This is Moray, the Inca agricultural laboratory situated over 3000 meters in altitude
As you can see, all these concentric circles one level after the other
Different terraces have different temperatures used to grow different crops
In fact, I’m not only here for the site
I’m also here for a restaurant, which is one of the best in Peru
And it’s situated right next to Moray
The wind is so fierce that it completely ruined my hairstyle
Moray, Sacred valley, the Incas. Where do I start?
For those who have been to Peru or know something about South America history
You probably have heard of the Inca empire
Despite it belongs to the so called new world and is often overlooked by people
The Inca empire is indeed one of the greatest empire in South America and even in human history.
In fact, Inca is the name coined by the Spaniard
Since Inca is the title of the ruling class or the ruling families
And that’s what the Spaniards used to refer the empire that they eventually conquered
And we roll with that name
However, in their own language Quechua or Runasimi
The name of the empire is called Tawantinsuyu, meaning four quarters.
The empire controlled a region so vast that it is the largest empire ever in the Western Hemisphere
North all the way to the entire region of Ecuador and South to the Santiago of Chile and northwest of Argentina
To put that in perspective, it is as if the region from Saint Petersburg to Cairo all falls under the control of the same regime
To put that in perspective, it is as if the region from Saint Petersburg to Cairo all falls under the control of the same regime
It exceeded the area of Ottoman Empire at its prime, and was the biggest empire in the world at the time
The empire spanned crossed several latitude with different climate zone
Covering altitudes ranging from seaside to highland
The logistic involved in managing such empire is hard to fathom
Given the fact that they were able to achieve all this in an inhospitable extreme terrain
Without wheel
Horse
Iron
Currency
And even a written languages
All features associated with civilization as we know it
Tawantinsuyu had splendid architecture of massive scale
Such as this fort
Or this temple
Or these terraces
Or these extensive road and canal system
Or this purpose unknown massive structure
They were built with impressive precision that without any mortar or adhesive
The boulders fit together perfectly such that you can’t stuck a sheet of paper in
Like this 12-edged stone
Or this piece that’s carved out of a single rock
Its capital city, Cusco, awed the conqueror Francisco Pizarro
Of being so beautiful that it would be remarkable even in Spain
Aside from the architecture, the Incas were also agricultural masters
They built massive terraces serving as agricultural field
With varying degrees of temperatures at different height to plant different crops
Moray in the beginning is one of them
Some of them were so vast that it spanned the entire mountain, leaving you utterly impressed
Tawantinsuyu stood proudly as one of the great civilization in the American continent
Until the arrival of the Spaniard and the subsequent conquering
Its king, captured and slain
Its people subjugated
Its resources plundered
Its cities ravaged
Its culture and much of its legacy destroyed
Qorikancha, the most sacred temple of the Incas covered with gold
Now stripped bare
Sacsayhuaman, the magnificent fortress and ceremonial center
Dismantled and destroyed
Quipu, the mnemonic device used for record keeping
Its method of interpretation now lost
Along with many other sites dotted in sacred valley, abandoned and function unknown
Leaving people wonder its former glory
The once greatest empire is no more
However, all is not lost
Although hundreds of years after being conquered by the spaniard, some of their legacy passed on
Their language, Quechua, survived today and still being spoken by millions of people
Its crop, the potato, spread to the other side of the world and feed billions of people
Its sacred site, Machu Picchu, rediscovered
Is now a UNESCO world heritage site receiving floods of tourist
Its most important festival, inti raymi, still being celebrated every year
With all these mentioned, you might wonder, what kind of food they had
Is there any culinary aspect that survived the Spanish conquest?
The good new is, yes
And that not only they survived, they intermingled with the Spanish cuisine and thrived
Although you can still find some culinary legacy that existed way before the Spanish arrival and survived today
One of them is potato, naturally, you already know this
As Andes region is the birthplace of potato
Another is quinoa, so nutritious that it became a trend in the western society
Some lesser known ones are the cute alpacas
I mean this one
And cute guinea pig aka cuy
And some even lesser known ones such this choclo
Oversized corn native to the Andes
Used in many native dishes such as this chugchucara
Hmm… it’s a cute name
Other lesser known ones include this chicha de jora
An alcoholic drink from fermenting maize, consumed during religious ceremonies
Or this chirimoya aka custard apple
A fruit that has sweet creamy flesh and tasted like ice creamy, my favorite fruit
Here are much more than what I can enumerate in this video
All these are the collective cultural heritage of the Andean people and those that came before it
But what if we take it further than this?
