Category: Food and Drink

Culinary commentary, recommendations, and stories

Pachamanca—a Quintessential Andean Meal at El Albergue

El Albergue, the hostel or inn, occupies a significant stretch of Ollantaytambo between the old town and the railroad station. It is a complex of orchards, organic farm fields, an indoor/outdoor restaurant, lodging, and a café interconnected by walkways covered and vividly colored by a vast array of native trees, shrubs, and flowers.

As we entered the farm from the path that led from the Inca Ruins, it felt as if we had emerged into a different world. It was a small organic farm surrounding an open-air restaurant with in-ground pits for Pachamanca, the traditional earth oven.

Pachamanca, from Quechua meaning “earth pot,” is a method of cooking using ingredients from meats, fish, and tubers to vegetables, nuts, and grains cooked in earthen pits. It mixes both flavors and the essence of the earth itself.

Heated stones are placed as a base to ensure uniform heating. Then careful arrangement of fresh ingredients follows. Marinated meats, tubers, and herbs are layered on. Banana leaves or other local herbs envelop some of these to help retain moisture and flavor.

Cooking pits
The Master of Ceremonies and our guide to cooking in the pits
Some vegetable ingredients
Rice and cactus decorated with flowers
The rocks are heated with wood fires
Fresh ingredients—meats, potatoes, vegetables—wait for charcoal to form and the temperature to rise
The pits are loaded in layers—layers of hot rock form a base
Meats, rice, potatoes, and vegetables in clay pots are added
The pits are covered with a layer of green leaves and a tarp
Topped with a layer of dirt and decorated with a bouquet of flowers
After about half an hour, the cooks spring into action
Corn in their husks
Always potatoes—an Andean staple
Our table
Drinks and appetizers to start and get settled
The salad greens
The meats and potatoes
The vegetables

We did have desert, coffee, and tea, but it looks like I didn’t take any photographs. I’ll have to look again…

With the meal done, we made our way out through the farm and to the lodgings
Down pathways shrouded in a mass of trees, shrubs, and flowers
Out to the street along a rushing stream
Back to Hotel Pakaritampu

NEXT: Machu Picchu