The Road to Ollanta

howardwalfish — Sat, 23 May 2015 22:31:38 GMT

We were somewhere between Cusco and Urubamba when our van hit the wall. It was almost 6am, still pitch black and pouring rain, and the wall – about a foot high and made up of rocks about the size of grapefruits – stretched across both lanes of the road. Our driver had been going a bit too, but I think the sheer improbability of the wall made it harder to stop in time. We hit the wall with a loud crunch, and stopped a few feet past it. There were 13 of us crammed into a van built to hold 11, and only five of us were tourists headed to Machu Picchu. The rest were locals who just needed a ride.
It was harder and more expensive to get to Machu Picchu than I thought it would be. There are two companies that run trains there, but they don’t leave from Cusco, they leave from a town called Ollantaytambo (shortened to Ollanta by the locals), which was almost two hours from Cusco. One of those companies offered a bus ticket to Ollanta, but it added around $40 to the cost of the train. A taxi would cost around $30. At my hotel they told me there are minivans that cost around $3, which leave early in the morning every half hour (or when they were full).
So I found myself at Pavitos, a small dark road in southern Cusco, around 4am. There was a minivan waiting, half full, with a young woman nearby calling out “Ollanta!” to all passersby. It took a while for the van to fill, and in the end we had to take some passengers who only wanted to go to Urubamba, about halfway to our destination. They were a couple of Quechua women, instantly recognizable by their bowler hats and tightly braided hair. By the time we left it was raining pretty hard.
The roads were narrow and winding, and our driver took the curves with a kind of casual recklessness that didn’t help when we came across that wall.
It looked like a trap set by bandits, but it was just strange enough that there was nothing scary about the thought. I also wondered if the rain had somehow washed the rocks across the road in a way that merely looked like a wall. After some experiments with driving, we all climbed out of the van to wait for whatever happened next. As we stood on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in Peru, none of us spoke. The sun was just starting to rise behind the mountains; somewhere in the distance a rooster crowed, then a baby started to cry. Our tires were eventually changed, and we continued on our way with no explanation

Passport & Plate - Easy Vegan Kimchi Jjigae

howardwalfish — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 12:21:55 GMT

Ingredients
1 white onion
1 large block of tofu, cubed
shiitake mushrooms, sliced
gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
1 jar of vegan kimchi
water
salt to taste
cooking oil

How to prepare this recipe
Start by sauteing a small onion with oil in a pot. When the onion softens, add kimchi and water, and bring to a boil. When it boils, add cubed tofu and sliced shiitake mushrooms. When it comes back to a boil, add red pepper paste (gochujang). You can substitute gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes) if needed, but I gochujang is usually easier to find in supermarkets. Add salt if needed, and let it simmer over low heat for about half an hour. Turn off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes before eating. You can serve it with rice, or you can add mung bean noodles and convert it into budae jjigae.

The story behind this recipe
I've traveled extensively throughout the world, but never been to Korea (I am going next month). I have a friend whose mother is Korean, and when she cooks for me she makes sure I have enough vegetarian food to eat -- most Korean food involves seafood or meat. I learned this recipe from the owner of one of my local bodegas, who I have developed a friendly relationship with despite the fact that she doesn't speak much English and I don't speak any Korean. She advised me on the best way to make this dish vegetarian (lots of mushrooms was her main tip).

Lost Vegetarian

The Road to Ollanta

Passport & Plate - Easy Vegan Kimchi Jjigae