohemian quarter with narrow cobbled streets and artisan workshops – has the city's most interesting restaurant scene; the restaurants in this area range from traditional Andean cuisine to contemporary Peruvian nouvelle cuisine with local ingredients
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Quinoa Heritage
Quinoa – the “mother grain” of the Incas – has been cultivated in the Cusco region for at least 5,000 years; the contemporary global quinoa boom has brought both economic benefits (higher prices for producers) and challenges (land pressure, mono-cropping) to the communities that sustained this crop during the colonial period