Pirwa Hostels Peru Blog

 
The second annual Qosqo Mijuy (Cusco Eats) Food Fair & Competition is right around the corner, coming on April 5th and 6th! The fair was inaugurated last year with the hopes of conserving the local tradition of preparing 12 dishes for Holy Week, and was a rousing success with more than 10,000 people stopping by to sample the food. Renowned national chefs will be taking part, coming from Puno, Tacna, Arequipa, Lima, and Ica, as well as international chefs from Columbia, Mexico, and Bolivia. Dishes will focus on fish, sea food, and regional ingredients.

The event takes place in the Jardín de la Cerveza (Beer Garden), which is located on Avenida de la Cultura, just 5 minutes from Cusco’s Main Square, the Plaza de Armas. This is your chance to sample traditional regional dishes as well as dishes from Novo Andina, or New Andean Fusion, cuisine. Visitors can enjoy dishes such as fried trout with soltero, spicy fish escabeche, corn soup, corn soup, yuyo soup, stews of Andean lupin, trout cakes, clam soup, and candies made from loquat, fig, peach, and melon, and empanadas.

The fair will be divided into two sections, aside from the food stands there will also be a travelling market selling products such as trout, scad, anchovy, as well as products from the small subsistence farms which decorate the surrounding countryside, the Sacred Valley, of Cusco. Products are sold in the market, known as “Leading the Change”, at specially lowered prices as a special service, as in years prior to the event prices for important products would hike during Holy Week, scandalizing locals.

We’re keeping an eye out for Magdalena Zambrano, who won for best dessert in Peru’s largest food fair and competition, Mistura. She’ll be presenting traditional picarones along with mashua picarones and mango. But we’ll be bringing healthy appetites and hope to sample a range of dishes. Any of you planning on stopping by as well, remember to go early early early…because crowds begin arriving quickly and lines can get long.

As you know, Pirwa Hostels has FOUR locations in Cusco, and we’d like to get a group going! If you’re interested in stopping by, why not stop by reception and ask them when and where they’d like to pool people together for a little fieldtrip.