Trujillo

Since my last trip to the south was a bit of a bust, this time I decided to head north, about 8 hours, to another city on the coast, Trujillo.  Not only was the weather expected to be better (no wind!) but I also had the advantage of meeting up with one of our students and letting him play tour guide.

I got to see many places-the ruins (more about these in the next post);

the main square;

and the beach

-but I was more excited to be able to try some new foods!

First was a new fruit called mamey (MAH-MAY).

It reminded me of an orange coconut, but tasted like (and had the texture of) a dried apricot.

Next, lunch was a specialty made here on Mondays called shambar.

It's basically a lentil soup that you add pork, red onions and yucca to.  I find it interesting that the name is so close to the Indian version of a lentil stew: sambar.  I'll have to  do some investigating to see if it is more than just coincidence!

I also had a chance to try chicha de jora, a fermented drink made of corn, which I had been wanting to try for a while.

Supposedly it packs quite the punch, but we didn't drink enough to test that out.  It definitely smells fermented, but tastes more like a nice, crisp, unpasteurized apple cider.  

Then, I tried a new fish preparation, sudado de pescado.

This was a fish soup-with the whole fish (including the head!)

Last but not least, I tried a dessert called KingKong.

Who knew that caramel, pineapple and peanut butter in one dessert could be so good?