What we eat

This from Bill:

I was recently asked about our first eating experinece in Peru and thought I'd share the story here. Our first eating experience was very positive. It was at McDonalds. We're blessed to live in Lima, which has a population of over 9 million people and has a lot of "first world" products (like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Starbucks). We do not have Walmart--so it's still a mission field! Outside of Lima, Peru is poor and undeveloped.

Arroz con Mariscos (seafood with rice)

Even though our first meal was at McDonalds, that doesn't mean we haven't had some great food experiences. Peru has some of the best food in the world. On the Pacific coast, Peruvians eat a lot of seafood. The most famous dish is called Ceviche and is raw fish "cooked" in lemon juice and onions. That was our first real experience with Peruvian food. We tried it after we had been in the country for a couple of days. I was shocked at how strong the flavor was. My first reaction was that it was "OK," but that I didn't want to make a habit of it. Now, I'm ready any time! I usually order it with "Arroz con Mariscos," which is seafood mixed with stir-fried rice. I like that dish with a side order of fried squid. YUM!

The second famous food of Peru is Cuy (otherwise known as guinea pig). You can eat it baked or fried. It tastes like the dark meat of chicken. It's not bad at all. It just takes too much effort (in my opinion), because the pieces are too small. It is also gross when they serve it with the head still on! Here, I've posted a picture of a Guinea Pig claw held by my son and a picture of my friend Ken Lydy (who does Chi Alpha at Wilmington College) with the claws in his mouth (that's me in the background).

Ken Lydy eats Cuy claws

Sabalo from the Amazon River

When I'm in the Amazon jungle town of Iquitos, I often eat Sabalo. It's a meat eating fish (like a piraanha) from the Amazon river and it tastes very good when cooked over a wood fire. I also like the deep fried caimon (alligator).

In the mountains, I eat cuy, trout, goat or llama. My favorite of those is goat. I love it.

On a daily basis, the peruvian people eat rice with rice. Then they have some more rice. They also eat chicken. Rotisserie chicken with french fries is very popular and VERY delicious. Missions teams that visit eat that three or four times in one week. We eat so much of it, we almost get sick of it--but not quite. The problem is that no matter how many times you've had rotisserie chicken and fries, it still smells good!