Peruvian food

  Peruvian food

The origins of this dish go back to Pre-Columbian Peru. The first Western chronicler who talked about “huatia” was the priest Francisco de Ávila around the 1600 by gathering the existing myths between the Huarochirí villages, in the Limean highlands which pointed the Huaitiacuri God figure.

To prepare this dish, first we have to make a little excavation, if there’s a large group of people the excavation will need a bigger diameter. To heat this huatia, as there’s no firewood people use ichu (a type of straw) or some animal’s dung. Once its heated, potatoes or sweet potatoes are added, also we can include meat (lamb, alpaca, etc.). Rolled in cabbage leaves, the cooking takes approximately 40 minutes, once it’s cooked, it is served for the community and guests.

The huatia in our Andean culture is connected to the rituals which take an important role in our way of living, usually this has been expressed as the way we prepared food in the lands, not only the huatia but also the “oven” in which it is prepared (made out of a pyramid of lumps). The huatia is made approximately at 3,500 or 4,000 meters above sea level.