Cultural Presentation: Peru
Tegan Bissell and Jolene Sell
03/11/13
(Teegs) Climate Set
(Jo) Objectives:
1 List one characteristic of the cuisine on the coast of Peru
2 List one characteristic of the cuisine in the Amazon of the Peru
3 List one characteristic of the cuisine in the Andes of Peru
4 List 2 sustainable practices found in Peru
(Both) Icebreaker: Culture Peru Quick-Jeopardy
What is the capital of Peru? -Lima
This animal is very common in Peru - Has valuable and soft fur, similar to a camel - Alpaca
What’s the official language of Peru- Spanish
Peru is the top producer of this mineral commonly used with jewelry - Silver
Which famous conquistador conquered the Incas in this area in the 1500’s? - Francisco Pizarro
What is the name of the famous Inca site in Peru, a popular tourist location- Machu Picchu
Peru background
● (Teegs) Peru is a very astounding country with very diverse landscapes within it’s
borders. It houses everything from warm sandy beaches, to tropical forests filled with
unique creatures, to the serene and chilly andes mountains. There’s about 28 individual
climates within Peru. The climate and culture differences create a range of cuisine styles
specific to each region.
● Peru is loaded with wildlife and nature, did you know 1/4 of all the Earth’s species are
found in the Amazon? Peru contains a good section of the Amazon rainforest -fourth
largest forested area in the world.
● Peru is South America’s third largest country and best known as the heart of the Inca
Empire, but was home to many diverse cultures before the Incas arrived.
● Peruvian culture is primarily rooted in Amerindian and Spanish traditions.
● (Jo) Peru is considered an important center for the genetic diversity of the world’s crop.
The agriculture of Peru is considered extremely genetically diverse, it provides the world with a large
array of crops, including everything from exotic fruits, to your basic staples that can be found here in the
US>
Peru has about 20 native fruits that are used in cooking or eaten fresh.
Quinoa 3 varieties, Kaniwa, Tawri, Lima Bean, Potatoes-4,000 varieties, Oca, a potato like tuber,
Mashua, a potato like tuber, Ulluco, a potato like tuber, Caigua, a vegetable with a cucumber
like taste, Capsicum baccatum Chile Peppers, including Aji Amarillo and Ají Limon, Capsicum
pubescens Rocoto Chile Pepper.
● Fruits — Peru has about 20 native fruits that are used in cooking or eaten fresh.
●
●
●
●
(Teegs) Peru has about 4,400 known medicinal and edible plants, of which 2,500 are
endemic, and there are thousands more that are unknown. It’s also the first country to
cultivate potato, tuber, corn and chilli varieties.
There are 36 different nutritious Andean grains
All this points to the importance of Peru’s biodiversity for the world.
Think about how many edible plants are available in our grocery stores today! Only a
fraction of what we are eating
(Jo) Transition:
● Peru is split up into three regions, which allows for an abundance of markets offering a
variety of fresh ingredients.
1. (Jo) Coast
○ Seafood is the heart of most dishes found on the coast. Much of the cuisine
comes from fish that is freshly caught. It is frequently marinated in citrus, for
example shrimp marinated in lemon juice.
○ Peru is the number one spot in the world for fishing. The waters of Peru house
over 2,000 varieties and 10% of the world’s ENTIRE fish population.
○ The reason for the vast variety is that there are two currents that go into Peru.
■ The Humboldt Current which is very cold and comes from the Atlantic and
El Nino which is the warmer current this in turn creates the perfect
environment for quantity of fish.
■ One of their famous dishes is Ceviche.
● Ceviche is raw seafood marinated in lime or lemon juice, garlic,
onions, hot peppers; it is served with potatoes, sweet potatoes,
yucca or maize.
○ Here is another dish-potato and octopus
2. (Teegs) Amazon
○ This region of Peru is renowned for its ingredients rather than the cooking style
such as the coast and highland areas. The vast varieties of ingredients enables
you to eat a different meal almost everyday allow for a variety of meals on a daily
basis.
○ There is a wide variety of fresh fruits
■ Banana is a staple food and accompanies almost every dish. Bananas
are eaten fried, grilled, boiled, mashed and raw.
■ Camu Camu, which is red/purple cherry-like fruit. And is found in Peru
and contains 40 times the vitamin C than kiwi. The fruit contains
extraordinary amounts of vitamin C and is a very healthy fruit for you to
try.
● Not only is there a vast array of fresh fruit but also interesting varieties of meat available
in the jungles of Peru. Meats like turtle, fish, crocodile, hog, carne de Monte (which is the
collective term for jungle mammals)
3. (Jo) Andes
●
The Andes Mountains are the longest Continental mountain range in the world.
