Clay Cuisine of Peru
During
my search about clay, I found this clay cuisine of Lima, Capital of Peru. Of
course which is rare...
From
the street food to the fine dining restaurant, this city have a lot of great
food to offer.
The
Central Restaurante offers the following :
Baked
Potatoes with Clay Sauce
On
a stone in the center of the plate, three small discs, resembling grey skipping
stones with jagged edges, looks like stones from the side of a lakeshore, but
these were completely edible. Each one represented a silky puree of those
potatoes, coated in edible Chaco clay from some remote part of Peru.
"Dry
Andes" (3200 m) of Central Restaurante
This
was fascinating - edible clay
from the plains of Chaco, served cold. Which was sweet, slightly gritty and
tasted of black sesame
Green Highlands
This
dessert began with the most interesting ingredient, eatable clay from the
Titicaca region mixed with chocolate. Buried under these clay is a 70% coco
chocolate sorbet. Surrounding this sorbet are some Lucama fruit biscuit.
The NYC Wine and Food Festival which has Peru cuisines offers
Cacao
and Chaco Clay, chocolate ganache, Chaco clay and dragon fruit
Where does this clay come from?
Acora, Puno, Sicuani Titicaca region they call it as Chaco,
Pieces with red streaks or with materials that degrade the homogeneity of this
product are not allowed. After having chosen the material it’s exposed to
the light and allowed to dry since “it’s not consumed fresh”.
This clay has been utilized in Peru since the Pre-Inca times with
various uses. Among those, the most common is to accompany bitter
potatoes. According to Malpica (1970) and Frisancho (1988), this was the
means by which the indigenous people of the time assured adequate intake of
calcium and iron in their diet.
:origin()/pre03/9ee2/th/pre/i/2016/324/0/2/chaco_clay_and_ichu____puno___peru_by_anarcopaulo-dap08gc.jpg)
For
the farmers in general, the recently-harvested potato can be sour and
piquant. So with the goal of neutralizing these effects, they are
seasoned with a sauce prepared with clay and quite a lot of salt.
According
to Laboratory report from the INIA of Puno showed the panorama of mineral
content, particularly from the area of Acora, each 100 grams of Chaco sample
contained 6 mg of calcium, 2.4 mg of iron, 2.03 mg of zinc, and 2 mg of
magnesium.
In
Peru, the ingestion of Chaco has been directly related to that of one
indigenous ingredient, the potato.
Uses and how to use:
- It is used in soaps, detergent, and toothpaste.
- It’s also used like mazamorras and beverages.
- It’s also used medicinally for its astringent properties .
- It is a first aid. It is good for stomach infections, ulcers, parasites, as well as for stomach acidity caused by drinking alcohol. It detoxes and at the same time mineralizes the stomach.
Soak
two or three teaspoons of Chaco in a glass of warm water. Wait for half an hour
for it to dissolve. Then you stir it and drink it. It is recommended that you
drink it in the morning, mid-morning, mid afternoon, and an hour and a half
after your last meal of the day.
Where we can buy this clay?
Chaco
is sold in the majority of the popular markets of our city: the San Pedro
market, the Ccascaparo, Ttio, and Wanchac. This clay is available to everyone
in little bags in the section of medicinal herbs.
(Note: I am not sure any changes in the dishes above as everything I wrote is from reading, All images belongs to owners)
References:
http://cuzcoeats.com/casera-ines-recommends-nutritional-medicinal-chaco-clay/http://www.materiniciativa.com/en/edible-clay-from-acora/
http://www.stevedolinsky.com/where-to-eat-in-lima-peru
https://iwillmakeualist.com/tag/the-nomad-bar/
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/why-perus-altiplano-farmers-eat-clay-with-their-potatoes
http://insert-food.blogspot.in/2014/06/central-lima-peru.html
http://www.travelwithwinny.com/central-restaurante-review-lima/
Super interesting facts about a South American country - Peru Facts
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