Market Days

One of the enjoyable parts of living in a new place is discovering new foods, recipes and ingredients. A regular part of life here is shopping at the markets. In the States, that phenomenon is called “the farmers market” but here in Peru that phenomenon is called everyday life.  It is also one of my favorite parts of life here. Yes there a mega grocery stores creeping in all over the place and sure they sell fruits, veggies, diapers, shoes and clothes but just because they sell it there does it make it better? Nah. Sure it is more convenient but it doesn’t foster relationships. The mega store doesn’t tell me how to use that weird orange fruit I have never seen before. It also doesn’t give me a “yapa” (a free item with purchase).

Jenn and I love going to the market. The market, here, consists of many vendors all selling about the same thing. You go to the market and you pick your person/stand. The person you pick is the person you stick with and you always, I mean ALWAYS, go back to the same person. You are now connected to them. I may as well tattoo my market ladies name on my arm because we are bound together F.O.R.E.V.E.R. You don’t switch or if you do you basically committed market place adultery and, well, that would just be horrifying! Seriously, though, Peruvians stick with the same person. Peruvians get it don’t they. They are doing what we strain so hard to do…they build relationships! It is so easy, so second nature to them. They don’t even think about it. This last week Jenn and I went to the market and picked out our fruit with Eli and Sofi. Our fruit lady was busy so we started off picking our own fruit at first till she was able to get to us. When she was Jenn was able to ask her questions about the Pomegranites…what is called in Spanish, costs, etc. By the time we were done she asked us what we wanted as a yapa (it is normal for you to get a yapa everytime you shop at the market fruit or veggie stands.) I picked a fruit that was orange and smooth and completely strange to me. I thought “the only way to know what this is like is to try it” she looked at me…completely knowing that I had NO CLUE as to what I was doing and told me, “that is for juicing, you don’t want that…you won’t get much of anything out of one piece of fruit” Thank you! I NEVER would have known that if I had gone to Metro (my mega store) and picked it up. Instead, she gave us a giant, juicy, delicious pomegranate…which we later learned is pretty unheard of to get for free. J Slowly we can build a relationship with her. One papaya at a time.

Right along the lines of the market place, last Friday Jenn and I went with our dear friend Trufa to a class on how to use local ingredients. It was SO much fun. We learned quite about bit about healthy things like Quinoa, Kiwicha, Chia, fruits and veggies. Peru has about 9 kazillion varieties of potatos, so to learn what 2 or 3 different varieties were was awesome! We had a lot of fun with our babes and friends and hope to do more things like that soon!!!