Welcome to 25 for 25 my project to watch and eat my way around the world in 2025 with 25 movies from 25 countries matched with 25 country themed dinners. Today’s entry is Latvia but you can see the full Masterlist to watch and cook along with me.
Country: Peru
Movie: Raíz [Root]
Director: Franco García Becerra
Year: 2024
The Elevator Pitch: 8 year old Feliciano is an alpaca herder in a small village is Peru. He lives a simple life and is buoyed by the fact that Peru is about to qualify for the World Cup. Around him a mining company and the forces of the modern world are encroaching on his world.
How Was the Movie?:
This was actually our third choice of movie for Peru but so it goes, I would have switched countries but I really wanted to make the stuff for dinner (I had already spent 2 weeks waiting for the specialty peppers to arrive). The movie was fine. A little bit like Through the Fig Trees this movie was largely a free flowing naturalist kind of movie that is imbued with the concerns and problems that would be faced by an 8 year old alpaca herder. I found this less compelling in an odd way because I guess we kind of all know what is going to happen.
What I did like about the film were all the extremely fun and interesting hats everyone was wearing. Also hearing Quechua which I’m not sure I’ve ever heard in my entire life. I’m personally interested more in the language politics than anything else but the movie is from the perspective of an eight year old which I thought would give us the bare amount of insight into anything. I actually felt like it made me unable to understanding the actual problems in the community to any actual level since he wasn’t really privy to any real information which made me feel like I was just making uneducated assumptions all the time instead of understanding. The movie is more of an account of what it looks like today to live in such a place with very little commentary that you don’t add on your own. Obviously the Andes are very beautiful but I did kind of just turn the movie off and go back to my day and maybe that’s a problem with me but yeah, it didn’t really win me over.
What was for Dinner?:
I worked so hard for this meal you have no idea. First of all to make the Ají de Gallina I had to source some ají amarillo which was expensive and annoying and then I found out that evaporated milk without sugar basically doesn’t exist in Estonia so – no problem just cook down milk…which I accidentally burned. Then I burnt my fingers the day before making this and our blender bottom fell out and I almost lost the entire meal but actually it was extremely good once it came together. In a different world I would probably make it again but I will have to wait for the memory of the horrors I endured to fade but if you have access to ají amarillo and love hearty stews this one is great.
I also made picarones which are a kind of pumpkin/sweet potato doughnut that is funny enough, vegan. These were really interesting to make because the batter fermented overnight and smelled absolutely wild but also because you make them free form by rolling balls and then shaping them with wet hands and enforcing the circle in the hot oil with the stick part of the wooden spoon. They came out pretty much exactly how I thought they would but I found them a little dry actually and ended up eating them with jam. I know I did that with the chin chin the other week also but I don’t know what to tell you, I just really like jam.
That’s it for Peru, see you next in Lithuania!