Follow the Journey

After logging a week of homestays and enjoying typical Peruvian food alongside our newfound Arequipeñan family members, ten perpetually hungry teenage boys were released into the small world of meat, sweets, and live music at the Food Festival in Arequipa, Perú. The festival was located in a small town square overlooking a large part of the city. In the backdrop you could see the massive snow-capped mountains forever overseeing everyday life in an urban sprawl located 7,600 feet above sea level. Upon arrival we were all hit hard with sensory overload: immediately you were able to see hordes of locals walking purposefully around, interspersed with tourists flocking from food stand to food stand in order to gorge themselves with as much calorie-packed Peruvian goodness as they could handle. The sounds that floated throughout the town square were a surprisingly harmonious mix of excited chatter, attempts by vendors to have you try the tamales or lomo saltado, but all were dominated by the hum of guitar chords and Spanish songs being sung by the many bands scattered on stages beyond the brick walkways.
Can you imagine a Disney cartoon in which the character is lifted off of their feet and carried through the air by a wisp of white smoke indicating an intoxicating scent from a pie sitting on a windowsill? I can only really compare our entrance into the festival to that. From near and far you could get strong whiffs of various types of meat on the grill followed closely by the smell that all Americans are too familiar with…fried dough. The atmosphere was so dizzyingly exciting that it was difficult to choose which food stand to visit first, but our lovable southern 6’4 food worshipper Lucas Mozingo quickly set off with reckless abandon, and I simply knew it was in my stomach’s best interest to follow him. Our first stop was at a small booth that sold tamales, tiny sweet dough pockets packed with a meat of your choice. Lucas opted for two right off the bat, one filled with pollo (chicken) and another with res (beef). Hunter and I both had tamales de res, and although the little appetizers were undoubtedly satisfying, we were far from finished eating that day. The big man can’t go a day without consuming at least two different types of food overflowing with sugar and fat, so we soon after found ourselves in front of a Peruvian donut stand, operated by three women tirelessly dipping rings of dough into a giant copper pot of vegetable oil, removing them, and generously topping the donuts with flavors of syrup before they were handed to us, the salivating gringo customers. I chose sabor a camote, sweet potato flavored which was delicious beyond words and greatly superior to any donut manufactured by Dunkin Donuts or somewhere else in the States. After having inhaled several of these fried rings of dough, we knew our trip to the Festival de Comida would not nearly be complete without eating what most of us came here for: meat.
As we walked around the grassy center of the square, every ten feet we were approached by attractive women in high heels and short dresses kindly offering us various types of alcohol, but us being the responsible and strong-willed young men that we are, we returned equally charming smiles and a short “no, gracias”. We followed our noses and finally arrived at perhaps the main attraction of the festival, corazón de vaca, which is cow’s heart. We waited in line for about 15 minutes which felt like two hours before we finally were presented with thickly sliced dark red meat skewered onto sticks and served alongside red potatoes and two kinds of ahí sauces. I suppose a cow’s heart tastes as you’d expect it to, it’s slightly salty and chewy but maintains a strong savory flavor throughout, should I say…hearty? Please don’t let that joke ruin this article for you, I promise our time spent at the Arequipa food festival was revered by everyone, and when it came time to leave and return to our respective homestays I could have sworn I saw the smallest tear in the corner of Lucas’s eye. This was a unique eating experience none of us will soon forget, until it is renewed when we return to the gorgeous city of Arequipa, Perú, whenever that may be.