Most people living in this rural mountain area eat food that can be grown close by as the
mountains can make it very difficult for people to travel. Some places can only be
reached by boat or airplane. People living in the Andes base their diet on potatoes,
maize, lima beans, yucca, squash, pineapple, avocado. The Spanish introduced wheat,
barley, rice and other grains and vegetables such as carrots and meat. Aside from the
wide variety of foods available, llamas and alpaca are among the few animals that are
domesticated. They are used as pack animals to carry heavy loads over the mountains.
●
(Teegs) As you can see from our picture, it is probably difficult to find the right land to
grow crops on. The farmers in Peru grown food anywhere there is land-here is a picture
of some land that was famers built terraces into on the sides of the mountains. In
addition to carving out land on steep mountains, machinery was unable to be driven on
the land. These factors result in the famer climbing to get to the land and manually
harvesting all the food by hand and carry it back to be sold or ate.
●
(Jo) Soups and stews are among the most popular dishes. Everything goes into it
including meat, many kinds of potatoes, maize, carrots, local spices and hot peppers.
They are cooked for hours because of the lower oxygen at high altitude.
A classic dish is Pachamanca (Pats-A-mAn-Ka) is a traditional Peruvian dish based on
the baking, with the aid of hot stones (the earthen oven is known as a huatia), Types of
meat cooked are lamb, mutton, pork, chicken or guinea pig. The meat is wrapped in
banana leaves before being put in this type of stove known a Huatia. This dates all the
way back to the Inca Empire.
●
4. (Teegs) Sustainability
In recent years the agricultural practices of peru have faced criticism over deforestation,
land degradation, and pollution from pesticides. The identified reasons for the continuation of
these unsustainable practices include limited financial resources, environmental degradation,
hyper-urbanization, and political instability. However, many efforts have been partnering with
organizations in Peru to incorporate more sustainably practices, and these are some of the
things they have already begun doing. Sustainability practices are based on reducing
production costs and increasing productivity.
● (Jo) Application of integrated pest and disease (reduced use of pesticide)
● Schools are growing vegetable gardens. Some universities and cooking schools are
starting to emphasize the importance of a sustainable gastronomy
● Sustainable fishing, sustainable agriculture and therefore a healthy and balanced
environment.
● (Teegs) Soil conservation- Farmers used to plant coffee next to streams, but now they
conserve the natural vegetation along these waterways. They’ve also reduced hunting in
the area, planted more than 30,000 trees, and begun composting and recycling waste.
● Restaurateurs are making responsible changes in buying and in some cases purchasing
directly from producers.
●
●
●
●
The Lima city council has created an assisted program of “urban ecological vegetable
gardens” located in 18 different districts of the city. The idea is that these gardens will
help to feed and will be tended by the local community, but the remaining produce will be
sold to restaurants.
The first organic farmer’s market – Bioferia de Miraflores – started 12 years ago, but still
there are citizens from Lima who don’t know of its existence or may have never gone.
Sustainable agricultural practices in Peru still have a ways to go, but they are making
moves
(Jo) Terrace farming was an ancient sustainable technique used in Peru (especially by
the Incas) starting 1500 years ago. It is an ingenious engineering system that retains the
heat energy from the sun through the night, utilizes a gravity-fed watering system to
ensure proper drainage and watering of the crops, and helps avoid erosion and runoff.
This practice is still used in the highlands of Peru. It continues to be adopted by other
countries with regions of high elevations because it can work in areas previously found
difficult to cultivate crops from. Although many terrace farms have given way to largescale, conventional, flatland farms, this practice still exists and Peru would benefit from
switching their modern farms back to this practice of their ancestors.
Questions?
Thank You
Call to Action: Keep in mind that the cuisine of Peru varies depending on the region. Even
though it may be foreign to you, you should still keep an open mind and appreciate what
different cultures can offer!
FUN FOOD ACTIVITY SO EVERYONE LOVES US:
3 types of food, one from each region and they have to guess what region the snack is from!
● Baby shrimp marinated in fresh lemon juice with cilantro - Coast
● Frozen mashed banana with vanilla and honey - Amazon
● Potato Soup - Andes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peruvian_cuisine
http://www.thetravelword.com/2012/08/13/a-chef-in-peru-shares-sustainable-gastronomy/
http://www.inia.gob.pe/investigacion/cultivos.asp
http://alianzaandina.org/http:/alianzaandina.org/tag/highlands-of-peru/
http://bkpk.me/a-sunday-tasting-of-peruvian-cuisine/#!prettyPhoto
http://www.discover-peru.org/peru-food-andes/
http://www.geographia.com/peru/peruhistory.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53867581@N04/5000701184/sizes/m/in/photostream/