We started a bit late but our first course of action was to change from the 3 bedroom apartment to a 1 bedroom apartment on Tarata which was just around the corner from Daniela's office. We were told we could give the key to the guy cleaning our new apartment and take the key from him so we cleaned up and packed and walked over. It was maybe 3 blocks. When we got there he said he still needed about 2 hours to finish cleaning. We poked around and found the cooking equipment was less than stellar. I wanted a real coffee pot, something I hadn't had except the one night in the apartment with the family. They didn't have one. Also there was nothing like a chef's knife. He said he could get a knife and would see what he could do about a coffee maker.
We left him and headed over to have breakfast. We wanted to try the Lima Cafe but it appears it is permanently shut down for some reason. We ended up eating at a Cafe Cafe right next door. We both had the Desayuno Naturalismo. I had mine with a fruit filled crepe and she had hers with a fruit salad instead. Both came with coffee and juice. The food was pretty good and we took our time eating and stayed there for a bit after.
We then went to the Wong supermarket just a block or two away to shop for something to make her family for dinner. I am sure we had promised I would and there were a few stories about how good a cook I am from different people on the trip, especially from Peter. I was happy to do it anyway. I don't typically know what I am going to cook until I get to the market and that was the case this time as well.
At the market I saw some Serrano ham and decided maybe I could make something like a stuffed chicken breast. Daniela said she wanted pasta with pesto sauce to go along and I agreed to try to do that too. So we bought some chicken breast and had the butcher at the market butterfly them (he did a poor job though). I also bought the ham and some mozzarella, bread crumbs, parmesan, eggs, basil, olive oil, some parsley, garlic, salt, butter and lemons for the meal. I also wanted some beer and bought some Cuscena Red. We also bought some stuff for the next day's breakfast too.
When we got back to the apartment with the stuff (the bag boy walked the cart over for us and helped us deliver it for a small tip) I found out we didn't have anything the right size for baking and had to fall to plan b. Fortunately the blender worked so I started on the chicken and the pesto right away. I minced the garlic with some salt and chiffonaded the basil and chopped a little bit of the parsley and pulsed it in the blender till it was ground then added the olive oil and emulsified it. Then I added some of the parmesan and a little bit more pulsing. Then it was scraped into a pan and put over low heat. I added more parmesan and half a lemon to it there.
For the chicken I decided to spit them for the damage caused by the butterflying and would pick the five best pieces and fold them in half. I did that and inserted some mozzarella and ham and then whipped 2 eggs and dunked the chicken and then breaded it with the crumbs that had been touched up with some pepper an oregano. Then I let them sit for a bit while I heated some of the olive oil in a frying pan. I browned the chicken in the frying pan. Then we found one pie plate that would fit them all (surprisingly) and they rested in the low temperature oven until they were cooked and to keep warm until her family arrived. The water for the fresh fettucini was boiling when they arrived and I started it right away. They didn't bring the wine so Donna and Luis went out and bought 2 bottles of rose which gave me time to finish everything off.
I apologized for the quality of everything based on the limited cooking equipment. We only had 4 actual dishes and 2 knives for 5 people too. They either were very polite and ate everything out of niceness or they really did like it as they said. I am sure it would have been nicer to have more. I thought things tasted reasonably good myself but still I know I could have done better with the right equipment. We also had some cake Daniela's mother made and served it with some Turkey Hill black cherry ice cream.
After we were done eating we talked and looked at some of the pictures from the trip for a while. Eventually her mother was falling asleep so we walked them to the bus stop and waited for their bus to arrive before heading back and washing a lot of dishes. After that we settled in for the night. She found The Lion King in Spanish on the Disney Channel. This time I fell asleep before it finished.
In the rush I didn't take any pictures of the food and even forgot the initial pictures of the apartment which I will have to remedy for day 17. By the way I have been in 8 places for different nights in the course of the 16 nights so far.
The pictures from today can be located here.
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