London Baby!

So I know it's been a long time, but, I kid you not, things have only just begun to calm down since Peru.

Peru was, indeed, one of the most amazing weeks of my life - this doesn't mean it was easy. I did not get Dengue you'll be relieved to know, but I did get altitude sickness. The first few days in Cusco I couldn't hold down even the Cocoa tea the locals drink to combat the thin air up in the mountains. It wasn't a pretty sight. Anywhere I went I sounded like an asthmatic and really the only thing that could bring me out of my lightheadedness were the cute baby llamas hiding throughout the city.

Once I started to feel more like myself - and my stomach didn't feel like an active volcano - I gave Cuy a try. It was actually pretty moist and tender, but I still found myself kinda peeved. My travel companion and I, along with a couple dutch guys, sat down and braced ourselves. The waiter came out and made a neck snapping gesture. We looked at each other and laughed nervously. Shortly afterwards our guinea pig came out, hat and all.

I wasn't sure how to go about eating it, but I did - I even ended up trying the brain which tasted like a soft-boiled egg. Even though it wasn't bad, I don't think I'll be having it again any time soon...

On the other hand I also tried Alpaca steak, which was AMAZING. We went to this wonderful restaurant Uchu simply because our hostel gave us a coupon, and it was one of the best eats of the entire trip. Our meal was brought out on a hot stone for grilling with four different sauces for quick marination. Not only was it delicious it was interactive, and just what we needed after a 24 hour bus ride. It was so tender and moist I was able to quickly look past the fact that I was eating a really cute animal.

The last place we ate in Cusco and our cheapest eat of the trip was at the Mercado Central de San Pedro. We had four meals because everything was 5 sols or less which is about 2 dollars. The market was not for the faint of heart but if you can handle a little grime then you can enjoy some of the best sopa and arroz con pollo in Peru - just be sure to avoid the butcher section unless you don't want to sleep for a week.

I could go on about Peru for a long time, but my point was that the trip left me physically and emotionally kaput. After three months of rest with my family in California I finally feel like a human being again.

Right now I'm in London and to make up for lost time I'll be posting pictures of my good eats all week. Follow me on instagram at feedmenewyork! Be prepared for fish and chips abound.

Peru Bound

My best friend and I just purchased our tickets to Lima, Peru, and now I have negative 7 dollars in my bank account (thanks hulu plus.....no sarcasm intended, I LOVE YOU HULU PLUS). BUT, it is all okay, because I'm dreaming of fresh ceviche on a warm Lima day and the chilling mist of the Incan ruins, Machu Picchu (and llamas! / will be reenacting The Emperor's New Groove BRB)

What I am not dreaming about, however, is an interesting array of things I didn't think of till last night really: pirhanas, suffocating altitude sickness, food poisoning, eating cuy (aka guinea pig).

Though I'm probably never going to say, "yum I love me some fried guinea pig" if the chance arises to try it, I'm going to have to take it.

In reality, all the things I'm kind of dreading, I'm also kind of excited about. I mean, if I'm going to get altitude sickness anywhere, I don't really have a problem with that being at one of the 7 wonders of the world. And so long as I stay out of amazonian rivers I think the pirhana's are avoidable. However if Piranhas 3DD taught me anything, they might come up the toilet. Looks like I'll be peeing in a bottle.

Ice Cream, Cupcakes, and Whipped Cream (ALL HOMEMADE!)

I was craving sweets this week, and since I'm on a tight budget - saving to go to Machu Picchu in the spring - I haven't had the money to run out in the middle of the night and buy cartons of Hagen Daas or several dozen chocolate bars like I normally would. Instead, I've been making all of my stuff, after I get home from work at around 11pm to midnight, and then not going to sleep until... never.

On sunday, I made my go to Devil's Food Chocolate Cupcake recipe by Martha Stewart. The secret to the deliciousness of this recipe is the cup of sour cream you add at the end. The tanginess counteracts the overwhelming sweetness of the 3 sticks of butter, 3 cups of sugar, and cocoa powder, and creates a delicious but not overly decadent chocolate cupcake, and trust me, if it weren't good I wouldn't continue to make it. I'm not that into chocolate sweets - brownies, cupcakes, etc. - so it's a miracle I even like these.

I'm positively terrible at making frosting. I don't know what it is but every time I try, it ends in disaster. For these cupcakes I made whipped cream instead because... 1. It's super easy and 2. you can eat it straight out of the bowl and not feel nearly as guilty as you would eating frosting straight out of a carton. I put it on top of my cupcakes, on top of my fruit, on top of my hot cocoa, and on top of my spaghetti (well... not yet).

Finally to finish off my trifecta of sweets, I made homemade vanilla ice cream with my new ice cream maker! Of course, I did not do this the same night I made my other goodies because I mistakenly forgot to put the ice cream bowl in the freezer a day in advance, which, BE WARNED, is absolutely necessary. Just always keep those puppies in the freezer. When you finish making ice cream, scoop it out, put it in some tupperware, wash out your bowl, and stick it back in the freezer, or you will regret it!

Making the ice cream was not easy, even though every article I read and every youtube video I watched said it should be. They made it seem simple enough for a monkey, which means I am simpler than a monkey. I locked the bowl into the machine, put the mixer upright and inside the bowl, topped it off with the lid, turned the switch, and.... nothing happened. It wasn't until fifteen minutes later that I realized I needed to reset the switches in my apartment and that I had in fact been doing everything correctly. When I finally got it working, the bowl had defrosted too much and the ice cream would not form. So I stuck it in the fridge and finished it with my additional frozen bowl when I came home from work.

I didn't want to take any chances, so I just made simple vanilla ice cream. When the ice cream finally formed, it was still to soft to eat, so I stuck it in the freezer and when morning finally came, I hopped out of bed like a kid on christmas - at 6 in the morning - stuffed my face with ice cream, and went to bed with heartburn. My mom is sending me vanilla beans, so it will be fancier the next time I make it. No pictures of the ice cream today, it went to fast, but rest assured, I will be making a lot more.

XOXO Fat Pig.