What if there is a place that utilize some of the lesser known ancient culinary heritage but interprets it in a very unique fashion
Such that it rivals some of the most avant-garde Michelin restaurant?
This is what brings me to Moray
To find a restaurant that does just that
Moray is an agricultural laboratory located in the sacred valley at over 3500 meters in altitude
Btw, Moray is the name of one species of potato in Quechua language according to my Quechua speaking driver
But we are not here just for that
In its vicinity there is a recently established restaurant called Mil
The restaurant highlights “ancestral cuisines” and the food are unfamiliar to most
The kitchen’s focus turns toward its surrounding Andean landscape and the techniques of the past
The mastermind behind it is Virgilio Martínez, featured in Chef’s Table documentary by Netflix
He is known for his use of applying modern cooking techniques to indigenous Peruvian ingredients
His flagship Lima restaurant Central, took on the 6th place of the World’s 50 Best List of 2019
And landed him in the international spotlight
Mil is his latest brain child
MIL has a menu inspired by the altitude at which the ingredients grow
In this case, it specifically focuses on what can grow at the towering height of its own setting
— 3500m (11,500 feet) above sea level
This is not just farm-to-table, this goes way beyond that
Deep into the unknown in an extreme way
With the introduction away, next thing is, how do we get there?
Virgilio Martínez knows this restaurant isn’t for everyone
It’s a journey to get to MIL. In fact
In fact, this location is so remote that the logistic involved in getting there is daunting for most people
Let’s say for example
You are from China and you wanna get there after hearing it from the self proclaimed foodie expert fufski
How?
First, there is no direct flight between China and Peru
So you are gonna have to start from a major city in China and transfer either via Europe or US to Lima
The capital of Peru
Then from Lima, you take a flight to Cusco
The capital of the once Inca Empire
And then you give yourself a few days to acclimate to the high altitude of 3,400 meters
Now you are about 18000km away from where you started
Once you get acclimatized
It’s time to head to the sacred valley where many of the Inca ruins dotted throughout
No, there is no public transportation because Moray is an ancient ruin in the middle of nowhere
So you need to arrange a private car to get you there
it’s about an hour’s drive from Cusco
And no, the driver most likely won’t speak English
So be resourceful with your communication skill
Last but not least, you need to get your reservation
And finally, we are ready for pivotal moment
An unforgettable meal and MIL Centro
From the outside, the restaurant outlook had a modern take on traditional Inca houses
Once entered, I was greeted by a courtyard surrounded on all sides with a small garden in the middle
This place just exuded the sense serenity and tranquility
I was given a tour of this place
It had different sections dedicated to different functions of the restaurant
Or I shall say, rather than a restaurant, it was more of a lab
Every possible ingredients from the nature are foraged here
Being experimented and displayed
The research lab really had a lot of interesting stuff, and I was there to see them all
From tasting the Andean mint fresh out of the garden
To browsing the collections of different fermentation being experimented here
To going over different plant species
Different ingredients that I had no idea of their existence
And of course, tasting some authentic chocolate
The fermentation experiment was particularly interesting
Involving ingredients and methods unknown to me before
Like this root macerated in cañazo raíces
An traditional Andean drink, giving it a syrupy smell
Or these tiny fish in Titicaca lake near Puno
Which is at around 4000 meters above sea level
You could immediately smell the umami and saltiness
The botanical lab had all species of plants and herbs on display
Most of which I have never heard of
Such as this Ccotoccoto that looked like tiny melon
Used for its medicinal properties to treat rashes
By burning it, cutting it open and rubbing it against the skin
You probably also noticed that everything was hang upside down
This was to prevent the nutrient from getting lost
That’s some ancient Andean wisdom here
In the lab space next to it, they had an impressive display of different ingredients sourced nearby
Such as different varieties of corn
Different fava beans
Different types of quinoa
Different tubers
Different potatoes
Dehydrated potatoes that looked like rocks
Edible clay
Yes, you can eat this clay, literally
A piece of slab used for construction but apparently you can also break it into small pieces and infuse with water
Algae that only grow on high altitude
Potato that looked like an… alien spaceship
Flame potato that’s technically a tuber
Tomato that grows on tree
There was even a map/illustration showing all the locations of the ingredients being sourced from
And of course, we can’t miss the chocolate
We were presented with the Cacao fruit in its raw form
And the entire chocolate making process consisting of a series of procedures
Including fermentation
Drying
Roasting
Peeling
and grinding
All the way to it becoming chocolate
Of different purity percentage
All the way up to 100% purity.
