Wednesday afternoon was supposed to be our last weekly meeting in the workshop before Lexi arrives on the 31st, but the Ñañas had other ideas of how to spend the day and we ended up instead at Paula's house making picarones, Peru's special version of fried dough goodness served with chancaca (sugar cane syrup). The plan, I'd been told, was to sell them on the street to raise money for our trip to Madrigal in Colca Canyon.
As it turned out, though, there weren't any left over by the time we finished eating our fill, and all of the money that was raised came from the Ñañas themselves. Successful fundraiser? Maybe not, but everyone seemed pleased with the results as they licked the sugary syrup off their fingers.
Below: The dough had already been mixed and kneaded ahead of time, so as soon as we got the fire built and the oil bubbling Andrea got to work pulling the dough into doughnut-shaped rings.
After watching a few times, I gave it a try myself. Results were mixed.
Below: Victoria and Maria keep an eye on the frying pan, while Uldárica and Andrea work the dough...
... and Margarita lines up fresh picarones on a stick.
The panel of judges -- Domitila, Juana and Damiana.
Finally, for your viewing pleasure a clip from the brilliant ad campaign done last year by Peru's tourism board which featured teams of Peruvian celebrities descending on towns around the world with Peruvian names to tell the locals their rights as Peruvians. Here, a Peruvian comedian offers to trade a police officer in Peru, Nebraska, his run-of-the-mill cake doughnuts for picarones.
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