I don’t like Paneton….gasp! While those of you living in Peru take a moment to overcome your shock, I’ll explain
myself to our friends in the States. Here in Peru there is one big holiday
tradition, just one. It’s Paneton and hot chocolate. Paneton is this loaf like
cake, with bits of dried fruit baked into it. They sell them everywhere and it
is an inarguable staple of a Peruvian Christmas. Now that December has started
all social groups and organizations are starting to have their own
chocolatadas, which is a fancy word for a Paneton and hot chocolate party. I
went to one with my knitting group and we each got a fourth of a cake to
ourselves….a fourth! Now the hot chocolate is quite tasty; melting chocolate,
evaporated milk and cinnamon mixed with boiling water. Great idea. The Paneton
however is sort of like dry sponge cake with raisins and some type of neon
green dried “fruit” that I feel certain can’t be found naturally on our earth.
Getting through the next three weeks of December may have just gotten trickier.
On
a totally unrelated note, I finally have conclusive evidence that perceptions
of body sizes down here are TOTALLY different. While we were all sitting around
eating brick size chunks of Paneton, the knitting ladies started asking me how
much weight I had gained since I got to Peru. I told them that I still don’t
understand kilos, but it’s a good bit. They were surprised to hear that I am
normally skinnier. Then I was surprised when one of them said “oh aren’t you so
glad you’re here then, wouldn’t you hate to be all skinny again? You’re getting
so pretty.” Whaaaaa?!
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