Today at lunch my mother in law served piccarones and I was reminded of the first time that I had them, almost four years ago in Lima. My wife, son and I had gone with her friend Jenny and her daughter to see some of the sights in Lima including the Magic Water Tour in the Parque de la Reserva which is a water fountain complex some of which are interactive. It's a pretty impressive sight.

On the way back Connie and Jenny decided to have the taxi stop and so that they could get two orders of piccarones. You might ask why only two orders, well it was because since I had been such a picky eater Jenny was sure that I wouldn't like them. They were so convinced of this that they didn't bother to explain what piccarones were or even ask me if I was interested. Once we returned to Jenny's house where her husband Ernesto now was they found out just how wrong they were. I not only liked piccarones, I loved them!

Since they had only gotten two orders there wasn't enough for everybody to eat and be satisfied with but at least they learned their lesson. Never think a fat guy won't like something covered in syrup, only bad things can happen when you do this. Piccarones look like donuts but are made from pumpkin or sweet potatoes and served with a bitter sweet syrup. They are delicious and I haven't had them for a long time, too long in fact.

Since that trip to Peru my eating habits have become decidedly less finicky and I can't wait to return to really experience a part of Peru that I passed over the last time. Although I have to say that since my mother in law is such a good cook that maybe I'm already experiencing those things while I'm at home. Lucky me.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.