I had two very different meals today. One was simple and accompanied by company, laughter, stories, etc. The second was quiet, more fancy, and at the same time more cold/impersonal.
The project manager for whom I'm working on the project that I'm in Lima for has a wonderful heart and he's extremely lively. He speaks a little bit of English and I speak a little bit of Spanish. We both communicate through a translator and along the way we have both learned a little more of the other's language. Yesterday he was very excited and told me that he wanted me to come have dinner at his house in the next day or so. This immediately grabbed my interest as I'm working hard to get the real Peruvian experience. I was also interested because he works extremely long hours and has no family in Lima (his family, wife, children, etc. all live in Arequipa) so I was curious to see what his life was like. In my opinion he is not living a life very different from mine except his family is closer, but he goes quite a long time without seeing them. I came to work today and he told me that he had made me lunch and wanted to have it with me in the lunchroom. I can't convey my surprise not to mention my happiness. I have never had someone bring me food in such a giving way. At lunch time we went downstairs to get our food ready. He opened a plastic bag and pulled out four containers (2 for each of us), a big bottle of juice, and two little Clementine oranges. The first course was a peanut curry sauce over potatoes, cabbage, and a hard boiled egg. The second was a chicken breast over spaghetti with a little sauce. I dug into the food and was loving it when I decided to try the juice. I poured a glass and it was amazing. I immediately asked him what it was. I thought it was lemonade, but wasn't sure. He said he didn't remember, which was the first sign something was afoot J. He smelled it and said that it was apple juice. I said it was a very different tasting juice and he said it was diluted with water. I accepted that explanation. Then someone else came and sat down across from me. He had exactly the same peanut curry dish as I did in exactly the same size container as I did. Not sort of the same dish, but the identical one. I asked him what was going on and the others at the table jumped on the opportunity. After much laughter and backpedalling the real story came out. The office's cleaning lady also doubles as catering lady to some of the staff and my PM was entering into some sort of business venture with her. We all had a good laugh over the situation and how surprised we were when we thought he was making this much food when he goes home after 730pm and is in the office before 800am. My coworker looked at me and said that he lied to me. I said maybe so, but it was the thought behind his actions. I probably could have been more upset, but when I saw with how much genuine excitement he wanted to get me food I couldn't help but forgive him. So the real question here is what was the juice? I have never heard of this, but it was the pineapple skin juice. I guess it's not the juice of skin, but it's what results from boiling the skin apparently for a few hrs. It was such an amazingly subtle refreshing taste. I definitely can't wait to try this at home. I'll have to find out from the cleaning lady how to do this.
If you are wondering what my second meal was like I'll leave it at this: it was in the hotel restaurant.
No comments:
Post a Comment