Pacha Papa Plazoleta San Blas 120 Phone 084-241318 Open 11:30am-10pm Credit V Price $$
Set in a beautiful old colonial house
surrounding an attractive courtyard, across from the
San Blas church, Pacha Papa offers the best typical
Andean dishes with a slight European influence.
Their menu includes roasted cuy (a
local guinea pig) in a fresh huacatay sauce, adobo de
chancho (pork stewed in "chicha de jora",
onions, and spices), and olluquito con charqui, the
quintessential Andean dish: olluco tuber and potatoes
stewed with dried alpaca meat. You can see how they
cook your food in the adobe oven located in the patio
or, even best, experience a "pachamanca" ("pacha"
is Quechua for ground, "manca" for pot): a
traditional and millenary ritual that consists in cooking
several types of food -pork, chicken, cuy, potatoes,
Peruvian corn, etc- inside a hole in the ground, previously
stuffed with incandescent stones and then covered with
big aromatic leaves.
Alas, you must make a reservation and
be at least 12-people for a pachamanca. In any case,
Pacha Papa is definitely great food for your money.