Oh by the way, that white fleshy pulp called mucilage
Normally discarded during fermentation process before roasting
Can actually be fermented into an alcoholic beverage that was a popular drink during pre-Columbian America
And was used for ceremonial purpose by the aztec and mayan
And apparently you can also make vinegar out of it
And the peeled husk from the roasting process? you can make a tea out of it
Isn’t that amazing?
Well, I’m getting a little carried away here
Anyways, this lab tour had been amazing, and it certainly had my expectations up
With all that out of the way, into the dining room
And here the show officially began
So here we have the first course
This is a bread made by coco leaves
With some kind of berry butter, it’s a butter made with berry
This is made with corn
And this is a type of chip that was made with these two potatoes
And to pair with this chip there is the sauce that’s made with this tree tomato
So these are the ingredients that’s on display
And we have this drink that’s infused with passionfruit and agave
Let me take a sip of this one
It’s very fruity with a little bit of bitterness
A little bit of the alcoholic taste, probably from the agave
This is the coca leaves bread, just look at the inside
It’s recommended that we use this stone slab
To place some of this butter one the surface
It was almost kinda creamy inside
And you can taste the coca leaves flavor, it’s so strong
It’s some kind of paste inside, that’s like the coco leaf flavor
And the butter is, oh my god, so flavorful, so fruity
This is the cube made by a type of corn
It’s like a cake, very soft, very starchy and a little bit sweet
This one is very good
Lastly we have this chip
That’s made with this dehydrated potato
A little salty, almost like a snack
Upgraded version of the chips
Here we got a little bit of the sauce here
Very interesting, I like this one too
So this is the second course
We have this chip that’s made by some kind of grain
And lamb with agave nectar and some flower petals
And this is the cream made by…
Oh… chirimoya, right
It’s a type of very creamy fruit
Similar to guaba, like an ice cream pod
And this is a salad
And the pairing that I have, it is made with chirimoya and coca
Creamy, and a little minty and, and a little sweet
This one is really good, it’s hard to describe it, it’s like milk but from the nature
Not from the animal, but form the plant
The way to eat it is that we got the chip
We combine everything together
Get a little bit of this lamb
It’s so aromatic you can smell it just from here
Look at this piece, it’s like an art already
This one is almost like a raw patty
But sweet, and a little creamy at the same time
The chip itself is made with grain, it has this natural earthy flavor
Very creamy, very sweet
Like a super upgraded version of the salad
This is the third course, we have a pork belly here from the Andean region
And this is a native potato on the top with some garnish
This is kinda like a salad made with tarwi
It is a type of legume that’s local to here
It’s got avocado at the bottom and rotoco at the top
This is the bread made by tarwi, so the same thing
For the pairing we got this drink that’s made with three ingredients
The three right here
This is like a tree bark
And it’s some kinda of herb
I think the name is
Mullaska, huampo and manayupa
It’s slightly bitter
Like very—… oh—
It’s got a kick after it
So at first it’s a little bitter, but after that you got the herbiness from it
I was told that this thing traditionally has medicinal properties and you can definitely feel that
At first it’s a little bitter but after a few seconds
That herbiness kicks back, ah, very interesting
And for the way to eat this one, is that you got the bread, put it here
And you get some of the sauce
Oh, that’s the avocado look at it
To this plate
And we eat everything (together)
Wow, it’s very gummy
Wow, it’s so good
You taste the porky flavor, a little bit of potato
And all the spice ingredients on top of it
This is avocado with tarwi
It’s so refreshing, slightly sour
And lastly that’s the bread
It’s almost like a muffin, like a cake
And it’s got the seeds on top, as the same as this one
Maximo, bellísimo
It was so soft and sweet
Fluffy, and a little bit creamy
It’s so flavorful, so aromatic
So for this course, this is called the diversity of the corn
So as you can see here, we have some fresh cheese
Locally produced cheese
And this is mote
It is Andean corn
And these are three types of different chips from three types of different corns
The color is completely natural
And here we have this husk just for decoration
But when we lifted up, you can see this
Puree of mote with a plant that gives it the color and some taste
And the way we eat it is that we mix this with mote first
And we eat the chips and lastly we eat the queso
Additionally we have this beverage pairing, that is chicha de jora
That is a wine made from corn
And they add tuna extract which is a cactus, that’s what give this its color
I’m gonna try this one
It was like chicha de jora itself, which tastes kinda like corn and a little honey
But with more of a fruity flavor from the cactus
A little bit like passionfruit with chicha de jora
And next up I’m gonna mix the sauce here
Have some of the puree
Allow me just to use this spoon cuz I don’t have any additional ones
So that’s just some of the mote
