Saturday, May 31, 2008

Cooking with octopus


There are some personal benefits to the activities I organize with my women groups. I get to try new foods (that I might not otherwise try). One of the village banks requested a cooking class - a loan recipient in this group opened a small restaurant and wants to learn more recipes so she can add a variety of plates to her menu. So I found the teacher, bought the pork and seafood (including octopus) this morning, the other ladies went to the market to get the other ingredients and we starting cooking away. Our teacher was fabulous, giving little tips here and there to help the women save money, invest better and produce a better quality plate at the end of the morning. We started cooking at 9:30 and an hour later we ate our first plate - seafood ceviche with sweet potato and yuca. It was delicious. Our class didn't end there. We were also cooking another famous Lima pork dish - Carapulca. For not liking pork, I have to tell you all it was also delicious. I ate two plates worth. I felt like I was in the presence of a growing business. Vanessa, the restaurant owner, claimed that she will make the new dish Carapulca on Monday and see how her customers like it. You can't get any more "putting into practice learning" than this.

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