Written by Jill one of our very talented non-blogging members. This is the first of a 2-part series.

A few years ago I traveled to the Atacama Desert of southern Peru to work at an archaeological dig. I had a lot of expectations about my trip, but they didn’t really include any thoughts about what I’d be eating. I guess I’d never considered the cuisine of Peru or, if I had, I probably had some vague impression of spicy beans and rice, and not much else. I didn’t really expect to like the food, instead viewing it as sustenance for my hard days of work, and I definitely didn’t expect to fall in love with Peruvian food. But I did.

Peruvian cuisine is incredibly culturally diverse and geographically varied. Like anywhere else, it ranges from simple and homey to complex culinary creation. It’s so diverse, in fact, that I couldn’t possibly hope to cover all my bases here, so I hope this will just be a starting point for you if, like me, you’d never thought about Peruvian food. This seems like a good place for me to say that I am by no means an expert on this topic. I’ve only been to Peru once and I stayed mostly in one region. That was enough, though, to create a deep and lasting impression on me, and I’ve experimented with Peruvian cooking ever since.