Inside the dish
So I got this bowl of mixture
It’s so flavorful
It was natural corn flavor, but it’s so intense, so pure
This is just amazing
And here we have three types of chips
Let me just try a little bite of each one
This one tastes like… actually tastes similar to a potato chip
Pretty light
A little different from this one but also still pretty light
I think it’s maybe the saltiness is a little different, but it’s hard to describe it
And lastly this one
This is more on the sweeter side of things
This is slightly sweeter
Lastly we have this fresh cheese
That grill mark, you can taste the charcoal flavor
And the cheese is very fresh
So this is the fifth course called extreme altitude
We have two plates here
This one is wheat with duck meat
And here we have dehydrated kale
Some cushuro, which is like an algae that only grows at high altitude in the lake
Some black and white quinoa under it
And the way we eat it is that we mix everything here into the bowl and combine
For the beverage pairing we have the cushuro, that’s also the same algae here
It’s actually pretty minty
And the algae is like a bubble that burst with some juice, not a lot
It’s like a bubble gum texture, that breaks out once you bite on it
Let me combine some of these, so you can see these are the same, cushuro
Kale, and
Oh~ that’s the quinoa you see? The black and white quinoa underneath
Look at this one, here
This is black quinoa and white quinoa
Combine this
A little bit of the kale and the cushuro
Mix this bowl
Hmm, so umami, so flavorful
The duck flavor is so intense
With those bits from the algae
It creates a very complex texture
It’s like a condensed duck stew
With a bunch of vegetable and different bits of texture
This is the sixth course, called central Andes
So we have something in here but I’m gonna get to that in a bit
First, we have this beverage pairing
It is made with tuber
And pulp from the cacao beans when you open up the cacao (mucilage)
Also with muña, which is a type of mint family
It’s very fruity, slightly sour, and a little sweet
Like the tuber flavor, it’s like slightly sweet and sour
A little similar to passionfruit but not exactly
And this is
Chaco, this edible clay, but we are not gonna eat that
You can see a bunch of Andean potatoes and tubers
This is what they eat during celebrations
And we also have this sauce made with some kind of local herbs
So what we do is that we pick this, we dip in the sauce and we eat it
So let me try this one first, this is the tuber
This tuber is extremely soft
Almost like a starchy potato
And the sauce is interesting, it has a little bit of cilantro taste, a little bit lime, a little bit acidity in it
It’s definitely like a vegetable, like a root
But kinda feels starchy, you can definitely taste the fibers and stuff in it
Let me try another piece, maybe the potato
Oh, it’s rather hot
This (purple potato)
It’s so flavorful, you can taste very very strong potato flavor, but not from what I had before
This one tastes more… raw
Like younger, you know
Tuber, very interesting, I never seen this one before
Very earthy
It’s like a sweet potato, very starchy inside
The experience continued to unfold and so far I had spend almost four hours in this restaurant
I had another destination that I need to get to before sunset but I still have two courses to go
So I had to speed up the process and have them together
The first one is frozen cordillera
Made from wild muña aka Andes mint
Tumbo, a passionfruit variety
And kjolle, a native plant grows on extreme altitude and its flower used for dyeing
As presented in this plate
The other one is huatia of cacao
Made with mashwa, a tuber, coca leaf, cacao and mucilage.
Both are in the form of desserts
With one last beverage pairing made with tea and cacao
I can’t exactly recall what they tasted like other than they tasted good
Thanks to my mic very cooperatively ran out of battery
I will leave that to your imagination
And all of that, was the entire experience at MIL
This was beyond a meal
It was truly an unforgettable experience
It wasn’t about being fancy and pushing the edge of modern cooking technique
But rather a deep exploration of tradition and ingredients
It really made me think about the food I put in my body
The flavor of these dishes had been rendered to their fullest thanks to the way they were grown and sourced
I particularly liked the extraction and infusion of the beverage pairing
Every cup was of an ecosystem
Every sip was of a new experience
It was like a direct communication with the another side of the nature I didn’t know existed
I much appreciate the way the MIL treats the ingredients, the environment and the traditional technique
To preserve them so we don’t lose them
And for the people that brought us these ingredients and technique
The Incas, and the other Andean people that came before it
They may no longer exist
But they talk to us through the food that was passed down by generations
A culture so distant from us
So distinct and yet fascinating in their own ways
There is still much to learn about their culture
But learning through experiencing is the first step
This is a meal worth the trip and leaves a mark in one’s life’s experience
This is fufski and I make videos about food, travel and culture
This is a snippet of my South America travel series
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